PT Telkomsel vows to get ISO-9000 certificate this year

JAKARTA (JP): Despite its failure to install 693 base transceiver stations, PT Telkomsel, one of the country's three Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) cellular operators, wants to gain an ISO-9000 certificate this year.

Company president Koesmarihati Sugondo said Wednesday the certificate would help the company provide better qualified public services and help it become a world-class cellular operator.

Director of operations Garuda Sugardo said that, although Telkomsel had installed only 402 of its planned 693 base transceiver stations nationwide, the service was going well.

"We have almost reached the original target in recent days," he said, adding that Telkomsel expected to win an ISO-9000 certificate in nine months.

ISO-9000 certificates are awarded to institutions which meet the guidelines and standards on quality systems introduced by the International Standardization Organization, established in New York in 1987 and sponsored by more than 90 industrialized countries.

Telkomsel was the only GSM operator which covered all the country's 27 provinces, Garuda said.

"Telkomsel now operates in 190 big and small cities all over Indonesia with 200,965 subscribers. We expect to have 400,000 subscribers by the end of this year," he said, adding that the company originally expected to have only 159,000 subscribers by the end of 1996.

He said that Telkomsel would improve its service rather than aim to increase its number of subscribers this year.

"We will install 25 master switching centers (MSC) all over Indonesia, the greatest number of MSC ever installed by cellular operators in the country," he said.

According to Garuda there are about 75,000 Telkomsel users in Greater Jakarta, which is the key market for cellular operators, particularly GSM operators.

PT Excelcomindo Pratama and PT Satelindo also operate GSM systems. These three GSM carriers are battling to provide the most innovative, qualified and diversified services for GSM subscribers, amid tight competition from other domestic telecommunications operators, because tariffs are fixed by the government.

The government announced last month a new installation target of eight million telephone lines for the ongoing Sixth Five-Year Development Plan to end in March 1999. The new target includes 6.7 million fixed-telephone lines and a network capacity for 1.3 million mobile telephones.

About 600,000 people in Indonesia subscribe to three cellular systems run by seven operators.

Telkomsel, a private digital cellular telecommunications operator, was set up in May 1995 as a joint venture between two leading state-owned telecommunications operators, PT Telkom and PT Indosat. The GSM system was introduced to Indonesia by Telkom on Batam island, near Singapore, in 1992.

Telkomsel is 42.72 percent owned by Telkom, 35 percent by Indosat, 17.28 percent by PTT Telecom Nederland of the Netherlands and 5 percent by Setdco Group.

Koesmarihati said her company had gained its first profit last year of about Rp 50 billion. "The original figure is still being audited."

Finance director Hulman Sidjabat said that Telkomsel had assets of Rp 1.7 trillion and equity of Rp 1.4 trillion.

He said that Telkomsel would invest Rp 710 million this year. It invested Rp 350 billion in 1996. (icn)