The protracted process of selecting a second source to Siemens AG for telephone exchanges for Indonesia’s Perumtel has finally been decided – with both finalists, AT&T Co’s 74%-owned AT&T Network Systems BV and NEC Corp in partnership with Sumitomo Corp both declared the winners – Perumtel has decided to double its requirement for lines under the contract, so that each finalist will supply the 350,000 lines on which it based its bid: the value of the business to each is likely to be below the $300m originally estimated because of hard bidding; the decision is seen as a neat political compromise since the US and Japanese governments both lobbied heavily for their champions.
