No guarantees on int'l telecoms

JAKARTA (JP): The government might let other companies, besides PT Indosat and PT Satelindo, operate international telecommunications services after 2005, the minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, Joop Ave, said yesterday.

"The government has granted the 10-year exclusive rights to the two firms, but it doesn't mean that we won't license any other firms after the rights expire in 2005," Joop said.

Joop was speaking after delivering a speech at a seminar on the impacts and opportunities of the telecommunications business in Indonesia in the free market era.

He said the two companies could keep the rights if they could still run the business well.

State-owned Indosat, which is listed on the Jakarta and New York stock exchanges, is Indonesia's major international telecommunications operator. Last year 91.3 percent of the company's Rp 1.22 trillion operating revenue came from international calls.

Indosat had 91.2 percent share of Indonesia's international call market last year.

Satelindo, a private firm set up in 1993, runs international calls, a satellite service and the GSM cellular telephone service. Last year the company had just under 9 percent of the international call market.

Satelindo's GSM service generated Rp 360 billion in revenue last year or 60 percent of total revenue. The satellite and international call service each made up 20 percent of total revenue.

Joop denied Indonesia was a nation applying unfair treatment based on last February's World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement in Geneva to open up world telecommunications markets.

The global telecommunications pact will take effect on Jan. 1. The WTO estimates the world telecommunications market is worth more than US$600 billion a year.

"This is not about fair or unfair," he said, but refused to explain this.

The secretary-general of the ministry of tourism, post and telecommunications, Jonathan L. Parapak, told yesterday's seminar that in the global and free market, the government must anticipate rapidly-growing information technology.

"There will probably be an overseas operator of a satellite- based personal communications system operating its business in Indonesia without being physically and legally present in the country and we can do nothing."

But he said the WTO telecommunication agreement had been finalized and that each signatory was required to treat other members equally. (icn)