Indonesia may limit licences for cellular operators
Sunday, 30 December 2007
JAKARTA, Dec 29 (Xinhua): The Indonesian government may limit the number of licenses issued to incoming cellular operators, citing fierce competition in the industry that has led to "panic and excessive marketing efforts," local press said today.
The government said the country had "enough" cellular operators and that it needed to issue some regulations to control the competition among them.
"We've seen exceedingly fierce competition (in the telecommunications industry). This has caused a kind of panic among operators, which has led to excessive marketing efforts, price wars and so on," director general of post and telecommunications Basuki Yusuf Iskandar was quoted by English daily The Jakarta Post as saying.
"If the cellular operators spend most of their money to beat competitors in such a way, what will be left for the customers then?"
He added that with the excessive marketing efforts, the telecommunications industry had surpassed the cigarette industry as the country's top advertising spender.
Basuki said the government planned to draft and issue some regulations to control competition in the telecommunication industry.
The government's main focuses will be predatory pricing practices, with some operators daring to offer services with "zero fees", he said.
Basuki expressed concerns about the practice, which he said could lead to the collapses of small-scale cellular operators.
The government said the country had "enough" cellular operators and that it needed to issue some regulations to control the competition among them.
"We've seen exceedingly fierce competition (in the telecommunications industry). This has caused a kind of panic among operators, which has led to excessive marketing efforts, price wars and so on," director general of post and telecommunications Basuki Yusuf Iskandar was quoted by English daily The Jakarta Post as saying.
"If the cellular operators spend most of their money to beat competitors in such a way, what will be left for the customers then?"
He added that with the excessive marketing efforts, the telecommunications industry had surpassed the cigarette industry as the country's top advertising spender.
Basuki said the government planned to draft and issue some regulations to control competition in the telecommunication industry.
The government's main focuses will be predatory pricing practices, with some operators daring to offer services with "zero fees", he said.
Basuki expressed concerns about the practice, which he said could lead to the collapses of small-scale cellular operators.