PT Bakrie Telecom Tbk (BTEL) has expanded the business into data and internet service by launching a service called Wimode, Bakrie Telecom's president Anindya Bakrie said.Bakrie said today (10/4) in Jakarta, the company expects to have 310,000 subscribers of Wimode, or 10% of the total number of Esia subscribers in Jakarta, West Java and Banten that is 3.1 million.
To develop Wimode, he said, the company does not need a high investment for the expansion will be done in line with the expansion of the company's base transceiver station (BTS). "We don't have to build a special BTS for the service," he said.
Currently, Bakrie Telecom has 408 units of BTS in Jakarta and expects to build 1,200 BTS in 34 cities of Indonesia by the year of end, so the total number of BTS will be 1,200.
Bakrie Telecom allocates a capital expenditure of US$220 million, with portion of approximately 60% for financing infrastructure, network transmission backbone, building IT system, and 40% for procuring mobile switching center (MSC), base station controller (BSC) and bulding BTS. In 2007, the company plans to build 800 new BTS and some units of MSC.
Bakrie said Wimode has been launched to support Bakrie Telecom's voice and SMS services namely Esia and Wifone. "The internet has recorded a fairly significant growth in Indonesia recently, so it's time for us to meet the need for data and intenet services," he said.
Data from the association of the Indonesian internet providers (APJII) whows that number of internet users in Indonesia was 16 million by the end of 2005, rising by 42.5% from 11.2 million in 2004. "Considering the potential, we have decided to put Wimode - the new product brand - in the same place where we have put Esia and Wifone," Bakrie said.
Meanwhile, Bakrie Telecom's director Rakhmat Junaidi said Wimode has the advantage compared to other similar services, for it could be used as a modem, telephone and SMS as well as flashdisk. "It's a really a telecommunication tool that facilitates the user," he said.
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