09
July, 2004: Following the effective loss of its wireline monopoly in
2003, Indonesian telco PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (Telkom) is
rapidly ramping up its investments in next generation network (NGN)
technology.
Last
month Telkom, the incumbent Indonesian domestic telecom carrier, inked
a multi-million dollar deal with Tekelec of the USA for the supply of SanterOne
Class 4 softswitch infrastructure. Leader of Telkom's Construction
Center Adeng Achmad says that the new trunk-level switching solution is
being deployed in geographically dispersed locations in Jakarta,
Bandung, and Surabaya to handle increases in long-distance and
interconnection traffic. Initially the Tekelec solution will include
50,000 circuit trunks, expanding to more than 500,000 ports. "The SanteraOne
will enable Telkom to move forward with the next-generation network
that can handle voice and data (packet) in a more efficient and
cost-effective way than our circuit-based legacy network", states
Achmad. Now, in a new deal with China's second largest telecoms vendor ZTE Corp, Telkom is deploying a ZXA10
access system in an NGN-digital loop carrier (NGN-DLC) network in
Jakarta and neighbouring areas. The finished network will offer users
broadband and narrowband integrated services such as POTS, ISDN, ADSL,
SHDSL and HDSL. "In today’s telecoms market, operators are building
more multi-service networks to satisfy their customers’ surging demands
for broadband access. The operators’ major concern is how to build a
network with multiple services without adding too much infrastructure
cost", according to Xu Ming, product general manager of ZTE's Network
Division. US
market research and consultancy WinterGreen Research Inc argues that
NGN-DLC platforms are economical and scalable vehicles to deliver POTS,
narrowband, and broadband services, and make broadband rollout
economical for a higher percentage of the population. Prior
to the Tekelec softswitch deal Telkom signed a contract in 2002 with
Telcordia and Syspol for Class 5 call agent technology. The carrier
also contracted Alcatel and Lucent for the delivery of DSL equipment in
2001. In March 2004 The Jakarta Post newspaper reported that, this year, Telkom was expecting to grow its broadband user base to 50,000 - up from 3,000 in 2003. Indonesia currently has a basic telephone density of around 4%. As of 31 December, 2003, Telkom was operating 8.48mn fixed lines.
John Williamson |
