PT Telkom plans to install radio telephone system
PT Telkom plans to install radio telephone system
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta office of state-owned
telecommunications company PT Telkom plans to introduce a radio
telephone system on the city outskirts to help meet the sharply
rising demand for telephones.
Outgoing office chief John Welly said yesterday that the
system would be introduced by the end of the 1996/1997 fiscal
year.
"The radio telephone system is designed to cater for areas
which have not yet been reached by Telkom's phone cable network.
In the first stage about 70,000 radio telephone lines will be
provided," Welly said.
Welly explained that the radio telephones would be sold to
interested customers and could be returned to Telkom, for use by
other customers, as soon as telephone cables had been installed
in the areas concerned.
Welly said installing a radio telephone system was much
quicker than installing a conventional one. "It takes only two
months to install the radio system, far less than the one-year
period needed to install telephone cable infrastructure," he
said.
He said the introduction of the radio system was expected to
boost the marketing of telephone lines. He guaranteed that the
system would not affect the marketing of similar radio telephones
by PT Ratelindo, a joint venture between the Bakrie Group and PT
Telkom.
PT Ratelindo plans to install a total of 280,000 lines for a
digital advanced mobile phone system in Jakarta and West Java
within the next three years.
Welly was replaced as office chief by Bambang Riady Oemar
yesterday in a ceremony presided over by Telkom's president,
Setyanto P. Santosa.
Speaking after the induction ceremony, Setyanto urged the
company's offices to aggressively promote the company's telephone
lines. He directed these comments at Jakarta which plays, he
said, an important role in the world.
The Jakarta office's sales of telephone lines have been poor
during the first three months of this year. Its performance in
the development sector, by contrast, has been very good.
Welly said that the main problem lay not in the marketing but
rather in the completion of projects.
"The demand for telephone lines on the city outskirts remains
high, but PT Telkom has not yet been able to meet it, because of
non-technical problems," he said.
The Jakarta office plans to build 400,000 telephone lines this
year, 80 percent of which will be sold to the public, he said.
Welly urged the office to pursue a new marketing strategy,
focusing on crowded areas, such as Jakarta's "golden triangle"
business district.
"It is time to make customers, especially companies, install
additional lines," he said.
Besides the installation of Bambang as the new chief of the
Jakarta office, Setyanto inducted Woeryanto Suradji as Bambang's
deputy and Paminto Adji as head of the information system
division. (yns)