Telkom, Japanese plan cable project

Telkom, Japanese plan cable project

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with a Japanese consortium for the installation of fiber-optic cables in South Jakarta.

In the agreement with the Japanese companies Fujitsu and Furukawa, PT Telkom has replaced 500 copper telephone cables with fiber-optic cables in Pondok Indah Mall, Pondok Indah Plaza, and the surrounding business areas.

The president of PT Telkom, Setyanto P. Santosa, said yesterday that the company will complete the installation of 300,000 fiber-optic lines in the city's business centers by 1997.

The company will also extend the project to other cities such as Surabaya, Bandung and Medan. The same project trial will start in Surabaya next week, he said.

Setyanto said PT Telkom has an policy to install fiber-optic lines in government offices, other business centers, and public places that have high telephone densities by 2005.

"Homes are still far off in the future," he said.

According to him, fiber-optic cables are more efficient in terms of space usage and maintenance. It will also serve as a good preparation for future Multi Media infrastructure technology, he said.

Setyono said that telephones with this new technology will prove to provide better sound quality and have less background noise.

The investment in the project runs to Rp 3 billion ($1,350,000), twice as much as the cost of copper-wire technology.

The general manager of Fujitsu, Hikoe Inobe, said that Indonesia has used fiber-optic cables for specialized uses for 10 years.

But using the latest technology for telephone subscribers is a first, Setyono added.

He said Indonesia is the second country in Asia, after Malaysia, to have implemented this technology. (03)