S

tate-owned telecommunications operator PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) has said that it will allocate at least Rp 9 trillion (US$750 million) to build up the group'€™s backbone infrastructure to enhance broadband service.

Telkom director for network and solution Rizkan Chandra said that one of the focal points for the company'€™s backbone and network expansion in 2014 was advancing the Indonesia Digital Network (IDN) project.

The IDN is a long-term project that involves the laying out of fiber optic networks nationwide to strengthen the company'€™s broadband backbone.

Rizkan added that the project included the stretching of fiber optic networks across Papua next year as part of the company'€™s East Indonesia build out.

'€œWe conducted the groundbreaking for the Papua Cable System [PCS] in November, which we aim to complete in August 2014,'€ he said, adding that the operator has invested approximately $71.1 million for the PCS.

He added that the operator had also sought to fortify WiFi infrastructure and establish new data centers.

'€œWe already have data centers in Serpong, Sentul and Surabaya. Our upcoming facilities will be in Balikpapan and Batam,'€ he said, adding that the facilities in-planning were scheduled for completion in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

'€œThe new data centers will fall under the tier 3 and tier 4 category,'€ he said. Data centers are divided into several categories according to capacity and capability. Tier 3 and tier 4 are the highest of the categories.

He further said that the operator had earmarked roughly an additional Rp 15 trillion to enhance the network infrastructure of its subsidiary, PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel).

Telkomsel is the country'€™s largest mobile network operator by subscriptions, having contributed 71.5 percent to Telkom'€™s Rp 61.5 trillion revenue in the first nine months of the year.

Rizkan added that Telkomsel was planning for a more aggressive base transceiver station (BTS) roll out by setting up roughly 1,300 new transceivers per month.

'€œPreviously, we set up approximately 1,000 new BTS on a monthly basis. We are also increasing the portion of third generation (3G) transceivers to around 80 percent of the new roll out, up from approximately 70 percent,'€ he said.

Telkomsel built 11,356 new transceivers in the first nine months, 71 percent of which were 3G. The new units brought up the operator'€™s overall transceiver number to 65,653 units, 35.7 percent of which was 3G.

Rizkan added that Telkom would invest another Rp 500 billion to establish the necessary systems and processes to support its international expansion missions.

'€œThis includes investments in the manpower needed for the expansions,'€ he said.

Telkom has expanded its services to at least 10 countries, including Hong Kong, Singapore and Timor Leste.