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)