Private firms to speed up telephone installations

JAKARTA (JP): Five private firms with joint operation contracts with state-owned PT Telkom will speed up their projects to install the telephone lines the government requires by March 1999.

Executives of the five companies told House Commission V they were optimistic they could meet the government's order.

Several House members expressed concerns that joint operation projects were not running smoothly because some of the private firms had failed to meet the government's phone line installation targets.

In January 1996 Telkom handed over the management of its telecommunication networks in Sumatra, Kalimantan, West and Central Java, Sulawesi, Maluku, Irian Jaya and Nusa Tenggara to the five companies in joint operation contracts signed in October 1995.

The five companies are PT Aria West International, PT Bukaka SingTel, PT Daya Mitra, PT Mitra Global Telekomunikasi Indonesia and PT Pramindo Ikat Nusantara.

The projects were part of the government's program to install five million lines during the current Sixth Five-Year Development Plan which ends March 1999. Telkom is building three million lines in Greater Jakarta and East Java during the same period.

Pramindo Ikat Nusantara is required to install 516,000 new telephone lines in Sumatra, Aria West 500,000 lines in West Java, Mitra Global 400,000 lines in Central Java, Daya Mitra 237,000 lines in Kalimantan and Bukaka SingTel 403,000 lines in eastern Indonesia.

The firms are required to install the lines by March 1999 and manage them with the existing lines installed by Telkom until 2010.

Projects

Telkom's general manager in Sumatra, Agus Utoyo, said the telephone lines project in Sumatra were worth US$634.9 million.

"Last year there were 89,400 lines constructed, including 45,890 lines by Telkom and 43,510 lines by Pramindo," he said.

Pramindo's managing director, Gilles Vaillant, said his company expected to build 25,000 lines in Sumatra this year at a cost of $240 million.

Telkom's general manager in West Java, Adek Julianwar, said Aria West would invest $842 million by March 1999.

He said Aria West would build 170,000 lines this year.

Despite the joint operation projects Telkom still has to install 22,850 lines this year. Last year it installed 72,014.

Telkom's general manager in Central Java, Adeng Achmad, said there were 67,710 lines installed last year. The target was 73,116 lines.

He said Mitra Global would invest $888 million by March 1999.

Telkom's general manager in Kalimantan, Bajoe Narbito, said Daya Mitra would build at least 80,000 lines this year after the joint venture failed to install a single line last year.

Daya Mitra's chief commissioner, Tanri Abeng, said his company would be able to construct 60,000 more lines than the 237,000 lines required by the government. "But we have to do a market study."

Telkom's general manager in Ujungpandang (South Sulawesi), Koesprawoto, said Telkom would continue to install lines in addition to the lines Bukaka SingTel will build.

Telkom would install 29,400 lines this year, he said.

Bukaka SingTel's vice president, Budi Sjahrazad, said his company would install up to 240,000 lines this year. (icn)