Team to probe marketing of SIM cards

JAKARTA (JP): The Directorate General of Post and Telecommunications said on Wednesday it will set up a team to investigate reports of unfair practices in the marketing of cellular prepaid subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.

Director General Sasmito Dirdjo said the investigation would be carried out in the card bith in the distribution and in the retail levels as well as cellular operators' line capacity in producing the prepaid cards.

"The establishment of the team is our response to the mounting critics by the public and customers who find difficult in obtaining the starter package of the prepaid cards produced by either one of the three Global System for Mobile (GSM) operators, Telkomsel, Satelindo and Excelcomindo," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

He did not say whether the team would impose any sanction to the party found guilty of practicing the unfair trade, causing the price of the prepaid starter packages to jump far above the regular price set by the cellular operator.

Sasmito said people complained that prices of the prepaid starter packages had increased unreasonably higher in the past few months due to the shortage of the card supply in the market.

For example, the starter package of Telkomsel's Simpati card containing a free initial Rp 100,000 (US$13.3) pulse is offered up to Rp 650,000 at the market, compared to the regular price of only Rp 250,000.

While the Mentari starter package of Satelindo, containing an initial free pulse of Rp 25,000, is being offered at around Rp 700,000 from its regular price of Rp 125,000.

The price is even more expensive reaching around Rp 1 million if the cards offer a special number.

The scarcity of the prepaid starter package supply in the market is "enginneered" by several large card distributors by limiting the supply in the market, Alie Cendrawan.

Hermes Thamrin, an owner of a main authorized Mentari card distributor rejected the charge, saying distributors had never limited the supply to retailers.

"We always try to meet the entire market's demand. But there is not much we can do because we are depending on the supply from cellular operator itself," he said.

An executive in the cellular industry said cellular operators offering prepaid card services no longer issue the cards because the cards circulating in the market have already reached their line capacity.

The amount of the prepaid cards sold by a cellular operator should be within the capacity of its line capacity.

"It is hard for operators to produce new cell numbers because they don't have the money to expand their line capacity. It needs around $50 to establish one new number," said the source, who asked for anonymity. (cst)