[Kabar-indonesia] Telkomsel says has 29 million users by end June

[Joyo at aol.com]

Indonesia's Telkomsel says has 29 mln users by June

JAKARTA, July 1 (Reuters) - Indonesia's largest mobile
phone operator, PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel),
had around 29 million users by the end of June and
expected strong growth to continue next year, its
president director said late on Friday.

Telkomsel, 65 percent owned by Indonesia's largest
telecommunication company, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia
Tbk , had 24.3 million users by the end of last year.

"As of June we have 29.2 million users. Our year-end
target was 33 million," Kiskenda Suriahardja told
reporters.

Mobile phone use in the world's fourth most populous
nation has been growing at a robust pace in recent
years, and analysts say prospects of further growth
are good as Indonesia catches up with more saturated
Southeast Asian markets.

The number of users was expected to reach 100 million
by 2010 from around 45 million by the end of last
year.

At 21 percent, the penetration rate in Southeast
Asia's largest economy is still low compared with
Malaysia's 80 percent and Thailand's 49 percent.

To catch up with the strong growth, Telkomsel, 35
percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. ,
would allocate 11.94 trillion rupiah ($1.29 billion)
for capital expenditure this year and 14 trillion
rupiah for next year.

Including Telkomsel's capital expenditure, Telkom's
capex would be 19.1 trillion rupiah for this year and
18.64 trillion rupiah in 2007.

Telkomsel controls more than half of Indonesia's
mobile phone market, followed by PT Indosat Tbk , with
27 percent of total subscribers, and PT Excelcomindo
Pratama Tbk .

Singapore's ST Telemedia has a 42 percent stake in
Indosat and Telekom Malaysia Bhd controls Excelcom.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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