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)