PT Komselindo

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In January 1995, PT Komselindo was formed as a joint venture between the state-owned local incumbent PT Telkom (35%) and PT Elektrindo Nusantara (65%). The latter was a subsidiary of PT Bimantara Citra Group. The company was to be in charge of handling all of the activities of the cellular phone business previously operated by Elektrindo Nusantara under a revenue sharing agreement with PT Telkom, which claimed to have about 43,000 subscribers in the greater Jakarta area. The initial investment in the D-AMPS system network was estimated at Rp300 billion (US$136 million). By the end of 1995, PT Komselindo had 56 radio base stations (RBS) in Jakarta and West Java, five in North Sumatra, and one in Ujung Pandang. The company added 67 radio base stations (RBS) throughout Indonesia with an investment of Rp. 90 billion (around US$40 million) in 1996. In 1997, Komselindo switched from analog to digital technology with the help of Lucent Technologies. In 1997, Komselindo awarded Lucent a contract worth US$100 million to install a CDMA network and spent total of US$150 million to add 165 base stations to its national network. Komselindo adopted the technology of CDMA (code division multiple access) in 1999. The company had been holding the license to use the technology of CDMA and AMPS. On August 8, 2003, PT Telkom disposed of shares in three subsidiaries including its remaining 14.2% stake in Komselindo, to Centralindo Pancasakti for IDR 364.8 billion. In early December, 2003, PT Mobile-8 Telecom (Mobile-8), a subsidiary of the Bimantara group, launched cellular phone service based on CDMA 2000 1X and EV-Do. Bimantara group had invested US$60 million in December of 2002 for the acquisition of Komselindo (PT. Komunikasi Seluler Indonesia), Metrosel (PT. Metro Seluler Nusantara) and Telesera (PT. Telekomunikasi Seluler Raya). The three former cellular phone operators were merged into Mobile-8. Merger was completed on 12 June 2007.