Jakarta. Indosat, Indonesia’s third-largest mobile operator, has launched a compensation program for customers of its CDMA service, StarOne, as it gears up to shut the unit down to comply with government regulations on cellular frequencies.

The company has been ordered by the Communications and Information Technology Ministry to divert its CDMA customers to its much larger Extended GSM business. Approximately 77,000 subscribers of StarOne in 83 cities across Indonesia will be affected. In comparison, Indosat’s GSM service caters to 63 million customers.

The mobile operator’s compensation scheme ends on June 30. The company declined to disclose when it will terminate the CDMA service.

“In line with the [government’s] frequency settlement, StarOne can no longer function or operate its current CDMA technology. This means Indosat is unable to offer its StarOne services to the public,” Indosat announced on its website on Monday.

StarOne users will receive a new IM3 Indosat GSM SIM card. Meanwhile, any existing StarOne credit can be returned in the form of electronic money through Indosat’s e-wallet service Dompetku and can be used to buy phone credits or pay for public transport, among others.

StarOne users will also be able to use forwarding features temporarily to forward their new Indosat GSM number to relatives and colleagues.

State-owned Telekomunikasi Indonesia, the country’s biggest telecommunications operator, also plans to shut down its CDMA subsidiary, Flexi, by the end of this year.

GlobeAsia

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Source: The Jakarta Globe