Phone users' expectations continue to rise

By Prapti Widinugraheni

LONDON (JP): The time has come when telecommunications providers have to start thinking about giving their customers more than just a telephone line to keep them paying their bills.

As telecommunications becomes more sophisticated and exposed to competition, telecommunications providers and operators must convince their once-faithful customers that the services are worth what they cost.

Currently, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), the domestic telecommunications provider, does little more than operate peoples' telephones and provide general information and complaint hotlines and prerecorded billing information.

But with the opening up of the telecommunications sector, Telkom will have to deal with tough competition from foreign players who will enter the domestic market and offer more.

The United Kingdom's British Telecommunications (BT) Plc, which was privatized in 1984, will be among the foreign telecommunications companies wanting a piece of Indonesia's lucrative and growing domestic market.

BT, which provides telecommunications services to about 90 percent of the UK's 23.5 million households that have telephone lines, faces competition in UK itself.

BT's marketing services head, David Duxbury, said BT's main UK competitors were Mercury Communications Ltd, the United States' AT&T and more than 50 resellers that may at any time resell the more than 50 licenses issued and enforced by Britain's office of telecommunications.

BT's director for regulatory affairs, John Butler, said the UK's telecommunications sector was now so open that anyone could get a license.

"There is a guarantee to get a license and compete in the (UK) market but not a guarantee to make money," he said.

BT has expanded since being privatized.

Last year, it announced plans to merge with U.S. telecommunications company, MCI. The planned merger is expected to result in a company called Concert Plc.

BT said it intended to use Concert to penetrate the U.S. market but the new company has yet to get approval from U.S. and European Union authorities.

Last week, BT and MCI took a big step toward conquering the world when it joined with Portugal Telecom to enter the Spanish- speaking world.

But what do they have that can outdo domestic monopolies like Indonesia's Telkom?

Last week at an exhibition called "Innovations 97" at its laboratories in Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, BT showed that telecommunications companies would have to offer more than phone lines to win in new markets.

During the exhibition, BT displayed a wide range of products and services, some of which are already available and some which will be launched over the next 10 years.

Products available included an airline interactive service which gives airline passengers information on everything from road maps to shopping centers.

BT has also designed an agent-based work flow (which will help save time negotiating contracts), long-distance equipment to help insurance companies assess crash damages of vehicles in remote garages, and 3-dimensional retail shopping information where customers can furnish their homes on-line.

There is also a public warning system, which can warn people of an expected disaster, like a flood, and provide evacuation instructions.

And there is the "smartspace", which is a seat equipped with a screen and gadgets so a person can direct operations and participate in teleconferences.

But are BT's designs as innovative as it claims?

Many people attending the exhibition, particularly those from Europe, said what BT was doing was the same as many other companies.

Duxbury said that like many telecommunications companies, BT would provide up-to-date multimedia and Internet features, band- width choices and other packaged services.

Customers would increasingly demand services which would allow them to work from home, give them more mobility and more choice, he said.

"Customer loyalty will become more meaningless. People that have been with a bank for years, for instance, may change if another bank offers better services," he said.

In other words, customer-based companies should not underestimate their customers' power to choose.

The key was to realize that customers -- particularly residential customers -- would be choosing a telecommunications provider based on services and price rather than on technological sophistication, he said.

Although BT's laboratories spend up to 270 million pound sterling a year on research and technology, on the customer level it would still rely on providing modernized network services, Duxbury said.

These include call-waiting, which allows Internet-users to know when there is a phone call on the line, 3-way calling, lower congestion levels, reminder calls, and ring-back-when-free services.

"We'll reach our customers and prospective customers through TV advertising, direct marketing and telemarketing campaigns," he said.

An ambitious drive like BT's will be needed in the next century when countries under the World Trade Organization, including Indonesia, have to open up their telecommunications markets and compete in a free and fair business climate.