Satelindo launches data, fax services
JAKARTA (JP): PT Satelindo, a telecommunications operator of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), launched here yesterday a new service which will allow its customers to send data and to use a modem on its digital network.
Satelindo's cellular director, Saleh Gunawan, said that the new feature, called Mobile Data/Fax, was applicable with a set of hardware and software.
"This service will be the first introduced by a GSM provider in Indonesia," Saleh said.
The hardware includes a subscriber identity module card, a handset with GSM service for fax and data, a cellular modem from the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) and a notebook personal computer.
The software includes Microsoft Windows (3.11 and '95) as its operating system, GSM fax software for Windows and PCMCIA modem utility.
A demonstration held yesterday proved that subscribers would be able to send and receive telecopy, from Satelindo's GSM handset to a facsimile machine, using normal telephone lines and vice versa.
The new service will reportedly also be able to access Internet service providers.
Satelindo's subscribers interested in using the new service will be required to pay connection and monthly fees. Subscribers using the new facility will still be charged for data traffic as the air-time utilization.
Since the government controls both the tariffs for telephone calls and installation fees, cellular telecommunications operators in Indonesia can compete only in services.
In order to attract more customers and to be successful in the country's increasingly competitive GSM market, Satelindo is offering free connection and monthly service until July 31.
In addition to Satelindo, which is partly owned by the Bimantara Group, the government has licensed PT Telkomsel who will officially begin operating GSM service in Jakarta next month. PT Excelcomindo will also inaugurate its GSM service later this year.
Saleh said that since beginning its GSM service in November 1994, his company has now netted 125,000 subscribers in major cities in Java.
"In the third or fourth quarter of this year, we plan to expand our GSM service to cities outside Java, including Medan, Palembang, Padang and Tanjungkarang in Sumatra, Balikpapan, Samarinda and Palangkaraya in Kalimantan and Ujungpandang in Sulawesi," he said, adding that Satelindo is targeted to net 850,000 subscribers by 1998/99.
Meanwhile, PT Komselindo, another cellular telecommunications operator which is also partly owned by the Bimantara Group, plans to expand its service to Manado, North Sulawesi.
Komselindo is the operator of the narrow-band advanced mobile phone service (AMPS), the analog system of mobile cellular telephones. The company cooperates with two other operators using the AMPS system, PT Mobisel and PT Telekomindo, in providing roaming facilities across the country.
Komselindo's director of commerce, Zen Smith, said yesterday that the company plans to install 5,000 new lines in Manado and its surrounding areas.
The service will officially begin operating next Tuesday.
Smith said the expansion is expected to increase the number of Komselindo's subscribers by 10 percent. In Jakarta and West Java alone, the company has 75,000 subscribers.
He said that Komselindo's expansion will make the AMPS system's area of coverage the largest in the country, covering 108 regions in 12 provinces.
Ahra Zufry, Komselindo's general manager for network expansion, said that by the end of this year, the company will cover Banda Aceh in Aceh, West Sumatra, the northern coast of West Java as well as Central and Southeast Sulawesi.
Naufal Ali, the company's general manager for finance, said Komselindo will enter the Internet service to provide information on billing and other services to customers in June.
Komselindo also plans to operate a digital system in early 1997 to improve the current analog system. The digital system is based on a code division multiple access technology, which is now being developed in the United States. (pwn/icn)