Satelindo's target this year

JAKARTA (JP): Cellular phone operator PT Satelindo will add some 800,000 new numbers for both its pre-paid Mentari GSM card and post-paid Satelindo card this year to meet growing demand.

Satelindo general manager for marketing and commercial affairs T. Thinh Pham said on Monday that he expected over one million subscribers by the end of the year.

"Of the 800,000 new capacity, we expect 75 percent from pre- paid cards and 25 percent from post-paid," he said.

Satelindo's subscribers peaked at 760,000 in 1999 when it ran out of numbers while demand for new numbers kept increasing, Satelindo cellular director Jan Nilsson said.

"That is why we are going to add more subscriber capacity for our service," he said.

Some 200,000 of the new numbers will be offered to subscribers in Greater Jakarta, 150,000 to those outside Greater Jakarta and 100,000 to subscribers outside Java, Nilsson said.

Thin Pham said there would be a trend toward pre-paid GSM cards in the next two years because of their convenience.

Since the economic crisis in 1997, people turned to pre-paid cards because cellular operators tightened control over their administrative procedures, Nilsson said.

Satelindo holds 36 percent of the Indonesian GSM market, besides Telkomsel (47 percent) and Excelcomindo (17 percent), according to Telkom. (10)