NEC expands capacity of telephone exchange

NEC expands capacity of telephone exchange

BEKASI, West Java (JP): PT NEC Nusantara Communications
(NNC), a Japanese-Indonesian joint venture, will start operating
a new digital telephone exchange plant here with a production
capacity of 400,000 lines per annum.

NNC's president, Norihiko Okamoto, told reporters here
yesterday that the plant, located on a 28,000 square meter area
in the East Jakarta Industrial Park (EJIP) in Lemahabang, Bekasi,
West Java, will produce exchanges with the NEAX-61 digital
switching system.

The telecommunication switching technology is developed by the
Tokyo-based NEC Corporation, Okamoto said.

He said the company has spent US$14.5 million in investments
for the plant's construction, $6 million of which was financed
with loans from Japan's Sumitomo Bank and Bank of Tokyo, carrying
an interest of five percent per year.

NNC, which is 45 percent owned by NEC Corporation, 20 percent
by Sumitomo Corporation, 25 percent by PT Electrindo Nusantara
and 10 percent by PT Humpuss, has produced NEAX-61 digital
switching equipment, with a capacity of 400,000 lines, since
1992, in its old plant in Sunter, North Jakarta.

The government has targeted the establishment of one million
digital telephone lines per year during the current sixth Five
Year Development Plan (Repelita VI) period. To meet the target,
the government has appointed NNC, Inti Siemens of Germany and
American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) to provide digital
switching and transmission equipment.

NNC's director for technical and production affairs,
Krishnahadi S. Pribadi, said the operation of the second plant
makes NNC the biggest manufacturer of digital switching equipment
in the country.

He told The Jakarta Post that the installment of NEAX-61
telephones costs between $200 and $300 per line.(fhp)