Satelindo to establish more cellular lines

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Cellular phone operator PT Satelindo will establish an additional 800,000 cellular lines by the end of the year to increase its customer base, which at present stands at about 1.5 million subscribers, a senior executive of the company said.

Budi Prasetyo, executive vice president for corporate development of Satelindo's parent company state-owned PT Indosat, said that the extra five megahertz on the DCS-1800 network given by the government had allowed the company to increase its cellular lines.

"Next year Satelindo will again add some 800,000 lines to support growing demand for cellular services," he told reporters.

Budi said that Satelindo's GSM-900 network with its allocated bandwidth of 10 megahertz had been at overcapacity.

"It (Satelindo) was gasping and panting when its subscribers reached 1.4 million," he said, referring to the decreasing quality that came with the overcapacity.

Satelindo has been under fire from its customers recently due to the decreased services of its cellular network, which resulted in an increased rate of dropped calls and long suspension of its short message service (SMS) transmissions.

He said that the company would need at least 200 base transceiver stations to meet the additional 800,000 cellular lines.

The funds for the expansion will either be generated internally or through negotiations with vendors, Budi said without elaborating.

Indosat owns 75 percent of Satelindo.