XL installs new backbone network

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

PT Exelcomindo Pratama officially launched Monday a new submarine fiber optic cable network linking Batam with Johor, which gives the country's third largest mobile operator the largest telecoms backbone network in the country.

The network, which cost around US$10 million, is mainly aimed at enhancing the company's services to individual and corporate customers for internet traffic and data loading purposes.

President director Hasnul Suhaimi said the Batam Rengit Cable System (BRCS) would maximize the firm's performance at still competitive prices, especially in providing international Internet access.

"Hopefully, it will help increase Indonesia's Internet usage by 30 percent by the end of 2008, with faster speeds, more reliable connections and lower price," Hasnul said during the inauguration ceremony.

XL Network director Dian Siswarini said that the BRCS linked up with the network of Telekom Malaysia (TM), which is XL's main shareholder, so that it now forms part of an international Internet network.

"Malaysia's network provides an alternative for international Internet access. Currently, most of Asia's Internet providers use Singapore's network, and it is quite packed," Dian explained.

The company already has a cable connecting Batam and Singapore.

On the domestic front, XL has built a number of fiber optic backbone systems around Java island, which have a total length of over 10,000 kilometers.

It has also built submarine fiber optic networks in Lombok-Sumbawa in West Nusa Tenggara, and southern Makassar in South Sulawesi and Palu, North Sulawesi, to Sangata in North Kalimantan which connect in with the Java backbone system.

As of the end of September, the company had earned Rp 5.4 trillion (US$58.9 billion) in revenues, a rise of 31 percent from the Rp 4.1 trillion it earned in the same period last year. (nkn)