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.