PT Telkomsel vows to get ISO-9000 certificate this year
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)