Low rates affect service quality.

from THE JAKARTA POST -- TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2009 The price war has been a bitter pill for telecommunication operators.

Not only has it affected their performance but the quality of service has also deteriorated. The low rates have indeed increased the number of subscribers and made the capacity of operators' networks entirely full so that the quality of the networks has become bad.

Last year, all operators rushed to lower their rates after the issuance of Communications and Information Ministerial Regulations No. 09/2008 and 15/2008 in April 2008 that required them to lower inter-operator connection rates by 30 percent.

With the result of the regulations, GSM, CDMA and fixed line rates went down, because inter-operator connection contributed some 60 percent to their …