Telkom launches fiber optics communication system

Telkom launches fiber optics communication system

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia's largest telecommunications firm, PT Telkom, launched
on Monday a fiber optics communication system to improve services
for customers in Java, Sulawesi and Kalimantan.

Telkom president director Arwin Rasyid said the system would
improve Telkom's bandwidth performance, especially in providing
better services in voice and data communications.

"The system allows Telkom to anticipate the growth in
bandwidth capacity until 2011," he said after a launching
ceremony of the systems "Expand Java Backbone" and "SKSO T21
Kalimantan and Sulawesi".

Arwin said the systems would increase Telkom's bandwith
capacity in Java by eight times, twice in Sulawesi and three
times in Kalimantan.

"This improved capacity will also promote the economic
development of those areas," he said.

Telkom director for network solutions Abdul Haris said the
development of the projects kicked off on Sept. 22 and would
finish on July 31 and May 24, respectively, next year.

Telkom has already laid 9,555 kilometers of fiber optic cable
to connect the main islands in the country. Another 4,045
kilometers of cable would interconnect Java, Sumatra and
Kalimantan.

Arwin said the company had spent nearly Rp 250 billion
(US$24.45 million) to develop two earlier projects and would
spend billions more from its internal budget to support the new
ones. "Every one kilometer (in cable laid) costs $8,000," he
said.

Arwin said the establishment of the system would boost company
revenues.

"The more Telkom and other operators customers use this
system, the more traffic we get. That means more interconnections
will occur (and) ... our revenues will expand," he said.

Vice president for corporate communications Muhammad Awaluddin
said revenue from data transfer made up 30 percent to 40 percent,
or Rp 6 trillion, of the company's total revenue last year.
(006)