Muslim cellphone keeps the faith

Indonesian Muslims struggling to balance work with the holy fasting month of Ramadan are relying on special cellphones to help them keep the faith.

Islamic gadgets are especially popular in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, during Ramadan, when religious fervour is high and devout Muslims abstain from food, drink, profanities and sexual activities from dawn-to-dusk. [more, thewindsorstar]

KPPU widens the net in mobile probe

Indonesia’s Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) has announced it is widening its probe into alleged price-fixing of SMS messages by eight of the country’s mobile operators, The Jakarta Post reports. In a statement the body said it had found evidence, albeit preliminary, of a ‘cartel-like’ arrangement between the companies involved. [more, telegeography]

Indonesia's Telkom fixed-line, cellular subscribers up 31 percent at end-Sept

Indonesia's biggest telephone company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) said Friday it had 58.8 million fixed-line and cellular subscribers as of end-September, up 31 percent on an annualised basis. Cellular subscribers increased 36.9 percent to 44.5 million, representing more than 50 percent market share, Telkom said. [more, tradingmarkets]

Indonesian govt to issue ruling on telecom tower-sharing by year-end

JAKARTA (Thomson Financial) - The Indonesian government is planning to issue a new ruling that will require mobile phone operators to share their transmitting towers to create a more efficient industry infrastructure, said an official at the Communications and Information Ministry. [more, abcmoney]

Indonesian cell phone operators urged to lower charges

A study by a local university on the mobile telecommunications industry has found cell phone operators' high earnings mean they could afford to lower their charges.At present, industry players boast an average EBITDA (earning before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of more than 60 percent, according to the research by Indonesia's Padjadjaran University in Bandung. [more, people's daily online]

Govt asks cellular operators to disclose their cost structure

JAKARTA (Antara): Communications and Information Minister Muhammad Nuh has called on cellular operators to disclose their cost strutures so that the government can see whether or not it is possible to lower their service rates. [more, thejakartapost]

Smooth operator

... For 2007 and beyond, the Asian telecommunication industry is expected to capitalise on past consolidation and reforms to chart new cycles of growth, characterised by higher investments and development of advance networks, building of new infrastructure and provisions for more value added services. [more, thestaronline]

Motorola looks to connect with RI's largely untapped mobile phone market

... For the business sector we now have MOTOQ, which is available in both CDMA and GSM. Our business proposition for two versions of the MOTOQ is the very slimness.
... One of the most unique things we see here that we have not seen anywhere else is a lot of Indonesians carry two phones -- CDMA and GSM phones. People make calls in CDMA and receive calls in GSM. [more, thejakartapost}

3G Subscribers in the Asia-Pacific Region

... In India, CDMA's days are numbered if Reliance follows through its plan to eventually migrate its base to GSM technology. In China, growth in Unicom's CDMA base has consistently underperformed that in its GSM base for the last seven quarters. All this will make life increasingly harder for the pure CDMA operators who remain committed to the technology, particularly for the smaller operators in markets like Indonesia and Vietnam. [more, cellular-news]