Six big firms shortlisted for Indosat mobile phone project

JAKARTA (JP): Six major phone companies have been shortlisted to help state-owned international telephone operator PT Indosat launch its mobile phone business next month.

Alcatel, Ericsson, Lucent, Motorola, Nokia, and Siemens are now being considered to help Indosat become a full network and service provider, operational and technical director Garuda Sugardo said on Tuesday.

"They have submitted their business plans. We will choose from them as soon as the government issues our license," Garuda told The Jakarta Post.

The selected company will help build the infrastructure such as the exchange switching, controller, base transceiver stations, intelligent network, wireless application system, and network management system.

The government is expected to award Indosat a license to become a mobile telephone operator next month, he said.

The license is given in return for a termination of Indosat's monopoly over international telecommunication services in Indonesia earlier than the original date of 2004.

PT Telkom, the state company with a monopoly over fixed line telecommunications, has also agreed to relinquish its monopoly earlier than the original date of 2010.

Officials said these monopolies would be abolished in either 2002 or 2003.

Indosat and Telkom, both publicly-listed companies, have subsidiaries which currently dominate the mobile phone market in Indonesia.

Garuda said the license would enable Indosat to operate a mobile service under the advanced GSM 1800 format next year.

The first to enjoy the service will be those in the Jakarta- Bandung area, Semarang-Yogyakarta-Solo area, Surabaya-Malang- Denpasar area, and the Batam area, he said.

Earlier, during a seminar on telecommunication business, Garuda said winning the competition in the future would depend upon the power of technology.

"Operators smart enough to choose the right technology, and who could converge between mobile and fixed telephones, will win the competition," he said in the seminar organized by the alumni association of the University of Indonesia's Faculty of Engineering.

He said that in terms of investment, mobile communications is cheaper to run, and has a higher capacity than fixed-line.

"The installation is faster and there is no need to dig for wires," Garuda said. (10)