Telselindo calls for tender on radio frequency
Telselindo calls for tender on radio frequency
JAKARTA (JP): Cellular phone company PT Telselindo Nusantara
urged the government to put up for tender radio frequency
allocations for cellular companies to promote healthy competition
among operators, a senior executive said.
Telselindo's director of operations Muslim Mahmud said on
Thursday that he was surprised to hear that another cellular
phone operator, PT Mobile Selular Indonesia (Mobisel), had been
awarded the rights to operate on the 453 Megahertz to 457.5
Megahertz range for the expansion of its code division multiple
access (CDMA) network.
"We had applied to the government for the frequency range in
January this year, how could it (the frequency range) go to
Mobisel now?" he questioned.
Telselindo, together with British partner Inquam Ltd., had
originally planned to operate cellular services based on the CDMA
network on the 450 Megahertz frequency range beginning next year.
The frequency of between 453 Megahertz to 457.5 Megahertz is
vital to the plan as Inquam's CDMA-450 technology operates on the
frequency range, Muslim said.
He said that according to the minister of communications'
decree, frequency allocation was supposed to be awarded after a
tender procedure.
"We are ready if the government tenders the frequencies,"
Muslim said, explaining that Telselindo was ready in terms of
finances, technology and even with CDMA-enabled handsets produced
by Korea's Synertek Inc.
He said that Inquam has already run the service in Rumania
with Telemobile at the same frequency and that it was looking at
Indonesia to roll out the first of its Asian operations.
Telselindo and Inquam has allocated US$300 million to finance
the network for four to five years, Muslim said.
Inquam is jointly owned by Saudi Arabia's Omni Group and
California-based Qualcomm Inc.
Separately, Mobisel's director for commerce Abdul Kadir told
The Jakarta Post that the frequency range, awarded by the
government on June 27, 2001, was based on its application on Dec.
6 last year and not a sudden move as alleged by Telselindo.
He said that the application was made right after Mobisel
received a license to switch from its analog Nordic Mobile
Telephone (NMT) network to the more advanced digital GSM-400.
"We asked to switch to CDMA-450 because the suppliers of GSM-
400 decided to postpone their development of the system until
2003, and we could not wait," Abdul said.
He asserted that Mobisel's application to the Ministry of
Communications was not for new frequencies but a migration of
technology which, according to the 1993 ministerial decree, only
needed the approval of the director-general of post and
telecommunications.
The ministerial decree dealing with frequency allocations was
specifically for new operators to obtain an operational license,
Abdul said.
The government earlier said it would not issue operating
licenses for new operators this year.
He acknowledged that since the government had awarded Mobisel
with the frequency range, technically other operators would not
be able to use the same range. (tnt)