Telecom projects offered

Telecom projects offered

JAKARTA (JP): The government will choose only five consortia
to establish two million telephone lines within the current Sixth
Five-Year Development Plan (Repelita VI) period, a senior
official said.

"The government will select five of the 150 consortia that
have sent applications to the government," Director General of
Post and Telecommunications Djakaria Purawidjaja told reporters
in a workshop here yesterday.

He said after the selection of the five consortia, there will
be an open bid on the location of the telephone line
construction.

"The bid will be based on fundamental technical plans, which
organize how the construction should be conducted," he said.

He refused to say when the announcement will be published.

The government expects to install five million telephone lines
within the Repelita VI period, of which two million lines will be
offered to private companies.

Telkom plans establish the other three million lines with a
total investment of Rp 15 trillion (US$6.93 billion).

Djakaria said the private consortia participating in the
telecommunications projects should involve the state-owned
domestic telecommunications company PT Telkom. (icn)