Telecoms giants produce equipment

Telecoms giants produce equipment

JAKARTA (JP): In addition to the various foreign operators
based in Indonesia, dozens of overseas equipment manufacturers
and vendors have also enlivened the country's booming
telecommunications industry.

Names such as Siemens, Motorola, Alcatel, Ericsson, as well as
Philips, NEC and, Tomen are already well-known in Indonesia,
which has PT Inti, PT Elektrindo Nusantara and PT LEN as major
telecommunications or telecommunications-related equipment
producers of its own.

PT Trafindo Perkasa, a subsidiary of the publicly-listed
Ometraco Corporation, has set up PT Siemens Kabel Optik, a joint
venture agreement with Siemens Aktiengesellschaft of Germany, to
manufacture fiber-optic telecommunication cables in Indonesia.
The new company plans to produce both land and submarine fiber-
optic cables.

Siemens, one of the world's leading companies in the
electrical, electronics and telecommunications field, will
provide technical assistance in establishing the manufacturing
facilities and testing the fiber-optic cable production.

The German firm has extended its long-term support for the
company's telecommunications industry. A number of radio-based
stations for the GSM projects in Indonesia were supplied by
Siemens.

Alcatel Alsthom of France and PT Elektrindo Nusantara, an
affiliate of the Bimantara Group, have also signed an agreement
to cooperate in telecommunications projects in the country.

Elektrindo's president, Harry Kuntoro, said recently that the
future joint telecommunications projects should allow his company
to enter the global market.

"Beyond marketing domestically, we want to enter the
international market," he said, adding that that's why
negotiations between the two parties are proving to be tough.

Alcatel, in association with Elektrindo Nusantara, also
intends to participate in the fields of cellular mobile
telephones, subscriber cable networks and submarine links.

The French firm was the major supplier for PT Satelindo in
establishing the GSM network in Jakarta.

The state-owned domestic telecommunications provider PT Telkom
has also awarded a unit of Alcatel, AMEN, a million microwave
transmissions contract. The project, which comprises radio links
over Sumatra and Sulawesi islands, also includes Marubeni of
Japan and the Bimantara group

Motorola of the United States has won a contract to supply the
GSM for PT Telkomsel in Indonesia, which will be the company's
first GSM communications contract in Indonesia.

Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson AB also won contracts from PT
Excelcomindo, the country's third GSM operator, to expand a GSM
network. This network will be in operation by the end of this
year and completed in 1997.

Ericsson is also the supplier of DRA 1900 equipment for
telecommunications networks in Sumatra ordered by PT Astratel
Nusantara, one of the five private firms awarded a 15-year
contract to install some 2.25 telephone lines in the country.

The Swedish firm has recently set up PT Ericsson Indonesia.

AT&T of the U.S., in the meantime, is the assistant for Telkom
for the development of long distance networks. The American firm
is helping Telkom improve its billing system; network planning,
operation and administration; customer services plan and the
development of new services to make the state company a world-
class operator. AT&T, which has set up a joint venture in
Indonesia, is also involved in the trial operations of the
wireless telecommunications network using code division multiple
access (CDMA) technology with PT Komselindo.

Japanese NEC and Sumitomo have also set up a joint venture in
Indonesia called PT NEC Nusantara Indonesia which markets the
Integrated System Digital Network system.

As a domestic telecommunications provider, Telkom will also a
complete fiber-optic network linking Lampung and Bali through
Java. This will increase the successful call-ratio in the
country.

Fiber optic networks in several other areas in Indonesia are
expected to be installed within the current Sixth Five Year
Development Plan (Repelita VI) period.

Meanwhile, the state-owned PT Indosat is also constructing a
submarine fiber-optic link between Jakarta and Surabaya. This
will enable the company to enhance its network reliability and
improve the quality of its service. The network, to be completed
early next year, is planned to link Malaysia, Brunei, the
Philippines and Guam. (icn)