Telkom's Jakarta, East Java services ready for Y2K

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned domestic telecommunications company PT Telkom said on Monday its Jakarta and East Java services were prepared for the year 2000 (Y2K) bug.

Telkom's infrastructure support officer of the information system division M. James Falahuddin, said the company's services in other areas in Java would soon be ready to combat any computer problems predicted to occur in the year 2000.

"Priority in Telkom's Y2K compliance project is given first of all to fixing systems and equipment related to the company's revenue and financial matters, especially the billing and switching system," he told The Jakarta Post.

Other priorities were given to Telkom's customer services, especially the on-line payment system, and systems related to corporate administration activities.

He said approximately 55 percent of Telkom's nationwide Y2K compliance project had been completed.

"About 60 percent of problems in transmission, 30 percent in switching and 80 percent in testing processes have been solved."

Telkom started its Y2K compliance project early last year, he said.

The compliance project should cover Telkom's over 12,000 telephone exchange centers located in cites and remote areas across the country, he said.

Financial constraints were not the primary obstacle for Telkom in preparing all of its equipment and services. He said the most serious problem for Telkom in making its products and services Y2K compliant was the geographic issue.

Telkom's president A.A. Nasution said last week the company was granted a soft loan of US$50 million from the World Bank to support the Y2K compliance project.

During the first quarter of 1999, the company spent approximately Rp 16.3 billion ($2 billion) on Y2K compliance measures.

James said another challenge to ensure compliance in Telkom's services was that a huge number of types of equipment and devices needed to be assessed, modified or replaced, tested and monitored.

"We have at least 200 types of devices and equipment dispersed across the archipelago and spare parts and maintenance are handled by different vendors. That's another challenge."

Telkom spokesman Dodi Amirudin said the compliance project for the company was complicated because the company depended on different vendors to take care of different aspects of telecommunications.

There were at least six foreign and local vendors for telecommunications systems: Siemens, Alcatel, Lucent Technology, Elektrindo, Inti, TRT and COMTEL, and more than three information technology vendors, including IBM, DEC/COMPAQ and HP, he said.

"We are in the process of selecting bids for the supply and maintenance of necessary equipment, devises and software needed to be fixed and made Y2K compliant," Dodi told the Post. (cst)