The Indonesia Ministry of Communication and Information (MCI) began the process to award spare spectrum in the 2.3GHz band to operators, a move to boost operator capacity and encourage digital transformation.
KemKominfo head of public relations Ferdinandus Setu, told local publication IndoTelko: ‘The selection is part of the [MCI’s] efforts to support digital transformation in the economic, social and governmental sectors because there are still radio frequency blocks which currently have not been assigned radio frequency band users.’
TeleGeography’s Commsupdate reported, the government arm is known locally as Kementerian Komunikasi dan Informatika (KemKominfo), formally awarded 30MHz of spectrum in the 2.3GHz band.
KemKominfo also intends to award a further 10MHz blocks of spectrum, with operators already holding licenses able to participate in a potential auction.
IndoTelko noted Telkom subsidiary Telkomsel invested IDR1 trillion (USD70.6 million) for an additional 30MHz block of spectrum at 2.3GHz.
For a further 30MHz block, Telkomsel may have to ‘pay twice the upfront fee and frequency BHP’ from the price it paid in 2017.