Third GSM provider launches operations
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)