The sale of Hutchison BTS towers violates law

Ministry of Communication and Information said the sale of 3,692 towers of Hutchison Telecommunication International to PT Profesional Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Protelindo) violated the regulation. The sale was conducted on March 18, 2008, one day after the ministry issued the regulation banned the ownership of towers by foreign companies. Protelindo is majority owned by American businessman, J Michael Gearon. Hutchison refused to comment. GM Marketing Communication Hutchison Ariani Wahyu Widowati said the transaction was under the responsibility of Director of Interconnection Government and Regulatory of Hutchison Sidharta Sidik. (Media Indonesia, pg 13)

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Reach 100 million

The number of cell phone users reached 100 million or equal with 43% of Indonesia population. The achievement surpassed the prediction as until last year, the users reached 85 million. There was an increase of 17% in the first four months in 2008. Among the 100 million users, 85% of the users are subscribers of three largest operators Telkomsel, Indosat, and Excelcomindo. The increase was triggered by the decline of GSM tariff which is closer to CDMA tariff. (Business Week, pg 10)

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Temasek appeal not run yet without written document of the court

Temasek Holdings is upset noting the fact that the Singaporean investment company got difficulty to prepare its appeal to Supreme Court due to the absence of written court document Friday (9/5). This will block its efforts following the verdict of KPPU. It has been five years and Central Jakarta District Court has so far not yet given the copy of court document. Heru Purnomo, spokesperson of Central Jakarta District Court, said for not giving the copy of court document. Let alone, one of the judges undergo training outside so it will be difficult to sign the document copy. (Harian Kontan, pg 17)

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Talk time cost remain the same despite cheap tariff

It has been two months when many cellular subscribers complained about the difficulties for incoming call or outgoing call. Even if it worked, drop call might always happen underway. It event takes a day to send and receive SMS, despite the strong signal. Indosat Marketing Director Guntur Siboro admitted the fact. The promotional and tariff cut down have increased sharply the use of cellular traffic. The traffic peak of Indosat happens at 21.00-23.00 and 10.00 to 11.00. XL considered that drop call is technical problem. “Thus, it is not true we are downgrading the service quality,” said Myra Junor, XL corporate communication general manager (Harian Kontan, pg 22)

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lcon+ joins Internet business. Electricity energy should be watched

Icon+ could be a strong competitor in Internet service provider. The subsidiary of PT PLN will offer broadband over power line (BPL) technology, a PLN electricity cable-based Internet service. The technology offer data and voice (via Internet) with very low cost. "It just needs a modem with electricity power of 5-10 watt in one plug," said corporate secretary of Icon+ Didi Ali Achmadi. Its Bandwidth is bigger: 200 megabyte per second. Vice President Public and Marketing Communication PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) Eddy Kurnia said his company is ready to compete with the new competitor. (Koran Tempo, pg B8)

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Major operators targeted corporate market

Three major cellular telecommunication operators in Indonesia targeted corporate market segment. The ARPU ranges from Rp170-Rp450,000 wits increasing contribution to the revenue. Indosat marketing director Guntur Siboro, General Manager Regional Account Manager of Telkomsel Erwin Tanjung, and General Manager Marketing Product and Development Business Solutions PT Excelcomindo Pratama Budi Harjono gave this statement. Guntur said the average ARPU of Indosat corporate subscribers spent about Rp170,000 per month with 40,000 subscribers or 5 percent of the total Matrix users now. As to Budi, XL has more than 2,300 corporate subscribers, and Telkomsel 11,000 companies with 430,000 numbers. Almost all corporate subscribers use KartuHALO. PT Telkomsel targeted revenue Rp 1.6 trillion in this year, mostly come from 15 corporate business solution. (Investor daily, pg 24, Suara Karya, pg 7, Warta Kota, pg 18)

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Corporate Communication Solution

VP Corporate Account Management Telkomsel Ivon Ho (right) exchanged cooperation agreement script with Deputy Head Indofood Eddy Tanuwidjaja after signing Mobile VPN and Blackberry services which was witnessed by Business Director of Telkomsel Richard Tan (left) and Operational Director David Ng (second left) in Jakarta, Tuesday (13/5). Telkomsel held an exhibition and seminar "Personalization" for its 11.000 corporate subscribers and signing the communication solution agreement with six companies: Waskita Karya, Indofood Sukses Makmur, Adira Finance, Wings Group, Tangara Mitrakom, and Bank NISP (Investor daily, pg 24, Media Indonesia, pg 15)

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Telkomsel concern with outer islands in Natuna

Telkomsel commitment to serve Indonesia is truly realized by having cellular networks up to the remote areas and even the outer points on the border with neighboring countries. Telkomsel reinforced its commitment by providing concern program at Ranai, Natuna Regency, as one of the Indonsian outer islands by renovating school infrastructures and education textbooks worth by Rp127,100,000 and Fun Jogging with Telkomsel’s 2,000 subscribers. In Natuna regency, Telkomsel has 15 BTS with 50,000 subscribers as from the total of 15.5 million subscribers in Sumatra. (Neraca, pg 11)

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SMS tariff now not really cheap. Operators and customer have not got deal on SMS tariff

Despite the tariff cut down, many cellular operators expressed their disappointment with the high cost of each SMS. Subscribers considered that SMS cost from cellular operators is too expensive. Most customers want Rp100 per SMS. The Indonesian Telecommunication Regulation Body (BRTI) considered the tariff cut down up to Rp150 is the best measure. “There is even operator cutting down its tariff below that level,” said Heru Sutadi the BTI member. XL Corporate Communication GM Myra Junor said the SMS tariff is Rp250. “It is also cheap, isn’t it,” she said. (Kontan, pg 22)

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Tower permit issuance service temporarily called off

For the time being, the North Jakarta government closed the service for building permit of Base Transceiver Station (BTS). The closure was taken as the Jakarta government’s City Master Plan Office is mapping the location of tower sharing construction to minimize the number of towers with careless construction.
Had of North Jakarta government’s City Infrastructure Administration Heru Budi Hartono asserted the City Government has halted the permit issuance for the time being until the location for tower construction is defined. (Berita Kota, pg 2)

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