Satelindo to widen phone service

JAKARTA (JP): PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo) will spend Rp 450 billion (US$199.3 million) this year on the expansion of its cellular telephone facilities in Bali, Bandung, Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya and Yogyakarta, an executive said.

"For starting our new branch office in Surabaya, East Java, we have invested Rp 50 billion," the company's business director, Adi R. Adiwoso, told a press conference yesterday.

East Java Governor Basofi Sudirman is expected to inaugurate Satelindo's branch office in Surabaya on Aug. 7. The office will introduce the company's products, such as the Global System for Mobile (GSM) cellular telephones and international direct dialing services.

"By operating our new branch office in Surabaya, we will reach this year's target of serving 80,000 customers in Java and Bali," Adi said.

By 1998, the number of Satelindo's customers will likely reach 350,000 countrywide, he said.

He said the company also plans to inaugurate its new branch office in Bandung, West Java, next month.

Satelindo, set up with a capital of Rp 500 billion in 1993, has, so far, sold 35,000 cellular telephones," he said.

Satelindo's president, Iwa Sewaka, said recently that its investments in 1995 will increase rapidly because of the company's plan to realize all of its infrastructure projects within one year instead of three years, as planned.

Satelindo operates satellites and provides services in digital cellular telephones and international calls. The company is 45 percent owned by a subsidiary of the Bimantara Group, a conglomerate chaired by one of President Soeharto's sons; 25 percent by DeteMobil, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom; 22.5 percent by PT Telkom; and 7.5 percent by PT Indosat. Both Telkom and Indosat are state-owned companies. (31)