JAKARTA, Indonesia-The popular short message service (SMS) traffic has compelled Indonesia’s paging operators to call for government protection.
Sukoyo, head of the country’s radio paging association, said the protection is imperative because the continuity of radio paging services in the country is a big question. He said government needs to regulate the use of SMS so it will not terminate radio paging services.
The downturn of paging services began when GSM services became widespread in the mid-1990s. Plummeting paging subscriber numbers has continued as SMS traffic rises significantly.
Coping with the downturn, some operators have revised their business plans. For example, Metrotel now focuses on call center services. Other operators, including Nusapage and Multipage, have joined their services with local Internet service providers (ISPs) as value-added services.
Commenting on the call for help, Djamhari Sirat, the country’s director general of post and telecommunication, said radio paging and CDMA operators need a breakthrough for the long term. Djamhari implied that both kinds of operators need to revise their long-term business plans to survive.
