TelkomFlexi moves to meet 3m subscribers target

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia's leading fixed-wireless service operator TelkomFlexi is upbeat that its target for three million new customers will be achieved this year, with the help of its new promotion program.

As of March 2005, the number of Flexi subscribers reached 1.9 million, or already up by 26.66 percent from its 1.5 million subscribers at the end of 2004.

To help boost the number of subscribers Flexi will be launching a new and ambitious two-and-a-half-month marketing campaign called Gratis Berbulan-bulan (free for months). The program offers every new Flexi customer during the campaign period of April 11 to June 30 a free Rp 25,000 (US$2.65) bonus voucher every month if they purchase at least Rp 50,000 in vouchers.

"We are optimistic that the new program will lure at least 500,000 new customers to sign up," said PT Telkom's network business director Suryatin Setiawan. Telkom is the parent company of TelkomFlexi.

Aside from providing customer incentives, the company is also investing Rp 1.7 trillion to expand its network coverage. The company plans to build 500 new base transceiver stations in addition to its existing 1,200. The coverage will also expand from 216 cities to 232 cities nationwide.

Setiawan said at its current growth rate, Flexi should become the country's number three operator of cellular services, overtaking Excelcomindo, which currently has about four million customers.

Fixed-wireless services, which use a form of the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology, are phone services with limited cellular mobility in a designated area. The service was first introduced here two years ago.

Cellular services using GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology, meanwhile, have been in use in Indonesia since the 1990s.

The number one cellular service operator, with 50 percent market share, is currently Telkomsel, also TelkomFlexi's sister company. Telkomsel presently has 17.5 million customers.

PT Indosat follows in second place with almost 10 million customers, representing an increase of 65 percent over its 2003 figure.

Other fixed-wireless operators are also expecting rapid growth in 2005. Mobile-8 Telecom expects its Fren customers to triple from 500,000 to 1.5 million, while PT Bakrie Telecom expects users of its Esia service to jump from 300,000 to 800,000. Data for Starone, Indosat's fixed-wireless operator, was not available.