Satelindo plans to spend $296m on expansion
JAKARTA (JP): Private telecommunications operator PT Satelindo plans to invest Rp 900 billion (about US$296.5 million) this year mainly to expand its global system for mobile communication (GSM) mobile cellular and satellite services.
Company president Iwa Sewaka told reporters at his office yesterday that, out of its planned total investment, Satelindo would allocate Rp 700 billion to expand its cellular service.
"We will focus on the GSM service because we have already launched two satellites to support the company's satellite transponder leasing service," he said.
Satelindo -- which is jointly owned by PT Bimagraha Telekomindo, DeTe Mobil of Germany, the state-owned PT Telkom and PT Indosat -- operates a GSM system, the Palapa-C satellite series and international telecommunications services.
Iwa said the remaining Rp 200 billion would be invested in satellite business and international telecommunications.
"We will participate in some international marine cable projects, such as the Asia-Pacific cable Network, the Fiber-optic Link Around the Globe (FLAG) and the Southeast Asia-Middle East- Western Europe 3, to boost our international telecommunications service," he said.
Satelindo is the only competitor of Indosat, which controls more than 90 percent of the country's international telecommunications market.
Satelindo and Telkom plan to launch a Palapa-D spacecraft late next year and the Palapa-D2 spacecraft in 2003.
Satelindo and Telkom have not yet selected a company to assemble their Palapa-D spacecraft, a multi-million dollar satellite with 60 transponders.
"We expect to announce a winner later this month or next month," he said.
Five satellite assemblers, Hughes Space and Communications Company, Lockheed Martin, Loral Corporation, Matra Marconi and Aerospatiale have been invited to tender to build the Palapa-D satellite series.
Telkom and Satelindo, which was licensed to offer satellite services in 1993, have been competing with each other in the satellite business for the past three years.
Satelindo, which has taken over Telkom's satellite leasing business, will share the Palapa-D1's transponders equally with Telkom.
Cellular
Satelindo's cellular director, Saleh Gunawan, said yesterday that the company operated in Java, Bali, Balikpapan (East Kalimantan) and Medan (North Sumatra).
"By the end of February Satelindo will operate its GSM in the country's 27 provinces. We expect to increase the number of our 200,000 subscribers to about 500,000 by the end of this year."
He said the expansion would include the installation of more than 700 new radio base stations across the country, starting in February next year.
He said that Satelindo had signed roaming agreements with 28 GSM operators in 19 foreign countries, allowing its subscribers to use their cellular phones when visiting these nations.
"During this first quarter, we will sign roaming accords with 16 more GSM operators in 14 nations including China and the United States which apply PCN-1900," he said.
Saleh said the company's GSM service had made Rp 360 billion in revenue last year, representing 60 percent of its total revenue. "This year, we expect to double the revenue from the GSM service."
Iwa said that Satelindo, set up in 1993, planed to sell some of its shares to the public by 1998.
"We are sure we will be able to meet the requirements set by the Capital Market Supervisory Board such as making profits in the last three consecutive years before an initial public offering."
PT Excelcomindo Pratama, another GSM operator, expects to book its first profit by 1998.
Julius S. Djohan, the president of Excelcomindo, said yesterday that the company had roaming agreements with Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
He said that Excelcomindo, the youngest of the three GSM operators in Indonesia, would make roaming agreements with the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and several European nations.
Djohan said that Excelcomindo, which has about 20,000 subscribers, expected to have 200,000 users by the end of this year. (icn)