Third GSM provider launches operations

JAKARTA (JP): In the shadow of its existing rivals, the last of the three license holders for Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), PT Excelcomindo Pratama, launched yesterday its cellular telephone service.

Excelcomindo's president, Julius S. Djohan, said the company invested this year about US$350 million to install some 200 base transceiver stations in Jakarta and Bandung, West Java.

"Today's launching will mark Excelcomindo's operations in Jakarta and Bandung. We will enter Surabaya in East Java next month," he said, adding that the company would increase its investment to $720 million by 1998.

Excelcomindo's service was launched yesterday by Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave.

The company is a joint-venture company owned by Nynex Corp. of the United States and PT Telekomindo Prima Bhakti, the major Indonesian shareholder.

Telekomindo is owned by PT Rajawali Wira Bhakti Utama, a subsidiary of the Rajawali Group, controlled by businessman Peter Sondakh. State-owned PT Telkom has a minor stake in Telekomindo, which currently runs the Advanced Mobile Phone System.

Other shareholders of Excelcomindo include Japanese trading firm Mitsui, the Asian Infrastructure Fund and several local investors, including PT Santana Telekomindo, Yayasan Kartika Eka Paksi and Yayasan Tridaya.

Excelcomindo, set up in 1995, will face stiff competition from PT Satelindo and PT Telkomsel, the two GSM operators presently controlling the market in the country, particularly in Jakarta.

There are currently some 400,000 cellular phone users in Indonesia. Some 270,000 are GSM subscribers, while the remainder are users of the Advanced Mobile Phone System run by three operators and the Nordic Mobile Telephone run by one provider.

Djohan said yesterday that out of the current GSM users, 65 percent live in Jakarta and Bandung, 20 percent in Surabaya and 15 percent in other areas of the country.

He said that Excelcomindo will expand to cover major cities in Java and Bali by the first quarter of 1997 and Sumatra in the second half of next year.

"We expect to attract 30,000 subscribers by the end of this year," he said.

According to Djohan, Excelcomindo, which procures equipment from Swedish giant LM Ericsson AB and Siemens of Germany, plans a 90 percent outdoor coverage in Jakarta. (icn)