PT Bakrie Telekom hopes to launch an IPO in December or January next year, offering up to 20% of its shares, a local daily reported.

The subsidiary of PT Bakrie & Brothers hopes to earn between Rp500 billion ($49 million) to Rp750 billion from the IPO, the daily quoted the company's president as saying.

The Bakrie group is set to maintain the majority share of at least 51% in the telecommunication subsidiary. Currently the Bakrie Group owns 78.63% of Bakrie Telecom with Richweb Investment owning 2.94% and CMA Fund 21.34%.

The funds expected to come from the IPO will be used to finance installation of networks in various areas in Java.

© Asia Pulse

upay ¶ 1:08 PM //

It's quite shocking when a senior manager at a major Japanese wireless operator points out that i-mode is basically passe'.

The words weren't as severe as that, but the executive, from one of DoCoMo's competitors asserts that DoCoMo's wireless data strategy no longer focuses on the traditional perception of i-mode as a platform for accessing the Internet with a mobile phone.

"DoCoMo's whole service focus now is actually on transactions and not on content," he said over his Heineken in the sleek surroundings of the Isola bar in Hong Kong.

Obviously, statements from a company's competitor must be taken with a pinch of salt, but the topic certainly roused my curiosity enough to look into a bit further.

No, i-mode isn't exactly dead because it continues to contribute a significant part of DoCoMo's ARPU (some 26% for the quarter ending June 30, 2005). While the actual amount of ARPU from i-mode (2G and 3G) is down about 7%, the decline is consistent with the overall drop in revenue per user.

Certainly, money from i-mode has helped DoCoMo slow the erosion of ARPU and more important, insulate its balance sheet. In 2004, the operator recorded service revenue of some $43 billion. i-mode's 26% would equal some $11 billion!

Yet, despite the huge market value of i-mode, there are signs that the platform that launched the wireless Internet is fast approaching middle age.

For starters, ARPU from i-mode is declining at a steady pace. For example, 2G i-mode users spent about 2,000 yen in the second quarter of 2004. A year later, they spent 1,550 yen, or 23% less. DoCoMo's 3G business is faring significantly better, registering much lower ARPU erosion, but erosion nevertheless.

At the same time, subscriber growth is slowing down and the penetration rate is now over 90% of DoCoMo's overall customer base.

It's safe to say that i-mode as a business has quietly slipped past its peak. Put another way, the wireless Internet has reached commoditization in a little over five years since i-mode was launched in 1999. With commoditization comes continual price decline.

All of which suggests the available revenue from the traditional i-mode platform of ringtone downloads and information services will shrink. So it should come as no surprise that DoCoMo is probably putting less emphasis on it, thus confirming the claim from my friend from Japan.
Besides, i-mode revenue for DoCoMo consists primarily of a monthly subscription fee to the service, packet charges for accessing the platform and a percentage of the subscription fees to content providers, all of which are supported in a well functioning ecosystem - albeit in a (very) slowly declining overall market.

DoCoMo is now focused on enabling transactions using its handsets.
DoCoMo's FeliCa service, which allows i-mode handsets to pay for things, is the company's fastest growing business. In less than a year since its launch in August 2004, over five million FeliCa-enabled users have signed up.

Between February and April, the number of FeliCa transactions doubled from 320,000 to 690,000 and the trend is likely to accelerate. So while traditional i-mode services offer a steady revenue stream, FeliCa is certainly looking like the new growth opportunity.

More importantly, FeliCa allows DoCoMo to explore additional business opportunities, such as becoming the clearinghouse for these transactions or adding credit to the payment system.
So as i-mode's revenues decline as it enters maturation, DoCoMo has found a way to evolve beyond i-mode by linking its services to traditional "brick and mortar" businesses via transactions. In that sense, transactions are the new mobile content - at least in terms of new revenue growth. It will be interesting to see if FeliCa generates as much overseas buzz as i-mode did.--Telecomasia.net

upay ¶ 2:54 PM //

Sep 2, 2005
Telecom Asia Daily

China signed agreements to invest $20 billion in Indonesia to build scores of electricity, telecommunications and other infrastructure projects over the next 20 years, a news report said.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla also said the rupiah's recent depreciation which saw the currency fall to a four-year low against the dollar, earlier this week, offered the Chinese an opportunity to get more for their money.

"There is now a good opportunity for Chinese businessmen to invest in Indonesia due to our favorable and competitive exchange rate," Kalla said on a visit to China, according to The Jakarta Post. "You can buy land and invest in machinery cheaper than before."

The two sides signed six MOUs and four agreements involving Indonesian state enterprises and their Chinese counterparts in many projects including gas transmission, electricity, telecommunication, mining, housing development and the medical sector.
Indonesia badly needs foreign investment to keep the economy growing and produce the jobs for the millions of new graduates.

It has struggled to attract foreign investment in recent years, in the face of widespread corruption and government red tape.

But a weakening rupiah and a more stable government has increased the country's prospects and helped foreign investment jump 74% in the first seven months of this year.

upay ¶ 1:43 PM //