Telkom to market its VoIP facility in March

JAKARTA (JP): Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), a facility allowing people to make long distance calls at local rates, should become available in Jakarta and Surabaya next month, according to a partner of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom).

Denny Hutapea, senior executive of PT Vasindo TeleInternet which will market the VoIP facility for Telkom, said that Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Medan, Denpasar and Makassar would also be connected before the end of the year.

Telkom would open a domestic clearing house, which processes VoIP and a host of other Internet-based services, in Jakarta and Surabaya next month, Denny said.

"We're prioritizing those eight cities because they account for 80 percent of the national telephone traffic," he said.

The facility would become available nationwide by the end of 2003 after the completion of clearing houses in every province, he said, adding that their construction would cost approximately US$60 million.

Telkom's VoIP project received a boost on Friday with Australia-based investment Quantum Capital Partners Ltd pledging a contribution of $20 million for the development of the clearing houses in the next two years. An agreement to that effect was signed by representatives of the three companies.

Vasindo President Eri K. Widjaja said that in return for its investment, Quantum would become a shareholder in his company, whose status would then become that of a foreign joint venture.

Quantum President John D. Hopkins said his company saw that VoIP business in Indonesia was starting to rise.

"We're confident about the prospects," he said, noting that an alliance with Telkom, a leading telecommunication company in Indonesia, would ensure the future of the business.

Vasindo has been conducting negotiations with international telephone operators in Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States and Sweden to set up partnerships in running VoIP services, Denny said. (05)