JAKARTA, March 20 (Xinhua) — Indonesia will broadcast the information of 2009 general election that scheduled on April 9 via short message service (SMS) to around 155 million cell phone users nationwide, the commission and telecommunication officials said on Friday. “With the help of 10 telecommunication operators, we hope the SMS service subscribers be aware of the importance of the general election,” said the head of general election commission (KPU) Abdul Hafiz Anshary after the launch of SMS election broadcast.

    According to the spokesman of Indonesian Communication and Information Ministry Gatot S. Dewabrata, a total 162 million phone numbers will receive election messages via SMS, consisting of 135 million cell phone numbers and 27 million wireless fixed phone numbers. The spokesman said that some SMS subscribers own more than one cell phone and wireless fixed phone number.

“That is merely a contribution of telecommunication operators, therefore the election commission and subscribers will not pay any costs,” he said.

Telkom Group and Indosat, the top two Indonesian telecom operators, will have 80 million and 36.5 million SMS subscribers to receive the SMS broadcast, respectively.

Meanwhile, Myra Junor, an official of PT Excellcomindo Pratama, another leading telecom operator in Indonesia, said that the SMS traffic during the campaign will rise 200 percent but all operators will increase its capacity to keep the broadcast going smoothly.

Via Xinhuanet