Telkom barred from making deal with VoIP operators
Telkom barred from making deal with VoIP operators
Rendi A. Witular
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
The government has asked state-owned telecommunications firm PT
Telkom to cancel plans to establish a joint operating arrangement
with 12 Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) operators, according
to a senior company official.
Telkom finance director Komarudin Sastrakoesoemah told The
Jakarta Post on Tuesday that the Directorate General of Posts and
Telecommunications was requiring the VoIP operators to first seek
government approval for any joint operating plan.
"The draft of the MoU was about to be signed last week, but
there was an instruction (to cancel it) which, as the director
general said, was based on Ministerial Decree No. 23/2002, which
stipulates joint operating licensing procedures for the VoIP
sector," said Komarudin.
The government has recently shut down 12 VoIP operators on the
grounds that they lacked the necessary licenses. This raised a
chorus of protest from the operators.
To resolve the problem, the government urged the 12 operators
to enter into a joint operating venture with two privately owned
operators, PT Gaharu Sejahtera and PT Atlassat Solusindo.
But the 12 operators want to join forces with Telkom.
Komarudin asserted that Telkom was unaware that approval from
the director general of posts and telecommunications was needed
for the setting up of a VoIP joint operating venture.
Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII)
chairman Heru Nugroho said that the move by the government to
block the joint operating arrangement only created new
uncertainties in the sector.
He said that the APJII had been approached by brokers to enter
into a joint operating scheme with Gaharu and Atlassat.
The two companies only recently obtained licenses to go into
the VoIP business.
There have been suspicions of irregularities in the issuance
of the licenses to the two firms.
Many believe that the two companies are backed up by certain
powerful businessmen who run illegal discotheques.
At a discussion held by the APJII on Tuesday, the association
even suggested that the two companies were behind the recent VoIP
raids conducted by the Jakarta office of the Ministry of
Communications.
Heru was unsure about the bona fides and credibility of the
two companies as they were both new to the business, and a
question mark still hung over their commitment to establishing
the joint operating venture.
"We would rather collaborate with a well-established and
reputable company such as Telkom. Moreover, Telkom also has a
wide network coverage," said Heru.
The two other established VoIP operators are state-owned
telecom firms PT Indosat and its subsidiary PT Satelindo.