Telkom to rethink CDMA deal with Bakrie

PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia , the nation biggest telecommunication firm, is re-evaluating a fixed-wireless deal with PT Bakrie Telecom worth nearly $1 billion as it now wants a majority stake, Telkom's chairman said on Monday. 

Reuters last year quoted sources as saying Bakrie Telecom would acquire the CDMA unit of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia in a share deal worth up to $1 billion, but Telkom chairman Jusman Syafii Djamal said on Monday that the arangement would be looked at again. 

"We need to re-evaluate this ... we want to be the majority owner," he said, after a meeting with the state enterprise minister. 

Talks between the two companies have beein going on for months, but Djamal said there was no certainty it would be concluded before the end of the year. 

TelkomFlexi, Telkom's CDMA unit, is Indonesia's biggest CDMA operator with about 15 million subscribers and a strong presence offshore from the country's main Java island. Bakrie Telecom with 11 million subscribers is strong on Java. Source: Reuters