Mobile subscribers in Indonesia telecom market are going to have better customer experience as top operators Telkomsel, Indosat Ooredo, XL Axiata and Smartfren are stepping up Capex related investment.

Industry reports point out that the ongoing financial issues in Qatar will have huge impact on some telecom operators in Indonesia, JakartaPost reported.

Telkomsel

Telkomsel, in November 2016, launched its data center Telin-3 in Singapore to handle the increasing demand for a data center in the region. Its existing data centers — Telin-1 and Telin-2 – are in Changi, Singapore.

Telkomsel as part of enhancing customer experience has reshuffled its top management two months ago.

Telkomsel’s network director Sukardi Silalahi will become its sales director. Mas’ud Khamid will now serves as Telkom consumer service director. Bob Apriawan is the new network director of Telkomsel. Irfan Tachrir is the human capital management director, replacing Priyantono Rudito.

Indosat Ooredo

The crisis in the Middle East will have some impact in Indonesia as well. Qatar’s Ooredoo owns 65 percent stake in Indosat, while the Indonesia government has 14.3 percent and the public holds the remaining.

Indosat Ooredo has short-term liabilities to banks around Rp 6 trillion, while long-term debt is around Rp 12.4 trillion.

Indosat Ooredoo and satellite communication service provider PSN signed a $220 million satellite contract with Chinese satellite producer China Great Wall Industry (CGWIC).

Indonesia Ooredoo president director Alexander Rusli said the Palapa-N1 satellite would replace the Palapa-D. The contract will cover the cost of construction, insurance and the satellite’s launch, which is scheduled for July 2020.

Indosat Ooredoo’s revenue increased 9 percent to Rp 29.2 trillion in 2016. Indosat Ooredoo’s net income rose 184.4 percent to Rp 1.1 trillion or $82.45 million in 2016.

Cellular business contributed 83 percent, multimedia, internet, and data (MIDI) services 14 percent and telecommunications services 3 percent to revenue.

Indosat Ooredoo’s cellular revenue grew 10 percent to Rp 24.1 trillion due to usage of data, phone, and SMS services amid a decreasing interconnection revenue.

Telecom revenue fell 14.3 percent to Rp 876 billion due to lower traffic and the depreciation of Rupiah against the US dollar.

Indosat Ooredoo added 16 million new cellular customers in 2016. Indosat Ooredoo has 85.7 million customers now. ARPU fell 3.4 percent to Rp 25,200 in 2016 from Rp 26,000 in 2015.

Indosat Ooredoo, as part of promoting start-ups in the country, invested around $150,000 in three startups in Indonesia for enhancing services. Indosat Ooredoo, in association with Mountain Partners and Kejora, selected three after evaluating 1,200 startups that applied through the program called Ideabox.

Indosat Ooredoo invests in almost 20 companies including the Ideabox venture program, which has been conducted since 2013.

Meanwhile, telecom operators are waiting for a formal approval for network sharing with the Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) scheme from the Communications and Information Ministry.

“We have been waiting the rule to be implemented. With the MOCN scheme we can reduce investment costs by 40 percent,” President director Dian Siswarini.

Indosat Ooredoo CEO Alexander Ruslie in February 2016 said the telecoms will expand 4G / LTE network to additional 16 cities last year from 27 cities. Indosat Ooredoo will be looking at enhancing efficiency through infrastructure sharing.

Indosat is also in talks with rival operator XL Axiata to share its 4G network infrastructure in four cities.

Indosat Ooredoo, which currently operates 4G/LTE services in 27 cities nationwide, plans to expand the high speed broadband service to 14 more cities throughout 2016.

Indosat Ooredoo had also recently collaborated with Google to deliver a new home internet service, the GIG, which would enable subscribers to access the internet with speeds of up to 1 gigabyte per second.

XL Axiata

XL Axiata in February 2016 said it is shifting its 2G network in phases from 1,800 MHz spectrum to its lower frequency 900 MHz spectrum to accommodate its 4G / LTE network.

XL has 3 million users on its 4G/LTE network. The company was planning to expand 4G to 85 cities from the earlier 35 cities. It hosted its 4G network on the lower frequency 900 MHz spectrum, prior to the refarming.

XL Axiata has partnered with Indosat Oreedoo to share 4G LTE network in four cities using Muti Operator Radio Access Network (MORAN). One radio transmitter handling two operators resulted in 20 percent cost efficiency.

XL has 1,600 BTS for 4G data subscribers in the Greater Jakarta as compared with 8,000 BTS for its 2G network.

Earlier in November, XL partnered with Ericsson to set up more BTS to expand its 4G/LTE network over the next three years.

Customer demand for data is prompting Axiata to make investment in data networks across the country. Axiata said daily data traffic from June 20 to 27 – during festival season — reached more than 4,020 terabytes, which compares to normal daily data traffic of 3,600 TB.

The change in data for Facebook was +50 percent, Instagram (+20 percent), YouTube (+17 percent) Google Maps and Waze (+135 percent), WhatsApp, FB Messenger and LINE (46 percent).

Axiata is selling 2,500 towers to tower provider Protelindo for Rp 3.5 trillion or $267.2 million to pay off some debt. Axiata finance director Mohamed Adlan bin Ahmad Tajudin said the company has a debt of Rp 26.9 trillion and is due in 2020.

XL Axiata had 10,000 broadcast towers across the archipelago, before selling off 3,500 in 2014 to tower company Solusi Tunas Pratama for Rp 5.6 trillion.

XL planned to spend up to Rp 7 trillion to improve its network coverage and expand its 4G network this year.

Smartfren

Smartfren in January 2016 rolled out its 4G LTE network to 85 cities. Of Smartfren’s 13 million customers, 1 million are users of 4G LTE services.

The company, which is the sole CDMA operator, is working with Nokia and ZTE. Nokia is developing BTS in Greater Jakarta, West Java and Sumatra. ZTE is handling Smartfren’s infrastructure in Central Java, East Java, Bali, Lombok, Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

Smartfren has combined FDD, which runs at a frequency of 850 MHz, and TDD, which runs at 2300 MHz, to allow wider networks and faster internet access.

Other developments

In 2017, Huawei purchased 16.83 percent stake in Bakrie Telecom through bond conversion, paving the way for the latter to recover from its financial issues.

Bakrie Telecom president commissioner Anindya Novyan Bakrie said the conversion would help improve the company’s financial condition as it had converted Rp 1.23 trillion (US$92.05 million) debt into shares.