JAKARTA: PT Indosat Tbk (ISAT), Indonesia third largest mobile operator based on number of subscribers, is set to launch its commercial fourth generation (4G) service in November, said president director on Friday.
To support the plan, a unit of Qatar telecommunication firm Ooredoo will set aside capital expenditure Rp 7 trillion ($477 million) in 2016.
President Director & CEO Indosat Alexander Rusli stated, the 2016 capex suggests that the company’s revenue grew in line with telecommunication industry’s growth of 6 per cent to 7 per cent.
He estimating by 2018 broadband penetration in Indonesia will reached 50 per cent of total mobile users. He believes in the following years of massive 4G-network expansion cellular business in Indonesia more promising
“As one of the major telecommunications operator in Indonesia, we believe that digital businesses will be a leading trend of the future. This is aligned with the increase of smartphone penetration and the development of digital business in Indonesia,” he said, adding that Indosat began modernising its network two years ago in anticipation of the 4G service.
Indosat has launched Super 4G-LTE in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Bali and Balikpapan in Central Kalimantan. By the end of this year, Indosat claimed that it has successfully finished network modernization in 42 main cities and surrounding areas or nearly 200 districts/cities all over Indonesia.
Beside Indosat, the three largest mobile carriers PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), a unit of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (TLKM), PT XL Axiata Tbk (EXCL) and PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk (FREN) have announced their readiness to implement 4G Long-Term Evolution, or LTE services across the country starting this year. The services will start out on the 900 megahertz spectrum.
Telkomsel has launch 4G in Jakarta, Bali and Makasar in Sout Sulawesi. Telkom will spend up to $2 billion in this year, with half of the fund to go toward Telkomsel’s business expansion, including the 4G network services.
While XL Axiata, the country’s second player said also ready to run 4G through its 1,800MHz spectrum. The company has rolled out 1800MHz BTS in Jakarta, Bogor and Bandung in West Java, Yogyakarta, Surabaya in East Java, Medan in North Sumatera, Bali and Mataram in West Nusa Tenggara.
Moreover, PT Tri Indonesia has launched its 4G in Banjarmasin on the West Kalimantan and CDMA operator SmartFren Telecom – which is in the process of migrating to LTE – is also being linked to the rollout of commercial 4G services in Batam Island.
Indonesia government hopes all operators in the country has run 4G business in the country before end of 2015. Rudiantara, the minister of communication and information technology expects the network upgrades will have a knock-on effect on other industries.
To support the new data services, Rudiantara has asked Indonesian handset makers to produce LTE-compatible smartphones domestically.