Telkom, banks sign deal

Telkom, banks sign deal

JAKARTA (JP): Telephone subscribers are now able to pay their
monthly phone bills from the state-owned PT Telkom through any
Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) operated by six leading banks.

Company president Asman A. Nasution said yesterday the payment
system was based on "host-to-host" computer networks which
transfer subscribers' bills to the banks including Bank
Internasional Indonesia, Bank Bali, Bank Niaga, BDNI, Bank Papan
Sejahtera and Bank Exim.

"We guarantee that there will be no information leakage about
the subscribers' data," he said.

He said that information technology provider PT Lintas Arta
was involved in the controlling system.

Telkom previously introduced a noncash billing payment system
through credit card auto-debit, tele credit cards and ATMs with
three banks including Bank Duta, BII and BCA.

"Payment through BCA's ATMs is operated off-line, meaning that
there's no transparent data information. But the new service with
the six banks is operated online," Nasution said.

He said the new service was offered in collaboration with just
six banks as other banks did not yet have adequate computerized
systems.

The new payment system allows Telkom users to pay from any ATM
of the six banks throughout the country, he added.

Other banks including Danamon, Citibank, Lippo, Modern,
Kharisma, Universal and Jaya had proposed to cooperate with
Telkom for the same service, he added.

Telkom also launched yesterday phone banking, a service
allowing subscribers to pay their bills through a phone call to
the company which will then debit the subscribers' bank account.
(icn)