Discount to Flood Victims (2/01)

PT Indosat Tbk gives a 50 % discount for voice tariff to people suffering from floods in Central Java and East Java. The discount is affective from December 29, 2007 to January 4, 2008. Indosat Marketing Director Guntur S Siboro said in a press release that the discount is available for disaster areas in Karanganyar regency, Solo, and its surrounding areas, Wonogiri regency, Sragen regency, Ngawi regency, Madiun regency, Ponorogo regency, Trenggalek regency and Bojonegoro regency. Besides the discount, Indosat also extended the time limit of pre-paid cards for subscribers in the disaster areas until January 4, 2008.

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Extends Market for Migrant Workers (2/01)

Indonesian migrant worker (TKI) is one of potential markets for cellular operators. Not only providing special first pack cards, operators also developed special contents for the migrant workers.Last year, Telkomsel released Simpati Kangen for TKI in Taiwan. This year, Telkomsel planned to develop mobile wallet Telkomsel Cash (T-Cash) service for TKI. "With T-Cash service, TKI would get many benefits, including cheap tariff on money transfer," Telkomsel President Director Kiskenda Suriahardja said.

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Flood does not affect service (2/01)

Despite the power supply cut off to 20 BTS and 2 BTS inundated in Bojonegoro, Telkomsel service is not affected in the flood areas. Telkomsel keeps on re-routing the transmission and re-homing the data base to the nearest BSC. Central Java has 1,830 BTS and East Java 1,745 BTS. Telkomsel director for planning and development, Syarif Syarial Ahmad, said the company has mobilized mobile BTS in anticipation of flood in Central and East Java. The company also replaces the power supply with battery, mobilizes generator genset, makes radio link or transmission infrastructure re-routing, use back up system and dries the flooded areas. Based on the monitoring, telkomsel network has normal function for both communicating internal and external Telkomsel networks.

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Excelcomindo to add more stocks at stocks market (2/01)

The Indonesian Stocks Exchange (BEI) planned to call for XL to add more stocks through secondary public offering this year. In response to the call, XL president director Hasnul Suhaimi principally approved the plan. “But it is all dependent upon the stock holders,” he said to Tempo last Monday. Hasnul admitted with 0.2 percent of the stocks goes to public, Excelcomindo shares are no longer liquid. “The price becomes fake,” he said. Separately, Excelcomindo corporate secretary Ike Andriani in her letter to the stock market authority said the corporate will make bonds redemption worth by US$350 million to the Bank of New York earlier 2008. the bonds are issued by Excelcomindo Finance Company B.V., the subsidiary is based in Holland.

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XL Challenges on SMS Tariff Calculation Tariff Regulation Considered Useless (2/01)

PT Excelcomindo Pratama (XL) said it was ready to compare its calculation on SMS tariff with the government and the Indonesian Telecommunication Regulatory Body (BRTI). XL President Director Hasnul Suhaimi let the government calculate and release SMS cheap tariff. "It's better to compare the calculation and references," he said. PT Indosat spokesperson, Adita Irawati said the company did not took advantage from the government policy, but saying it was difficult to lower the price since the revenue came only from SMS use. Meanwhile receiving operators get nothing from SMS sending. It would be different if receiver and sender got benefit.

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If industrial transformation happens (2/01)

The competition among operators will be getting tighter and tougher. Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia (STI) is interested to follow up market in the outside Java with Ceria service. The CDMA operator here aggressively deals with rural areas. The coverage includes Riau, Palembang, Lampung, Jambi, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, Bali, Lombok, Banten and some areas in West Java. Besides, Ceria also presents at Aceh, Padang, and North Sumatra. Telkomsel president director, Kiskenda Suriahardja, conceded that the competition will be tougher due not only to tariff but rather service. He declined the assumption that the Rp0.5 per second tariff is used as its strategy to counter the tight competition through the release of Simpati PeDe. Free talk is deemed the attractive strategy and also way to increase the optimum capacity for customers. Free talk is offered by 3 (Three) as it also offers free SMS through SMS free voucher and Rp1 per minute talk tariff which is applicable from 1 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon among the 3 users.

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There is Full Liberalization in Telecommunication Market (Opini) (2/01)

One of sectors which conducted full liberalization in Indonesia is telecommunication. One of the evidences is since 1999 the government issued Telecommunication Law No. 36/ 1999, following by the invitation of new telecommunication operators in 2002, telecommunication industry developed fast. If earlier telecommunication sector was dominated by PT Telkomsel and PT Indosat in 2002, now, there are 11 operators provide cellular telephone service across the country. The 11 operators are Telkom, Telkomsel, Indosat, Excelcomindo (XL), Hutchison (3), Sinar Mas Telecom, Sampoerna Telecommunication, Bakrie Telecom (Esia), Mobile-8 (Fren), and Natrindo Telepon Selular (formerly Lippo Telecom). Competition really happened and it's not pseudo competition. Cheap tariff and promotional tariff strategies were conducted by the operators. Currently telecommunication industry enters price wars while new operators start to maximize its network capacity. Basuki, Director General of Post and Telecommunication of the Ministry of Communication and Information

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Cheaper telecommunication tariff on February (2/01)

The government plans to issue new regulation on telecommunication traffic. Based on the regulation to be enacted in February 2008, telecommunication tariff will be cheaper. “Hopefully, everything is all right so that we can accomplish it earlier this year. I hope it finishes on February, or the sooner the better,” said Yusuf Iskandar, director general for post and telecommunication, following the communication and information ministry’s year end reflection in Jakarta Friday (28/12). In addition to interconnection, the government will also regulate the cellular mobile telecommunication system (STBS) including SMS service. On the other side, Bakrie Telecom’s director for corporate service, Rahmat Djunaidi, said the operators principally agree with the government plan here. But, the company is only called for interconnection tariff. “For interconnection, the operators basically agree with the government. But if the government want to regulate other issue such as SMS , we have to consider it first. Bakrie Telecom is only asked for interconnection,” he said.

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Cellular operators not be added (2/01)

The government would not give a new license of cellular telecommunication operators due to lots of operators and tight competition among them. Director General Post and Telecommunication of the Ministry of Communication and Information Basuki Yusuf Iskandar said there was a tight competition in cellular telecommunication sector and its penetration reached 30% or equal to 80 million subscribers. Currently, there are eight cellular operators: Smart Telecom, Telkomsel, Excelcomindo Pratama, Indosat, Hutchison CP Telecommunication, Natrindo Telepon Seluler, Mobile-8 Telecom, and PT Sampoerna Telekomunikasi Indonesia. The only fixed telephone operator which has not received a license, is PT Bakrie Telecom Tbk. The operator only has license of CDMA-based technology wireless fixed telephone.

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Compete in Tariff and Coverage (2/01)

Competition in telecommunication business was amazing last year. This year, operators would compete to attract subscribers. Cheap tariff, coverage service and various services would become bullets in the competition. In the next few years, GSM is predicted still to control the market. Operator policy which run two services: GSM and CDMA, would impact on the weakening penetration of CDMA market. To maintain its domination, GSM operators would increase its subscribers. Among the strategies, the GSM operators would compete in tariff which is the selling point of CDMA. Operators would also attract subscribers to value added services and widening coverage.

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