The leading Indonesian mobile operator Telkomsel is increasing its network ca-pacity with Siemens technology in order to cope with high demand. In the coming four months, the Siemens Communications Group will supply the operator with equipment for its mobile switching network worth a total of more than 70 million euros. The mobile arm of Siemens has a market share of over 30 percent in Indo-nesia, making it by far the largest network supplier.
The technology supplied by Siemens will not only increase the network capacity of the Indonesian operator, but also lay the foundation for UMTS after the issuing of 3G li-censes expected for beginning of 2006. In order to manage new GSM and, in future, UMTS subscribers, Siemens will deliver next generation Home Location Registers. For establishing calls between the subscribers Mobile Switching Centers (MSCs) will be installed. These MSCs have 3G capability through a simple software upgrade. More-over, Siemens signaling platforms (Signaling Transfer Points) will be installed in Telkomsel's switching network so that it can cope with the ever increasing SMS and signaling traffic.
"Our subscriber group, which is spread out over thousands of islands, has more than doubled in the last 18 months. As the number of subscribers rapidly rises, so too does the demand on performance and quality in our network. It is therefore all the more im-portant to have a reliable partner like Siemens that can meet our high demands. Up to now, for over years Siemens as one of our venders still can maintain our conviction on the quality, stability and scalability of their network elements”, said Kiskenda Suria-hardja, President Director at Telkomsel.
"Through our combined 2G/3G switching technology, Telkomsel's core network will be ready to go with 3G. The entire equipment can also be used for UMTS, all that is still required is a software upgrade and interface cards", according to Christoph Caselitz, President of Mobile Networks at Siemens Communications. "We're glad to assist Telkomsel step by step toward UMTS. Just a few weeks ago, we could announce the installation of a complete 3G test network for Telkomsel in Jakarta and Surabaya."
Already for ten years Telkomsel and Siemens have enjoyed a successful cooperation in mobile communications. Both partners made the first GSM call together on Indonesian soil and introduced the first Intelligent Network prepaid service. Now Siemens is once again the first to equip Telkomsel with 3G capacity. Already at the end of 2003, Sie-mens presented a fully-functional 3G network as a pilot installation in Jakarta.
With a market share of 56 percent, Telkomsel is by far Indonesia's largest mobile opera-tor. Almost every fifth of the around 240 million residents uses a mobile phone. This market penetration of about 20 percent offers significant growth potential for operators and mobile suppliers.
