Telkom to go ahead with plan on new tariffs

Telkom to go ahead with plan on new tariffs

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned domestic telephone monopoly PT
Telkom is to go ahead with its plan to restructure local call
tariffs within Greater Jakarta, the government said yesterday.

If implemented, Telkom would apply a long-distance call rate
of Rp 950 (7 U.S. cents) per minute for all local calls over a
distance of more than 30 kilometers.

The Directorate General of Post and Telecommunications at the
Ministry of Communications said in a statement that Telkom's rate
restructuring plan was in line with the tourism, post and
telecommunications ministerial decree No. KM.104/PR.301/MPP-94,
which came into force on Jan. 1, 1995.

The decree stipulates that local call rates apply only for
calls within a range of 30 km. Calls over more than 30 km are
classified as long distance, thereby subject to long-distance
call rates.

The decree simplified long-distance calls into three zones
from the previous five. Zone one is for calls from 30 km to 200
km, calls between 200 km and 500 km fall into zone two and calls
over 500 km fall into zone three.

The decree set local calls at Rp 110 per pulse, which ranges
from 1.5 minutes to three minutes depending on the time (morning,
afternoon or night) the call is made.

The rate for long-distance calls in zone one was Rp 950 per
minute, Rp 1,320 in zone two and Rp 1,650 in zone three.

The rates were raised based on telecommunications minister
decree No. 38/PR.301/MPPT-98, which came into affect on April 1,
1998. Local calls were increased to Rp 145 per pulse and long-
distance calls to Rp 112 per pulse (seven seconds for zone one,
five seconds for zone two and four seconds for zone three).

"Therefore, if PT Telkom has a telephone call between two
places with the same code but at a distance of more than 30
kilometers, it means that it does not apply the new rate system
but only the rates based on the tourism, post and
telecommunications ministerial decree," the statement said.

"Currently, PT Telkom is preparing to implement ministerial
decree No. 38/PR.301/MPPT-98 fully and for that it needs time to
make the preparations," it added.

The directorate general noted that Telkom had already applied
such a rating system in areas outside Greater Jakarta.

It argued the new system was fairer to callers than the
previous system which treated all calls within the same area code
as local calls and all calls between two different area codes as
long-distance calls.

The old system, it said, treated calls between Bogor and
Cibinong in West Java, which are 25 km apart, as long-distance
calls because they have different area codes.

However, calls between Bekasi and Tigaraksa, also both in West
Java and 57 km apart were treated as local calls as they shared
the same area code, 021.

"This is not fair because telephone users in rural areas
subsidize users in big cities," the directorate general argued.

The changes benefit callers more than 50 areas, such as Bogor,
Cibinong, Cibubur, Cileungsi, Cinere, Cisalak, Ciputat, Gunung
Putri and Tigaraksa, which previously had to pay long-distance
rates. (rid)