PT Satelindo expands its roaming service

JAKARTA (JP): PT Satelindo, one of Indonesia's three operators of the global system for mobile communication (GSM), has expanded its roaming service into 34 countries in cooperation with 53 overseas operators.

Satelindo's director, Saleh Gunawan, said here yesterday the roaming service expansion allowed Satelindo GSM to be used in countries including Russia, China, Macau, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.

"Only one kind of subscriber identity module (SIM) card is needed for the international and domestic roaming services," he said.

Satelindo has 275,000 subscribers and was the first GSM operator in Indonesia. PT Telkomsel and PT Excelcomindo are also GSM operators.

Satelindo operates in 150 Indonesian cities. This is expected to double by the end of this year.

Saleh said users would have to pay higher rates because roaming service billing systems were complicated and expensive.

GSM roaming service users can receive and make calls anywhere in the world as long as there are roaming service agreements between operators in the respective countries, he said.

GSM operators in Indonesia must provide the service to compete with other cellular telephone providers, he said. Luring subscribers by cutting rates is nearly impossible here because the government sets prices.

But GSM users will be charged 15 percent over international call rates if they receive calls abroad. The caller in Indonesia will pay only domestic rates.

Saleh said Satelindo's service covered the country's 27 provinces.

Satelindo has invested Rp 2 trillion (approximately US$834 million) since it started in January 1993. It was supplied by France's Alcatel and Germany's Siemens, he said.

Satelindo, a joint venture set up by state-owned PT Telkom, PT Indosat, PT Bimagraha Telekomindo and DeTeMobil of Germany, also operates Palapa-C satellites and 008 international calls. (icn)