Telkomsel expands network

JAKARTA (JP): Mobile telephone network provider PT Telkomsel announced on Thursday it was entering into cooperation with four mobile telephone vendors -- Nokia, Motorola, Siemens and Ericsson -- for network expansion across Indonesia, a senior executive said.

Telkomsel's corporate communications manager Azis Fuaedi said on Thursday that the cooperation was established to ensure the company's services could reach all parts of the country.

He said the contract comprised infrastructure development including site acquisitions, construction of base transceiver stations (BTS) and transmission systems, all of which needed to be integrated into the existing system.

The vendors are each bound by a three-year contract with a possible extension of another two years.

Nokia is to develop infrastructure in the Jakarta area, Siemens in Central and East Java as well as southern Sumatra, Motorola in Kalimantan and West Java and Ericsson in Sumatra.

Telkomsel expects that by 2005 its customers will increase to more than 7 million subscribers from the current 2.7 million, Azis said.

Telkomsel provides cellular telephone services on the 900 Megahertz and the 1800 Megahertz GSM networks and is a subsidiary of state-owned PT Telkom.(tnt)