The Indonesian government imposed unreasonable burdens on the new entrant for international service in a recently issued White Paper 140. LIRNEasia highlighted the unfairness of burdening new entrants with obligations that the two existing incumbents (Telkom & Indosat) were not subjected too in comments it submitted to DGPOSTEL (one of the two regulatory bodies):
4.4 The Indonesian policymakers may have misunderstood the concept of asymmetric regulation. Asymmetric rules place additional burdens on dominant group of providers that other operators are not subjected to. In the current White Paper, many additional burdens are imposed on the new entrant that are not imposed on the two incumbents, PT Telkom & PT Indosat. Requirements for building FO from Indonesia to TIER-1 IP backbone, building domestic FO to Internet Exchange, building 10 Indonesian Central Gateway etc should be applied to all international gateway operators or to none at all.

On March 16, the Director General of DGPOSTEL conceded that requiring new international operator to build 10 new gateways was a heavy burden on the new entrant especially when the two existing operators in total had six.

The tender for the telephone fixed line is postponed till June
March 16, 2007(Translated from Bisnis Indonesia, March 16, 2007)
Jakarta:[…] The director general of the Post and the Telecommunications, Basuki Yusuf Iskandar added that the government will lessen the requirements for the IDD tender by reducing the number of international gateways that must be built. “Before, one of the conditions followed the IDD tender was to have the commitment to be able to provide 10 units IDD Gateways. But afterwards the government reconsidered this obligation and it was reduced to five ,” he said.

According to the Director General of post and telecommunications, the decline in the obligation is because the provision of 10 IDD Gateways will be too heavy a burden for the operator since the existing operators currently only have approximately six units.

LIRNEasia‘s input to the White Paper issued by the Indonesian government on introducing a new license for local, long distance and international telecom is available here.

The tender for the telephone fixed line is postponed till June
March 16, 2007(Translated from Bisnis Indonesia, March 16, 2007)
Jakarta:The Government will postpone the tender schedule for fixed line telephone to June which was earlier expected to be issued this month. The postponment is due to legal delays and readiness of operators to participate in the tender.

The director general of the Post and the Telecommunications, Basuki Yusuf Iskandar, said the government hoped the tender will go well and successfully. The legal instrument will take the form of a Ministerial
Decree. There is a “big possibility” that the “tender would be carried out this coming June although in principle the government will try to do that as soon as possible,” he stated to the reporter, yesterday.

The Tender for the provision of fixed local, long distance and international was originally scheduled for March 2007. At this time the government is carrying out the finalisation of the new licensing of the three services. Depkominfo (DGPOSTEL) is currently drafting the Ministerial Decree regarding the opening of new opportunity
to provide the Local, IDD & DLD services.

Basuki added that the government will lessen the requirements for the IDD tender by reducing the number of international gateways that must be built. “Before, one of the conditions followed the IDD tender was to have the commitment to be able to provide 10 units IDD Gateways. But afterwards the government reconsidered this obligation and it was reduced to five ,” he said.

According to the Director General of post and telecommunications, the decline in the obligation is because the provision of 10 IDD Gateways will be too heavy a burden for the operator since the existing operators currently only have approximately six units.

For international connectivity, Telkom and Indosat are the incumbent operators. Telkom has Internet hubs in Malaysia, Batam, and Hong Kong, while Indosat had optic fibre links between Jakarta-Japan, Jakarta-Australia,
Jakarta-the Middle East, and Europe.

Although the International Gateway market is not yet opened officially, there are several companies that have expressed interest in the tender. The interested companies are PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk and Telematika
Indonesia. The chairman of the Association of the Cellular Telecommunications Indonesian, Johnny Swandi Sjam considered the government should NOT open the new opportunity for providing Fixed telephony services (IDD, DLD & Local) since currently the service are still under “duopoly” status (ie. PT Telkom and Indosat).