Telkom, Daya sign handover deal on Kalimantan networks
Telkom, Daya sign handover deal on Kalimantan networks
JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned domestic telecommunications
provider PT Telkom is scheduled today to hand over its networks
in Kalimantan to PT Daya Mitra Malindo at a ceremony in
Balikpapan.
Top executives of Telkom and Daya Mitra will sign the hand-
over deal today, the deadline for the latter company to start the
telecommunications project in accordance with the original
schedule.
Daya Mitra ended an internal dispute just last week by
selecting Britain's Cable & Wireless as its new shareholder, to
replace Telekom Malaysia to hold a 25 percent stake.
The government has chosen five private firms to develop
telecommunications networks in five areas. The five projects are
part of the government's program to install five million
telephone lines within the current Sixth Five-Year Development
Plan period, which will end in March 1999.
On Jan. 3, Telkom began handing over the management of its
telecommunications networks in four regions to the private firms
that had won 15-year joint operation contracts.
The telecommunications networks in the country's eastern
region (Sulawesi, Irian Jaya, Maluku and Nusa Tenggara) were
handed over in January to PT Bukaka Singtel, in Sumatra to PT
Pramindo Ikat Nusantara, in Central Java to PT Mitra Global
Telekomunikasi Indonesia and in West Java to PT Aria West
International.
The telecommunications networks in Kalimantan should have been
privatized as well in January. But, Daya Mitra was not ready to
start its project because it had internal troubles.
Daya Mitra must install 237,000 new lines in Kalimantan by
1999 and operate them together with some 194,583 existing lines
for 15 years.
Informed sources at the Ministry of Tourism, Post and
Telecommunications said that Malaysia Telekom wanted to control
the planned project even though it planned to hold only 25-
percent ownership in Daya Mitra.
The government regulates that the private companies taking
part in the country's telecommunications development must be led
by Indonesian parties. The private consortia include domestic and
overseas telecommunications firms and cooperatives. (icn)