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)