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T Telekomunikasi Sellular (Telkomsel), the nation’s top mobile network operator, is earmarking around US$1.1 billion to develop its broadband service this year, a company executive said Tuesday.

“We are targeting to reach around 115 million subscribers and to increase our market share to 50 percent,” Telkomsel president director Sarwoto Atmosutarno said at a company ceremony to celebrate reaching 100 million subscribers.

Sarwoto said that to achieve the targets, the company would increase its broadband infrastructure, including transmission and base transceiver stations (BTS), expand network capacity and improve its IT system.

He said Telkomsel was the seventh cellular operator in the world to achieve 100 million subscribers.

Other cellular operators around the world with more than 100 million subscribers are China Mobile with 600 million subscribers, China Unicom (174 million), Bharti Airtel (162 million), Reliance Communications (135 million), Vodafone Essar (134 million), and Verizon Wireless (104 million).

“Cellular operators that are able to serve 100 million subscribers are operators that have transformed subscribers into users,” Sarwoto said.

“The operators no longer provide only basic services but also new services tailored to meet each subscriber’s needs, making it more personal.”

Telkomsel is focusing on its data business apart from its traditional cash cows — voice and text message services.

Sarwoto said the data business had huge growth potential, however, it was still not able to match the revenue from voice and SMS that made up around 70 percent of the company’s revenue.

“The contribution from the data business has reached 14 percent in [the first quarter] compared to seven percent in 2010,” he said.

Telkomsel general manager for corporate communications Ricardo Indra, added that the company would also launch its Tap & Go system, which subscribers could use as an e-wallet.

Tap & Go uses RFID technology embedded on the subscriber’s SIM card.

Currently, Telkomsel already operates its T-Cash e-wallet system using USSD technology and SMS.

Telkomsel has 38,000 BTS towers nationwide, with more than 8,300 towers supporting 3G technology.

The operator plans to further expand its broadband infrastructure in 40 major cities by erecting more BTS towers.

The cellular operator, a unit of publicly-listed state telecommunication giant PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) will also run trials on next generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks. The technology is designed to increase the capacity, speed and the quality of mobile broadband.

“We are still waiting for government regulation,” Sarwoto said.

LTE, with a download speed of up to 100 megabits per second and upload speed of 50 megabits per second, could support high-definition video streaming, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and other applications requiring high-speed data access.

Currently, Telkom owns 65 percent of Telkomsel while the remaining 35 percent is held by Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), which in turn is majority owned by Temasek Holdings, the investment arm of the Singapore government. Telkom has expressed its interest in buying back the SingTel-held shares. (drs)