Telkom to cooperate with 'illegal' VoIP operators: Official

Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

State-owned telecommunication company PT Telkom will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 12 "illegal" Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) operators to jointly run the VoIP business -- a move which could eventually end the year-long dispute in the sector.

Telkom's operational and marketing director Komarudin Sastrakoesoemah told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that Telkom and the 12 VoIP operators had, during talks, agreed to form joint operations and they expected to sign MOUs on the joint operations soon.

"Our legal division is putting the finishing touches on the draft agreement. After the signing of the MOU, we will proceed with talks on operational technicalities and revenue sharing," he said.

He said Telkom and the 12 VoIP operators had also agreed on "co-branding", meaning that the VoIP operators will place Telkom's logo on their VoIP phone booths or phone cards alongside their respective logos.

VoIP is an Internet-based call service that enables people to make long distance calls at much cheaper rates than the one charged by conventional call service.

Heru Nugroho, the chairman of the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII) confirmed that the 12 members of the association had agreed to set up joint VoIP operations with Telkom, adding the agreement would be signed on Tuesday in Bandung, West Java, where Telkom is based.

According to Heru, the 12 operators that will sign the MOUs are MelsaNet, ElgaNet, PrimaNet, Estiko Ramanda, InfoAsia, DNet, Centrin, Telesindo, Pasific Link, Central Online, BitNet, and JasintaNet.

Controversy over the VoIP business surfaced last year following the government's plan to issue VoIP licenses for only five companies, namely Telkom; Indosat, also a state company, Indosat's cellular arm Satelindo; and two private firms PT Gaharu Sejahtera and PT Atlassat Solusindo.

The 12 operators protested the plan, saying they had licenses for VoIP business.

But, the government said the licenses were not valid because they did not mention VoIP business.

As a matter of fact, the licenses received by the 12 operators in 1996 and 1997 use other terminology such as "internet telephony, talk protocols." These, according to the operators, are merely other names for VoIP.

"At that time the government was still in a kind of 'stone age' in terms of telecommunications. They did not know what VoIP was.

"They later issued licenses for services now better known as VoIP." Heru said.

Despite protests from industry players, the government insisted on going ahead with the ban on existing operators and allowing only five VoIP operators to monopolize the business.

In April this year, the government issued a decree to set June 1 as the deadline for existing operators to end their service.

However, two weeks ago, the police and officials from Jakarta's post and telecommunications office raided the offices of the VoIP operators, forcing them to shut down their operations.

Heru said the Directorate of Post and Telecommunications had called on the five licensed VoIP operators to cooperate with the "illegal" operators to allow them to continue their operations.

But, only Telkom was willing to cooperate with the 12 VoIP operators.

"Telkom is the only operator who is willing to cooperate with us. As a matter of fact, we also prefer Telkom, because it has the most comprehensive network coverage compared to other four operators," he said.