T E L K O M S E L

T E L K O M S E L Winning Hearts, Gaining Trust

On its seventh anniversary, May 26, 2002, Telkomsel reaffirmed its leadership of Indonesia's cellular operators by already achieving a market share of more than 50 percent, or more than four million subscribers. Based on current progress, the target of five million subscribers will be reached easily before the end of this year.

One of the reasons customers turn to Telkomsel is that it is a truly nationwide operator, with network coverage in every provincial capital, plus 400 major and small cities. On the international scale, through 142 operators, Telkomsel's services are available in 60 countries on all five continents: Asia, Europe, America, Australia and Africa.

To anticipate customer growth and demand, Telkomsel has continuously enhanced its existing and set up new Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs), as it correctly understands that the backbone of the cellular industry is the availability of a high network quality and capacity with a wide coverage and transmission security for easier, fast and uninterrupted communications for subscribers, wherever they may be.

Today Telkomsel's BTSs number 2,400, spreading from Aceh to Jayapura. Recently its coverage also included Ternate, where Telkomsel is the only operator serving the area. In line with its nationwide commitment, by the end of this year BTSs will be increased to 3,500 and spread to strategic locations.

To develop this network, Telkomsel is working jointly with four strategic partners -- Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and Siemens -- through its Tinem (Tender for Infrastructure in the New Millennium) Project. Believing in investing ahead of growth, to give seven million subscribers targeted by 2003 its most comprehensive coverage and quality of service, Telkomsel and its four global partners will base their network development on customer forecasting, traffic pattern and roadmap technology. This way Telkomsel will provide the most up-to-date innovations in cellular communications technology.

The GPRS technology, obviously with Multi Media Services (MMS), is also slated to be launched in the very near future, when most of the cellular manufacturers are expected to have compatible standards, while Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) has been available for quite some time.

Other supporting infrastructure to maintain the excellent performance of the network includes: Combat, Superman, Dream Racer and Ring Protection.

To overcome any possible problems or to expand a new network, Compact Mobile BTS (COMBAT), a specially designed mobile BTS vehicle, is often used.

SUPERMAN, short for Supervisory and Monitoring Network, as the name indicates, watches over a widespread network.

To get an objective evaluation of its own and others' network, specially equipped smaller vehicles -- called Dream Racers -- are used.

Ring Protection ensures subscribers excellent transmission signals, wherever they might be, even if the local BTS suffers a temporary problem.

"There's another breakthrough. It's on the financial side. We have prepared US$1.5 billion for investment for the next three years ... averaging $500 million every year," said Leong Shin Loong, Telkomsel's Director of Planning and Development.

The amount, considered huge in terms of the country's cellular operator industry, is quite a significant investment and only further indicates the company's strong commitment to give its nationwide customers world-class services and anticipate their increasing and various demands.

Widely known for its steady growth even during Indonesia's economic crisis, Telkomsel again performed another feat. Through the bonds recently issued it was able to raise $150 million. The bonds were instantly well received in the national and international markets and acquired a remarkably high rating. Reflecting the confidence and trust in the company was the fact that many of the purchasers were first-time investors in Indonesia and also first-time investors since the country's economic crisis.

A dual band GSM 900/1800 service provider, Telkomsel has even developed its DCS-1800 technology to a wider frequency spectrum of 15 MHz, all of which makes it possible for the leading operator to build an integrated cellular network and thus provide convenience and versatility for subscribers.

Singapore's SingTel, one of its shareholders and an experienced operator for fixed, wireless and Internet platforms, has provided Telkomsel with vast professionalism for development in technology and new products and services, as well as marketing know-how.

"We have learned a lot from SingTel. This combination gives us the leverage to get better prices from our vendors, which we pass on to our customers in the form of lower prices," added Leong Shin Loong.

That is another feature that has acted like a magnet in winning customers' hearts, while, based on its solid performance year by year, it is only natural that Telkomsel has gained the trust of investors.