Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information – known as KemKominfo - has “terminated” the country’s allocation process for 2.3GHz mobile spectrum.
The process commenced on 20th November 2020, with the winners announced in December that year as Hutchison 3 Indonesia, Smart Telecom (Smartfren) and Telkomsel. IndoTelko reports that this result has been overridden by the ministry’s decision, with bid bonds returned to their bidders on 22nd January 2021.
KemKominfo head of public relations Ferdinandus Setu said in a statement that the process had been cancelled “as a precautionary and careful step from the MCI to align every part of this selection process with the provisions of laws and regulations relating to acceptance. Non-Tax State (PNBP) within the MCI, especially Government Regulation Number 80 of 2015.”
The ministry pledged to ensure that the 2.3GHz spectrum would “provide maximum benefit for the people and nation of Indonesia”, adding that it was “working hard to prepare a more careful and more careful re-selection in the 2.3GHz frequency band” so that “cellular operators will soon have the opportunity to compete again in a selection process”, although it did not give a deadline for this.
As reported by CommsUpdate, the winning operators announced in December were not the only bidders, with XL Axiata and Indosat Ooredoo also applying to bid. However, the latter opted not to submit its application before the deadline, while XL Axiata failed to pass an evaluation required to receive an allocation.