NEC Nusantara receives big telephone contract

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) has given the Japan-Indonesia joint venture PT NEC Nusantara Communications an order to build telephone exchanges with a combined capacity of 1.5 million lines.

The installation must be completed within the ongoing sixth Five-Year Development Plan (1994-1999) period, Antara reported yesterday, quoting a Telkom executive.

Telkom's director of operations, Dadad Kustiwa, did not divulge the contract value.

NEC Nusantara Communications runs a newly opened plant in Cikarang, West Java, which manufactures telephone switching units with a capacity that Telkom considers adequate, Dadad said.

During the next five years, Telkom, in cooperation with private companies, plans to install telephone exchanges with a total capacity of five million line units throughout the country.

NEC Nusantara Communications is a joint venture between Japan's giant Nippon Electric Company and two Indonesian partners, PT Humpuss and PT Elektro Nusantara.

After having installed 350,000 telephone connections in recent years, the company is now in the process of installing another 444,100 units and building a smaller telephone exchange with a capacity of 40,000 lines.

Two other manufacturers in the Indonesian switching industry are PT Inti (capacity 400,000 connections a year) and PT Elektrindo Nusantara, with a smaller capacity.(17)