[Kabar-indonesia] Bakrie Telecom ups target to 1.5 million customers

[Joyo at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post
Monday, October 9, 2006

Bakrie Telecom ups target to 1.5m customers 

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

PT Bakrie Telecom has revised upward its 2006 customer target from 1.3 
million to 1.5 million.

The target revision was due the company already registering 1.3 million 
customers for their Esia product by late September. 

By the third quarter of 2006, Bakrie's customer numbers had grown by 167 
percent on the same period last year, when they had 487,000 customers. 

"We have passed the 1.3 million target. that is why the management has set a 
new target of 1.5 million customers," Bakrie Telecom president director 
Anindya N Bakrie said in a statement issued over the weekend. 

Anindya said that this year's growth indicated that the new target was 
attainable. 

Another reason for optimism, he said, was that Esia's coverage had spread 
from Greater Jakarta to Bandung and all cities in West Java and Banten, using 
much of PT Telkom's interconnected line facilities. 

"So far, apart from Jakarta, its greater area and Bandung, we are also 
operating in Bogor, Serang, Cilegon, Cirebon, Purwakarta, Tasikmalaya, Ciamis and 
Cianjur," Anindya said. 

"We expect we can begin to operate in the remaining 8 cities in West Java by 
the end of this year." 

Equally important, with Bakrie Telecom commencing operations in new cities in 
West Java and Banten, the company has now met the demands of the government 
as required under their license, he added. 

Apart from launching a bundle product Esia package in cooperation with 
cellular phone producers such as Nokia, Nexian, Motorola, LG and ZTE, the company 
also recently launched a new product called Wifone. 

Wifone, or Wireless Intelligent Fone Service, is a fixed wireless phone that 
operates within in a restricted area but has SMS capability and other 
features. 

According to research conducted by the company, some 67 percent of Jakarta 
citizens like to have a home phone line as well as a cellular phone. 

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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