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