Indonesia’s Telkomsel surpassed its 4G deployment goals during 2019, deploying around 23,000 4G base transceiver stations across the country.
This figure represents around 109% of the operator’s original target, underlining its ambition of creating a “leading-edge technology network access that is evenly distributed across all population areas in the country.”
IndoTelko quoted Telkomsel’s network director FM Venusiana R as saying: “We continue to accelerate the growth of broadband networks, especially aggressive 4G to support the digital lifestyle ecosystem, along with an increase in data traffic of around 52% during 2019 compared to last year (2018). We are also expanding and deploying our 4G LTE network by considering the growing penetration of 4G service-based devices.”
Telkomsel’s 4G rollout is ongoing, and in 2020 the operator plans to expand coverage to new regions as well as boost network speed and capacity threefold. Additionally, it will conduct trials for carrier aggregation, NB-IoT, and VoLTE access technology. Telkomsel is also looking to expand its LTE offering via the 900MHz band in order to increase its population coverage.
Not to be outdone, rival operator Indosat Ooredoo is preparing a capital expenditure of IDR9.5 trillion (US$654 million) on 4G deployment throughout 2020 – an 11.8% increase on the IDR8.5 trillion it spent in 2019.
The operator’s director and COO Vikram Sinha confirmed that 4G expansion would be a core pillar of its strategy over the next two years. “Our 4G network now covers more than 90% of the population. This year, we will focus on improving our indoor coverage, improving our latency”, he noted.
Sinha noted that last year, Indosat Ooredoo began a three-year investment strategy aimed at expediting the move towards a digital economy in the market, with the operator funnelling around US$2 billion into the construction of mobile networks capable of delivering video services and strengthening its regional teams.
In order to fund this investment, Indosat Ooredoo last year sold off 3100 towers for IDR6.39 trillion. The infrastructure was acquired by Dayamitra Telekomunikasi (Mitratel) and Professional Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Protelindo).