Telkomsel-Motorola deal

JAKARTA (JP): PT Telkomsel has signed a contract worth US$27 million with the American giant Motorola to expand the nationwide cellular operator's mobile telephone network.

The project is aimed at increasing the Global System for Mobile (GSM) network capacity in Jakarta, Kalimantan and Bandung of West Java.

Telkomsel's director Garuda Sugardo said that the contract for the Jakarta project was worth $24.7 million while the Kalimantan and Bandung projects $3.3 million each.

He said Telkomsel and Motorola had previously signed contracts for radio networks in the greater Jakarta, West Java, Kalimantan and North Sulawesi.

He said that Motorola was one of Telkomsel's major vendors in addition to Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens.

Telkomsel, which competes with PT Satelindo and PT Excelcomindo in GSM service in Indonesia, has 265,000 users including some 100,000 in the greater Jakarta area. (icn)