Telkom shortlists four agency pairs; Euro RSCG and MPG decline the pitch

The shortlist sees the other incumbent pair, Euro RSCG and MPG, out of the review. Euro, which has held the account for eight years, said it had declined to pitch for the business this time around due to Telkom's own regulations.

Telkom initiated a full-service pitch in November last year. Its RFI is understood to have generated a response from at least 20 agency pairs.

Bates and Mindshare won a piece of Telkom's business in 2007, while Euro RSCG and MPG have been handling another part of the business for a longer spell. Telkom's last pitch was via an e-auction.

The current pitch is part of a statutory review periodically held by Telkom. Usually Telkom reviews have been conducted on an annual basis. However, the company has not held a review for the past two years.

Telkom is a semi-privatised company in which the Government holds a majority stake. It currently holds a monopoly on local and long-distance telephone services in Indonesia. Telkom has 15 million fixed phone subscribers and 50 million mobile phone subscribers.

The country’s fixed-line penetration is low at around 12 per cent as of early 2009. However, its mobile market has been expanding at an annual rate of close to 50 per cent this year. The total mobile subscriber base had passed 130 million by January 2009, up from 12 million just six years earlier.