Satelindo expects 60% more GSM subscribers

JAKARTA (JP): PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo) expects a 60 percent increase in its global system for mobile communications (GSM) subscribers this year, lifting the total number of customers to 1.7 million from the 1.06 million recorded at the end of last year, an executive said.

Satelindo's vice president of cellular service marketing and product management Tien Thinh Pham said on Friday that the company would expand its switching capacity to support the target.

"We are expanding our switching capacity to two million, so we are really eying the two million mark this year," he told journalists in a media briefing.

Satelindo, which recorded 715,489 subscribers in 1999, experienced growing demand from cellular users following the expansion of its pre-paid services.

Pham said that the company would build additional base transceiver stations (BTS) to enable expansion of its coverage, particularly in major cities outside Java.

At present, Satelindo's service covers Denpasar, Greater Jakarta, Surabaya, Semarang, Bandung, Batam, major cities in Sumatra, and Makassar in South Sulawesi.

"By expanding our switching capacity, we are also expanding our coverage area, so that soon we will also have coverage in smaller cities in Indonesia," Pham said.

He said that out of the 1.06 million subscribers, 85 percent are customers of Satelindo's Mentari pre-paid subscriber identity module (SIM).

"Indonesia is a purely pre-paid market," Pham said, explaining that many people in strife-torn areas of the country, such as Ambon and Irian, still prefer to use pre-paid services.

He said that in areas lacking infrastructure, such as the operator's representative offices, it is more convenient to use pre-paid services, which do not require any involved registration or administrative procedures. (tnt)