Telkom in talks to embrace VoIP operators

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

State-owned telecommunication company PT Telkom said it was holding talks with telephone Internet operators to adopt their services, as a recently issued decree bans their operation to make way for new operators like Telkom.

Telkom tariff and interconnection vice president Mundarwiyarso said the company had had a meeting with the 12 operators offering Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service.

VoIP is a technology for transmitting ordinary telephone calls over the Internet, allowing significant savings during long distance calls.

Mundarwiyarso said Telkom had met the 12 operators before the new decree was issued but they were far from a deal because at that point they lacked details of the decree.

"We haven't decided on the form of a cooperation yet," he told The Jakarta Post, adding he expected more meetings soon.

A spokesman at the Ministry of Communication, Gatot S. Dewabroto said the government had only recently issued the decree. He gave no date.

The decree requires the current 12 VoIP operators to stop providing voice over Internet service as of June 1.

Replacing them are five newcomers including Telkom and state- owned international call operator PT Indosat. The other three are Indosat's cellular unit PT Satelindo and two private companies, PT Gaharu Sejahtera and PT Atlassat Solusindo.

This sparked protests from current VoIP operators grouped under the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII).

APJII questioned the fairness of the decree, demanding the government compensate them if they lose their business.

Current VoIP operators have already secured permits to operate internet telephony, protocol talks or protocol internet phone -- all different names for the same service that VoIP offered.

APJII fell short of projecting what actions it might take in response to the decree, saying it needed to study it first.

According to the decree, VoIP operators may tie up with the five new ones or otherwise abandon their service.

Mundarwiyarso suggested operators use Telkom's permit to continue providing VoIP service under the brand of Telkom.

"They (old operators) cannot use their own old access codes," he explained.

According to him, some of the operators were interested in joining Telkom. But he said they were also offered similar schemes by the other newcomers.

He added that any cooperation schemes with the operators would not involve the acquisition of their shares.

"It is impossible for Telkom to cooperate through share- ownership," he said.

APJII's legal advisor Hinca I.P. Pandjaitan confirmed that most of the 12 operators were likely to join Telkom.

"Telkom's infrastructure and facilities are comprehensive, and the company is already running VoIP services," he said.

The state company launched recently its VoIP service, boasting a monthly call traffic of 15 million minutes.

Its prime call destinations cover Singapore, Australia, the United States, China and Hong Kong.

However two of the old operators said they preferred to keep their own business despite the ban.

"We already have our own brand. Besides, cooperating with a big company means layers of bureaucracy and added pressure," one of the operators who asked for anonymity said.

Instead, he said, his company might ask the new license holders to rent their access codes so that they could still run VoIP service under their own brand.

Herry Dwi Handoko marketing manager of another VoIP operator, PT Uninet Bhaktinusa, also said Uninet was considering using Indosat or Telkom's access codes.