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)