Service improvement urgent

Service improvement urgent

Of late, the cellular phone market has been suffering a rather
unhealthy condition. First, a black market has developed to upset
official market prices. Second, consumer complaints about the
quality of the service provided by operators, particularly as
related to the high rate of unsuccessful calls, have been
increasing. This is an indication that many operators are not
ready to deliver the services they are expected to provide, which
naturally is most harmful to the consumer.

The more sophisticated the equipment and the more extensive
the network that is provided by the operator, the wider the reach
of the communications system will be for the consumer. However,
such a network is not easy to develop because of the huge
investment involved and the fact that businessmen are as yet not
too certain of the market potentials. It is a pity that in trying
to attract as many customers as possible operators sometimes try
to sell cellular phones without considering their network's
capacity.

The many complaints that are heard at present signal that
services must be improved immediately or the fate of cellular
phone services in this country may come to resemble the services
of our conventional telephone system. The number of Telkom
subscribers continues to increase. So, however, does the
complexity of the public's complaints.

-- Jawa Pos, Surabaya