Ratelindo eyes nationwide operation
JAKARTA (JP): The telecommunication company PT Ratelindo, a subsidiary of PT Bakrie Brothers, expects to expand its fixed wireless telephone service nationwide by 1999, the company's director for business and service development, Remedi Perangingangin, said yesterday.
Peranginangin said he was optimistic his company would get the license to install fixed cellular lines in areas outside of Java in 1999.
"We are in the process of obtaining permits from the government to extend our operations nationwide," Peranginangin said on the sidelines of a telecommunication seminar.
He said Ratelindo expected to sell and install between 100,000 and 140,000 lines in Jakarta and West Java next year to obtain the permit to operate nationwide.
Ratelindo had sold 110,000 fixed wireless telephone lines as of this year, 80,000 of them were installed at an investment of US$1,000 per line, he said.
Ratelindo obtained permits to install 250,000 lines in the greater Jakarta area and 50,000 lines in West Java.
The Director General of Post and Telecommunication Djakaria Purawidjaja said yesterday the ministry would not give the permit for the company to operate nationwide until it had installed the targeted 300,000 lines.
Peranginangin said if Ratelindo was licensed to expand its operation, it would begin the expansion on Java island, and then Sumatra, Sulawesi, and Kalimantan.
Earlier the company announced its plan to increase its line capacity to 500,000 fixed telephone lines by 1999.
Peranginangin said the number of complaints of Ratelindo's fixed wireless service was only 2 percent of the total number of users.
Ratelindo, together with digital satellite network provider Hughes Network Systems Inc., held the one-day seminar yesterday.
The seminar, attended by world telecommunication operators from several countries, including Czechoslovakia, Russia, and Vietnam, discussed the technology progress of the GMH-2000 Extended Time Division Multiple Access (E-TDMA) wireless digital cellular system provided by Hughes. (das)