Satelindo hits record sales

Satelindo hits record sales

JAKARTA (JP): PT Satelindo, a major operator of global system
for mobile (GSM) communications, announced over the weekend that
its sales of hand phones in August reached a record high of
12,266 units.

Adirahman Adiwoso, Satelindo's marketing director, announced
here on Saturday that the sales were recorded in Jakarta,
Surabaya and Bandung.

"This is a sharp increase, considering that in July sales
reached less than 5,000 units," he said.

Adiwoso said that beginning on Sept. 1, users of Satelindo's
GSM handsets will be able to "roam" into new communications
territory reaching to Singapore.

"Roaming with Singapore will be followed by Malaysia,
Australia, Hong Kong, Germany and Finland. Technical tests for
Hong Kong, for instance, will soon be completed," he said.

Adiwoso said that the possibilities for "roaming" should
become a consideration for the government to exempt handsets from
import duties.

"The Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications has
requested the Ministry of Finance to review import duties on
handsets and, possibly, lower them down to zero percent," he
said.

Adiwoso pointed out that roaming eliminated country boundaries
and increased the possibility of people trading handsets in
countries other than their own.

Such global trends, he said, should be considered by the
government to cut back import duties.

He acknowledged that the abolishment of duties would lower
handset prices.

Presently, because GSM sales in Indonesia are relatively
small, companies which provide GSM services face difficulty in
reaching their break-even points in a short period of time
without jacking up the prices of handsets.

Adiwoso said that importers of handsets currently have to pay
an extra 47 percent for each one to compensate for levies
including import duties, which accounts for 25 percent of the
import price.

Satelindo presently sells its handsets for Rp 1.89 million
(US$845) each, down from Rp 3.95 million last year, when it
started its sales.

Adiwoso said that in the near future, Satelindo will expand
the range of its services to Bandung, Surabaya and areas around
the Jakarta-Puncak, Jakarta-Bandung-Purwakarta and Jakarta-Anyer
areas.

By December, Satelindo's GSM services will cover Malang,
Yogyakarta, Surakarta and Semarang. (icn/pwn)