Phone users' expectations continue to rise

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.