Indonesian telco Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH) is working to develop a 4G LTE network in the country’s future capital, Nusantara, which is currently under construction on the island of Borneo.
IOH President and CEO Vikram Sinha confirmed the development with Nikkei Asia, noting that by seeking to capitalise on the growth opportunities in Indonesia’s underserved rural areas, IOH is ‘working very closely with the authorities to ensure that there is world-class digital infrastructure’. To date, the company has invested around USD10 million to deploy some 30 to 40 new base transceiver stations (BTS) in Nusantara on top of the 30 4G sites it already operates in the area. Further, Vikram said that whilst IOH has launched 5G in eight cities across Indonesia, it still believes that 4G LTE is key to its strategy to close the digital divide. ‘In rural areas, 4G device penetration is still much higher than for 5G, and so we are focusing on expanding and strengthening our 4G network,’ he said. Each year, the operator pumps approximately USD800 million into its CAPEX programmes. From 2023 onward, around 60% of that is reportedly being spent in rural Indonesia.
Source: https://www.commsupdate.com/articles/2023/11/20/ioh-deploying-4g-in-new-capital-nusantara/