SURABAYA, Indonesia-The Mega Asia consortium won a contract for building 700,000 CDMA-based wireless local loop (WLL) lines in Indonesia under a revenue-sharing scheme with Indosat, the WLL operator.
Bakrie, an Indonesian conglomerate, leads the consortium, which consists of several companies including Chinese’s well-known WLL vendor ZTE. Bakrie also owns Ratelindo, the country’s first WLL carrier, which has a license to operate in a small part of the country.
Prior to the contract, Ratelindo had proposed obtaining a nationwide license, but the outcome is still uncertain. By winning the contract, Ratelindo on behalf of Bakrie has an opportunity to operate WLL throughout the archipelago.
Through the revenue-sharing scheme, Indosat, which is obliged to the country’s government to build about 700,000 WLL lines by 2010, is optimistic to fulfill the required number by the deadline.