Telkom to finalize fixed-wireless project

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

State-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom said on Wednesday that it expected to finalize the tender of its fixed- wireless services worth US$1 billion in mid-January as an alternative to its existing wireline services.

Telkom's director of planning and technology Kristiono said that the fixed-wireless service, based on the code division multiple access (CDMA) technology, would provide alternative telephone services in areas where the wireline had not penetrated.

"We plan to build some 2.4 million telephone lines using the CDMA fixed-wireless technology, in the hope of providing wider access to telephone services," he said, on the sidelines of a hearing with the House of Representative's Commission IV overseeing infrastructure and transportation affairs.

The sluggish development of fixed-line telephones, caused by lack of investment, had led Telkom to look for cheaper alternatives in providing telecommunications services to the public.

Kristiono said that fixed-wireless services would be cheaper by 60 percent when compared to wireline services, as costs for constructing underground cables could be kept low.

"Fixed-wireless services would be a lot cheaper, it is more efficient and takes a shorter amount of time to implement," he said.

Kristiono said that Telkom had opened the tender for the fixed-wireless project earlier this month and that the shortlisted candidates would be announced in the next couple of weeks.

Telkom has offered the project to six vendors who will provide the CDMA fixed wireless service (2 vendors), the switching and optical access network (2 vendors) and the optical backbone transmission (2 vendors).

The financing of the project will be split between the vendors and Telkom, Kristiono said, with a possible arrangement whereby 70 percent of the costs would be provided by the vendors.

To date, there are 7.1 million fixed-lines in service as of Sept. 30, an equivalent of 3.24 telephone lines for every 100 people.

The government expects to build 8.25 million telephone lines next year, which would raise the coverage to 3.83 telephone lines per 100 people.