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ajor telecommunication operators are adopting bigger broadband technology for their networks in Bali as they are expecting a surge in data traffic during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, which will be held on the resort island in early October.

The operators said they hoped the use of long-term evolution (LTE) technology would eventually drive the government to issue a regulation allowing the use of the technology nationwide.

PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) spokesperson Adita Irawati said her company had installed 39 base transceiver stations (BTS) running on LTE.

'€œThese transceivers are part of our LTE trial run that we are conducting in Bali,'€ she said.

Besides Telkomsel, PT XL Axiata is also using the APEC Summit to test LTE on two frequencies '€” 2,100 megahertz (MHz) and 1,800 MHz.

XL spokesperson Turina Farouk said the adoption of this network was needed to accommodate telecommunication traffic during the summit.

'€œWe are estimating a 20 percent increase in data traffic, coupled by a 10 percent and five percent rise in voice and short-text messages traffic,'€ she added.

Meanwhile, Adita said that LTE '€” a fourth generation (4G) telecommunication technology '€” was crucial because this technology supported data transmission at roughly 20 times the speed of third generation (3G) technology.

'€œWith LTE networks already in place, delegates and media representatives with LTE-enabled handsets will be able to use these networks,'€ she added.

She further said that the LTE networks would remain active until December.

'€œWe have obtained special permits from the government to run LTE on our networks for the duration of the APEC summit,'€ she said.

The Information and Communication Technology Ministry regulates the telecommunication technology that operators can adopt.

The ministry, for example, has granted commercial licenses for the use of 3G technology.

Adita added that by switching on the LTE networks throughout the summit, operators could prove the efficacy of the technology in facilitating telecommunications.

'€œWe hope this live demonstration drives the government to issue regulations that would permit the use of LTE across all our networks permanently,'€ she said.

Analysts have previously said that Indonesia has to eventually roll out LTE to catch up with advancement in other countries, such as South Korea, which has adopted the technology nationwide.

Besides LTE, operators are also running second-generation (2G) and 3G networks to support the summit.

PT Indosat spokesman Adrian Prasanto said the mobile network operator had upgraded its 3G networks in Bali by running the technology on the 900 MHz frequency.

'€œWe are modernizing all our 1,386 BTS'€™ in Bali to allow us to run 3G technology on the 900 MHz frequency,'€ he said, adding that the operator has upgraded of 65 percent of its networks on the island.

Operators generally use 1,800 MHz and 2,100 MHz frequencies for 3G technology.

According to Adrian, running 3G technology on the 900 MHz frequency optimized the technology'€™s performance.

'€œBy allowing 3G technology to run on this lower frequency, indoor penetration of the frequency signal improves and at the same time, data speeds increase,'€ he said.

The operator is expecting a 200 percent overall surge in telecommunication traffic during the summit.

Besides Indosat, Telkomsel has installed an additional 181 BTS'€™ in the vicinity of the conferences, and has readied 12 mobile BTS'€™.

XL has also prepared three mobile BTS'€™.

The operators have also prepared special telecommunication packages that would allow subscribers to access LTE networks.

'€œWe predict that the average revenue per user [ARPU] derived from delegates will be quite high considering that they will be telecommunicating intensively,'€ Turina noted.

XL'€™s overall ARPU was Rp 27,000 as of the first half of 2013.