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tate-owned telecommunications operator PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (TLKM) is attributing its good first quarter (Q1) results to robust business booked by subsidiary PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel).

The parent company, also known as Telkom, said it earned Rp 19.5 trillion (US$2.01 billion) in 2013 Q1, up 9.8 percent year-on-year, while its comprehensive income was up 9.5 percent to Rp 4.9 trillion.

Between January and March, the firm's operating profits grew 8.5 percent year-on-year to Rp 6.7 trillion, Telkom said.

Honesti Basyir, Telkom's finance director, said the firm's cellular business was up 13.3 percent annually, remaining the main contributor to Telkom's revenue.

Cellular services contributed 38.7 percent to revenue, equal to Rp 7.5 trillion, Honesti said, followed by data, Internet connectivity and information technology (IT) services, which together comprised 37.5 percent of revenue, equivalent to Rp 7.3 trillion, Honesti told The Jakarta Post.

IT services alone grew by 20.1 percent year-on-year, according to the finance director.

Honesti added that Telkom's Q1 growth was in line with industry growth estimates from analysts, who have said that the telecommunications industry would grow between 7 and 10 percent in 2013.

'Our strategy this year is to prioritize businesses that can offer us high growth and contributions, hence matching the performance of Telkomsel,' Honesti said.

Approximately, 70 percent of Telkom's revenues came from Telkomsel, the largest mobile phone operator in the country.

Telkomsel also contributed to the good performance reported by tower operator PT Tower Bersama Infrastructure (TBIG) in Q1.

Helmi Yusman Santoso, the finance director of TBIG, said that a majority of the 371 build-to-suit telecommunication sites whose construction was completed in the first quarter this year went to Telkomsel.

'Most of these new sites were built in Java, Kalimantan and Sumatra,' Helmi told the Post.

Helmi said that the completed sites, in addition to the gains reaped by the acquisition of 2,500 towers from mobile phone operator PT Indosat (ISAT), drove a 100 percent increase in the firm's revenue in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period last year.

'During the first quarter, TBIG collected Rp 618 billion in revenues and Rp 507 billion in EBITDA,' he said, referring to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, adding that the firm's EBITDA had grown 107 percent in the first quarter compared to the similar quarter in 2012.