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The Indonesian unit of Hong Kong-based telecommunications
giant Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. announced
Wednesday the successful completion of the company's 2G and 3G user
trials.
The company said that the completion of the trials, with threshold
levels defined for all key network and service parameters fully met,
would pave the way for the company to launch its nationwide 2G and 3G
services on March 31 as scheduled.
PT Hutchison CP Telecom (HCPT), which is controlled by billionaire Li
Ka-shing's Hutchison, began the trials in December to evaluate the
quality of the network and customer service processes.
"This is certainly an important milestone for HCPT to launch its
services in Indonesia," HCPT chief executive officer Rajiv Sawhney said
in a statement.
Hutchison, and Malaysia's Maxis Communications Bhd., which owns a 51
percent stake in PT Natrindo Telepon Sellular, are the most recent
foreign entrants to the Indonesian mobile phone market, where about one
in four people own a mobile phone.
PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), the country's biggest cellular
phone operator, and PT Indosat, the No. 2, have about 51 million users
combined.
Hutchison earlier said that it would also spend up to US$1 billion this
year on constructing a network in Sumatra, the country's second most
populated island.
In 2006, the company spent about $1 billion on erecting masts in Java,
the most populated island, to enable it to compete with the existing
operators.
Natrindo, which has allocated between $1 billion and $1.3 billion on
network expansion over the next three years, also plans to begin
offering services this year.
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