RI to spend $21m on payphones from UK's GPT

RI to spend $21m on payphones from UK's GPT

SINGAPORE (AFP): Indonesia is to buy US$21 million worth of
payphones from GPT Ltd. of Britain in the first big order
announced at a major Asian telecommunications trade show which
opened here yesterday.

GPT, a joint venture between General Electric Co. plc and
Siemens AG, said it had also secured a record order to deliver 40
million payphone cards to Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.

The value of the order was not specified, but officials said
it was worth millions of dollars. Twenty million cards will be
supplied by December 1996 and the remaining in 1997.

The Indonesian order for 10,000 payphones was placed by PT
Prismasentra Agung, one of the five companies licensed to operate
payphones in Indonesia. The order follows the recent installation
of GPT's Sapphire smart card payphones in China, Hong Kong, Macau
and Thailand.

"This order helps cement GPT's position as the number of one
supplier of smart card payphones in the Asia-Pacific region,"
said Ian Wilson, GPT managing director for payphone systems.

He said the company was also negotiating other paycard and
phone contracts with companies in China, Thailand and the
Philippines.

The deal was announced as the world's leading
telecommunications and broadcasting equipment manufacturers
launched four days of hard-sell to potential Asian buyers at
simultaneous trade shows yesterday.

More than 1,000 companies from more than 30 countries are
exhibiting their wares. Exhibitors range from European consortium
Arianespace plugging its new generation satellite launch vehicle
to Philips touting the world's smallest handphone.

The latest sound, film and video equipment, focusing on
digital technology, are on display at the broadcasting
exhibition.

Nokia Mobile Phones of Finland announced a Chinese user
interface for its digital handphone designed for cellular phone
markets like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and China.

"The cellular market in Asia will be the largest in the world
by the year 1998 and Chinese speaking countries will account for
a large proportion of the volume," said Jouko Hayrynen, senior
vice-president of Nokia Asia-Pacific.

"China is already among the top five cellular markets of the
world, and Taiwan is expected to reach the top 10," he noted.

Intelsat, the world's leading provider of satellite
communications services, said it will open a regional center in
Singapore to meet the rapidly-growing telecom needs of the Asian
region.

An estimated 18,000 trade visitors are expected to evaluate
the products on display which the organizers, Singapore
Exhibition Services Pte. Ltd., said had attracted unprecedented
response from the world's leading companies.

Liberalization of the broadcasting and telecom markets in the
region has been coupled with the arrival of cutting edge
technologies to spur growth, making Asia an attractive prospect
for investors and operators.

Reflecting the potential, the region's international telephone
traffic has increased almost seven times over the last 10 years
to seven billion minutes a year.

Singapore Communications Minister Mah Bow Tan said at the
official opening of the trade shows that the region's demand for
"more and better telecommunications infrastructure and services
remain unquenched."

"For example in 1995, despite an estimated 21.7 million
cellular telephone users, Asia still has a year-on-year increase
of 87 percent for handphone services," he said.