Telkom seeks to prevent telecoms failure in West Java, Banten

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom and the government are studying measures to prevent a total telecommunications failure in West Java and Banten following threats to cut off power supplies by state electricity company PT PLN.

Telkom's director of operation and marketing Komarudin Sastrakoesoemah said on Thursday that Telkom and the government had held several meetings but no decisions had been made as yet.

PLN has threatened to cut power supplies to all Telekom facilities in the two regions unless the phone company and its joint operating (KSO) partner AriaWest International pay their power bills, which amount to Rp 1.3 billion (US$115,000), by Wednesday of next week.

Telkom and AriaWest have thus far been unable to pay their power bills due a lingering dispute between them.

A disruption in power supplies would cripple telecoms services for more than 600,000 subscribers and thousands more users in the Banten and West Java. Analysts fear that this could trigger social unrest ahead of the People's Consultative Assembly's special session scheduled for Aug. 1.

Assistant to the coordinating minister for the economy Dipo Alam said on Thursday that one of the options being considered was to transfer responsibility for the telecoms services in the two provinces to Telkom.

Dipo -- who also heads a government mediation team trying to seek a solution to the chronic dispute between Telkom and Ariawest -- said that the government had done its utmost to try and facilitate an agreement between the parties, but to no avail.

"We have offered a middle way, to appoint a temporary chief operating officer, but that too has been turned down by AriaWest," he said.

The government may transfer the operations to "a national company" which could ensure the continuation of telecommunications services in the two provinces, Dipo said.

Komarudin said Telkom was ready to take over AriaWest's operations in the two regions and to finance them from its own resources.

The other choices available were to let the employees take over the operations themselves, or for the government to take over and finance the operations.

But the government risks being sued by AriaWest if it takes over the operations, Komarudin said.

The government last month decided to institute a temporary management team in AriaWest's operational regions following the decline in services resulting from the prolonged dispute between Telkom and AriaWest.

But AriaWest opposed the measure.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Social, and Security Affairs Agum Gumelar, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Burhanuddin Abdullah met on Wednesday with executives of Telkom and AriaWest to try to find a solution to the problem.

AriaWest's corporate communications manager Denni Koswara said on Thursday that AriaWest had told the meeting that it would not change its stance (tnt)