Franchising Telecom Service Shops : Meeting Demand from Nonsubscribers in Indonesia
Indonesia has only about 1.3 lines per hundred people, so universal telephone service cannot be practically achieved in the near future. Nevertheless, public access to telephone and other telecommunications services can be dramatically improved thr...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Viewpoint |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1996/03/441233/franchising-telecom-service-shops-meeting-demand-nonsubscribers-indonesia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11630 |
| Summary: | Indonesia has only about 1.3 lines per
hundred people, so universal telephone service cannot be
practically achieved in the near future. Nevertheless,
public access to telephone and other telecommunications
services can be dramatically improved through pay phones and
telecom shops. The telecom shops are retail outlets that
provide telecom services to "non-subscribers,"
often under a franchise from the local telephone company.
These shops have turned out to be effective at meeting the
strong demand among the majority of Indonesians who lack
private residential or business telephone service, and their
success provides a model that other countries can apply. The
important message from the Indonesian experience is that the
demand for service from nonsubscribers in developing
countries is significant, commercially viable, and should be
met. The rapid growth in the number of telecom shops in
Indonesia attests to their increasingly effective role in
providing public access to telecommunications services. As
technology advances and the cost of telecommunications
equipment declines, the next commercial development could be
the establishment of community "micro" telephone
companies. Using a small PBX (an automatic switchboard), a
telecom shop could cost-effectively service one hundred
extensions on twenty main lines and, using the new
generation of digital cordless telephone sets, the telecom
shop could extend its services while still providing
conventional telecommunications shop services. |
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