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fter suffering a loss last year and minimal growth in the first quarter this year, telecommunications operator PT Indosat (ISAT) expects moderate growth this year with its major network-modernizing program, the company'€™s chief executive has said.

Indosat CEO Alexander Rusli said after a shareholders'€™ meeting on Thursday that the firm expected revenue growth of between 6 and 8 percent from the network modernization in several regions across the country.

'€œOur growth target is in line with market growth. ['€¦] With network modernization and data monetization, we believe that we can gain higher revenues from data services,'€ he said.

Alexander said that he expected Greater Jakarta, Bandung and Sukabumi (West Java), Semarang (Central Java), Yogyakarta and Surabaya (East Java), where Indosat carried out network modernization in May, to record similar growth to Bali, where the firm carried out modernization work in the first quarter.

'€œBali posted double-digit growth in revenue after the network modernization, so I believe the other regions will follow the same pattern,'€ he said, adding that people in those areas were now able to enjoy Internet speeds of up to 42 Mbps.

Indosat'€™s revenue dropped slightly to Rp 5.77 trillion (US$500.41 million) in the first quarter this year from Rp 5.78 trillion during the same period last year.

Its first quarter revenue recorded a 4.7 percent decline compared to the Rp 6.06 trillion it pocketed in the fourth quarter of 2013, partly driven by slow network modernization resulting in poor data services.

Cellular services remained the operator'€™s revenue engine with an 81 percent contribution, while fixed data and fixed voice services brought in the remaining 15 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

The company'€™s cellular revenue '€” representing revenue from voice and short message service (SMS) '€” fell by 2.1 percent year-on-year, but were compensated by 10.4 percent in fixed data revenue.

However, Indosat'€™s revenue growth from data services was lower than that enjoyed by Telkom and XL. Telkom'€™s data services grew by 14.3 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, while XL recorded 30 percent growth for the same segment in the same period.

'€œWe were quiet in the first quarter, but we will catch up in the second quarter onward with the completion of our network modernization,'€ Alexander said.

Indosat'€™s finance director, Curt Stefan Carlsson, said the company would also see positive growth on both its top and bottom lines, as the rupiah would not depreciate so much this year.

'€œWe anticipate positive growth in our net profits because the accelerated depreciation will be less. We will also improve in the second, third and fourth quarters this year,'€ he said.

Carlsson added that his firm would buy back next year its $650 million worth of bonds, which are due in 2020, to reduce the firm'€™s dollar exposure to 25 percent from the current level of nearly 50 percent.

He said that nearly half of Indosat'€™s total net debt of Rp 22 trillion was in US dollars.

Indosat would also be paying off its debts this year, totaling Rp 5.4 trillion, partly with the Rp 1.39 trillion raised from selling its share in tower operator PT Tower Bersama Infrastructure, he said.

Shares in Indosat, which are traded on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) under the code ISAT, closed at 4,090 on Thursday, 1.24 percent up from the day before.