Satelindo to sell 30,000 GSM telephone lines

Satelindo to sell 30,000 GSM telephone lines

JAKARTA (JP): PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo), a
satellite and cellular telephone operator, plans to market 30,000
cellular telecommunications lines using the Global System for
Mobile Communications (GSM) by the end of this year.

"There are already 7,500 people asking for GSM telephone lines
even though official marketing will not start until Thursday,
Sept. 1," Satelindo's president, Iwa Sewaka, told reporters here
yesterday.

Satelindo is 30 percent owned by the state-owned domestic
telecommunications company, PT Telkom, 10 percent by the state-
owned international telecommunications company, PT Indosat, and
60 percent by PT Bima Graha, a subsidiary of the Bimantara Group,
a diversified group of businesses owned by President Soeharto's
son Bambang Trihatmodjo.

Iwa said that his company will offer integrated GSM service,
comprising a handset and subscriber identity module (SIM) card at
between Rp 3.95 million and Rp 6 million (US$1,816-$2,758),
depending on the type and brand of the handset.

"Satelindo will offer six brands -- Nokia, Ericsson, Phillips,
Alcatel, Motorola and Siemens," he said, adding that the price
includes import duty, value added tax and luxury tax.

Marketing

He said that the marketing will be very selective. His company
plans to market 100,000 lines in 1995, while avoiding brokerage.

"People need to enclose specific proof of identity when
submitting application forms to our office," he said.

The commercial opening will be in early November, with full
public switching telephone network (PSTN) interconnections.

Iwa also said that Satelindo has made a total investment of Rp
67 billion in the GSM project in Jakarta, with the main cores
including operation system support (OSS), network sub-system
(NSS) and base station sub-system (BSS).

Satelindo's director for cellular service, Saleh Gunawan, said
the company will evaluate and develop additional BSS in certain
areas if there are a lot of subscribers.

Each BSS can accommodate 500 subscribers and bear 30 traffic
flows at one time.

GSM, which is derived from Europe, is one of the three leaders
in digital cellular mobile telephone systems. The other two are
American Digital Cellular (ADC) of the United States and Personal
Digital Cellular (PDC) of Japan.

The state-owned domestic telecommunications company, PT
Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), is running a GMS pilot project
on Batam and Bintan islands in Riau.

Indonesia also has signed an agreement with the Dublin,
Ireland-based GSM service for international roaming.

Palapa users

Iwa also said yesterday that Satelindo has signed contract
agreements with 16 companies for the leasing of the transponders
of the Hughes-built Palapa-C1 satellite, which will be launched
in October next year.

Satelindo is the owner of Indonesia's Palapa-C series
satellites, which will replace the Palapa-B series. The company
has assigned Arianespace to launch its Palapa-C1 satellite.

"The contractors include television broadcasters from
Hong Kong, New Zealand and France," he said. "Viacom of the
United States just signed a leasing contract today."

He said the leasing cost is $1.8 million per annum.

There are currently 42 users of Palapa-B series from 13
countries, including the United States, Papua New Guinea,
Cambodia and France.

Satelindo's director of satellite affairs, Sahala Silalahi,
said that Palapa-C1, which will replace Palapa-B2P in the 113
east degree orbit, will expire in 2003.

He said that Indonesia has completed coordination on satellite
frequencies with Russia, Malaysia, China and Britain and will
hold talks with the United States, South Korea, Singapore,
Thailand and Japan for a similar purpose.

Sahala also said that the launching of the Palapa-C2 satellite
is scheduled in 1996 to replace Palapa B2R in the 108 east degree
slot.

Iwa acknowledged that many countries in Asia and the Pacific
will operate their own telecommunications satellites in the
coming years.

But Satelindo is unlikely to face difficulties in offering the
lease of its satellite transponders because demand for
transponders will increase steadily in line with the increase in
the number of television broadcasters in the region. (icn)