Syahrial Ali's Blog

As written in The interest to become BRTI Committee members is very low, Department of Communication and Information Technology has been invited experts to joint the Indonesian Telecommunication Regulatory Body members. On the first stage, only few people are interested. When the admission extended on Nov 11th 2008, 88 participants are registered.

More than two months after that, no information has been announced .  People are waiting for the selection result. Who are the committee members now? What happen with the selection? Public are waiting for the information. If you visit www.brti.or.id, the committees member are still the same.

For your information, the BRTI committee’s term of service has ended in October last year.  So, according to the rule, BRTI currently has no committee’s members except the chairman (Mr. Basuki Yusuf Iskandar) and the government  representative (Prof Alkaff). Hence, we can see no important decision has been made during last three months.

The  announcement of new BRTI committees member will help many stake holder in Indonesian telecommunication. We hope it will be announced soon.

Telkomsel, the biggest GSM and 3G operator in Indonesia has announced promotion and replacement some of their high level managements yesterday. The chief executive officer who was held by Kiskenda Suriahardja, currently is held by Sarwoto. Sarwoto was executive general manager of infrastructure division in PT Telkom. Kiskenda is moved to expert member of PT Telkom in the field of marketing.

Telkomsel also replaced the director of planning and development, Mr Syarif Syarial Ahmad with Ms. Herfini Haryono. Herfini was previously Telkomsel vice president for business control. Syarif is moved to  expert member of PT Telkom in the field of technical and operational maintenance.

Mr Eddy Kurnia, PT Telkom vice president of public and marketing communication said that rotation and promotion in PT Telkom are done in accordance with actual requirements in the field.

Minister of Communication and Information Technology Indonesia, M. Nuh, on last Monday (Jan 19th) has signed 2 minister rules and 2 minister decrees about the management and the usage of radio frequency for broadband wireless access (BWA)as well as the selection preparation for local fixed network operator with packet switched based at the 2.3GHz radio frequency. (more…)

Indonesian Directorate General of Post and Telecommunication is getting better from time to time. We can see several DG Postel actions during 2008. Some of their actions were as below:

1. A firmer action over illegal usage of spectrum frequencies. Several big operators such as Telkomsel, Indosat, XL and Bakrietel were caught as the illegal users. They argued that the time spent to administer it was too long. When DG Postel managed it, the administration process is getting faster.

2. A firmer action by announcing a warning to all service providers (license holders) who do not deliver a annual report as requested according to the rule.

3. All licenses released are using a transparent process such as tender compared to previous era by using first in first served. We can see it through International license, long distance license, and the upcoming event the Broadband Wireless Access licenses.

4. The cancellation of licenses of several service providers.
5. All of above information are updated regularly through a Website www.postel.go.id. Thanks for your valuable information so that we can follow the Indonesian telecommunication news through this website.

In the future we hope to see the transparency of spectrum frequency usage, so that any party who want to use some spectrum frequency can immediately know about the status of this band at the specified location. With this information in hand, they can make a followed up action such as seeking for alternative location or alternative frequency.

Congratulation DG Postel for your great work.

Indosat Chief Commissioner, H.E. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani on his press released Sunday (1/18/09) informed that Qatar Telecom Q.S.C (Qtel) will start the tender offer process of PT Indosat Tbk (ISAT) share in Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Januari 20, 2009. Qtel will buy 24,19% shares at the price of Rp 7.388 per share.

Qtel will buy 1.314.466.775 of B-series shares which also include the share in American Depositary Shares (ADSs). Both shares registered in BEI and NYSE with the total shares of 24,19% from the total ISAT shares. For your information, total ISAT shares are 5.433.933.500 shares.

The tender offer will be started January 20, 2009 and will be closed on on 15.00 JATS and 03.00 NYSE on February 28, 2009.

For your information, QTel has bought 40.81% ISAT share on June 22. According to Indonesian regulation, the total amount of cellular business for foreign investor is 65%. So, QTel wants to fulfill it to the maximum amount allowed.

By maximizing its share in Indosat, QTel seriously wants to reinforce Indosat position and develop it into one of the foremost regional telecommunication companies. This does not only increase the value of the share, but also beneficial for its customer.

This offer will be made through Indonesia Communications Pte. Ltd, QTel subsidiary company. It is supposed to finish in 15 days on March 5, 2009.

The Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology M. Nuh today has appointed Telkomsel as the winner of USO (Universal Service Obligation) for 3 packets, packet no 1, packet 3 and packet 6. The packets values are $50, $30m and $20m respectively, so the total is around $100m.

Unlike for the packet-2 and packet-7 last week, on packet 1, 3 and 6, Telkomsel is the only participant. When Telkomsel fulfills all the administration requirement, they become the winner.

As a winner, Telkomsel shall provide telecommunication and information access services for villages in these 3 regions. Paket 1 consists of Aceh, North Sumatera and West Sumatera in the area of Sumatera. Packet 3 is Kalimantan area, namely West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan Timur and South Kalimantan (For your information, North Kalimantan is Malaysian Teritorry). Meanwhile packet 6 consist of Bali, Nusa Tenggara Barat and Nusa Tenggara Timur.

Now, we are waiting for packet 4 and packet 5. Will Telkomsel sweep it out? Be patient as the winner will be announced soon. ?