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tate-owned telecommunications company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) will take the lead in the government'€™s Rp 278 trillion (US$22.4 billion) broadband project over the next five years to boost Internet access in Indonesia, a senior official has said.

'€œI'€™m in the position to support Telkom taking a lead on this broadband plan,'€ Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara told Reuters.

The broadband project, which was officially launched in October, aims to provide affordable Internet access to the majority of the country'€™s population, with the state budget partly funding the program.

Rudiantara said the government was discussing with the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry to provide incentives in exchange for becoming the driver in improving the country'€™s Internet access. Details of the plan are still being finalized, he added.

Only 12 percent of Indonesia'€™s total population had access to mobile broadband last year, and even that was at the relatively slow speed of 512 kilobytes-per-second, according to data from the Communications and Information Ministry.

Fixed-line broadband access was even lower at 5 percent of the total population.

Details of Telkom'€™s budget for the government'€™s broadband plan were not immediately available, but Telkom acting president director Indra Utoyo said on Friday that most of his firm'€™s capital expenditure (capex) next year would be on its Indonesia Digital Network (IDN).

IDN is part of Telkom'€™s project to support the national broadband plan. '€œWe will maintain our capex next year at a level of between Rp 20 trillion and Rp 25 trillion with the same expenditure composition,'€ Indra said.

Telkom normally spends 50 percent of its capex on providing wireless Internet access (Wi-Fi); 30 percent on developing transmission cables, its fiber-optic network and satellites; and the remaining 20 percent on developing technological convergence.

In a development to expand its Internet coverage, Telkom deputy general manager for personal service, Sujito, said that Telkom aimed to increase its Internet access points from around 100,000 this year to 1 million next year.

'€œWe can'€™t confirm how much it will cost, but it usually costs around Rp 6 million to establish one Internet access point,'€ he said.

Sujito said that the expansion of its Internet access points would eventually boost the number of customers for its prepaid Internet service, dubbed Speedy Instant.

Telkom expected to have a total of 40 million Speedy Instant users next year from around 25 million users this year, he said.

'€œWe also expect to see growing revenue from the service to Rp 175 billion next year from around Rp 125 billion this year,'€ Sujito added.

Telkom has also rolled out a commercial 4G through its subsidiary, Telkomsel.

Two other major cellular operators, PT XL Axiata and PT Indosat, are likely to follow suit this month, as the two have been testing the technology, according to minister Rudiantara.

Shares in Telkom traded at Rp 2,825 on Friday, down 0.35 percent from the previous day, having risen by 31.4 percent so far this year, easily outperforming the broader Jakarta Composite Index'€™s (JCI) 20.7 percent gain.