PT Telkom awards $200m telecommunications deals

JAKARTA (JP): PT Telkom yesterday awarded contracts worth US$200 million to Siemens AG of Germany for the supply, installation and commissioning of telecommunication equipment in collaboration with two other state-owned companies.

Setyanto P. Santosa, the president of Telkom, the state-owned domestic telecommunications company, told reporters after signing the contract agreements at the Jakarta Fair grounds yesterday that Siemens will bring the latest technology, while the equipment will be largely produced by its Indonesian partners -- the state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT INTI and the state-owned electronic equipment company PT LEN.

INTI and LEN are based in Bandung, West Java, and supervised by the country's Board for the Supervision of Strategic Industrial Board (BPIS).

Setyanto explained that one contract covers the provision of digital switching equipment for about 430,000 line units and its associated line transmission equipment in more than 120 locations.

"The other contract requires the provision of digital radio and optical fiber trunk and multiplexing equipment in some 360 locations," he said, adding that the installation of the equipment will start early next year.

On Wednesday, Telkom also signed a $1 million contract with the U.S.-based AT&T for the supply and installation of digital telephone system equipped with an administrative module work station (AWS).

An AT&T executive, Peter Lohman, said that the project will be the first AWS sale and the most compact exchange system to be supplied by his company in Indonesia.

He said that the project will be used to provide regional telecommunications exchanges in Gombong and Muntilan, both in Central Java, for nearly 3,000 additional subscribers.(icn)