S

wedish telecommunications and services provider Ericsson has signed comprehensive deals with major Indonesian telecommunications firms to help them roll out their 4G/LTE connections in different parts of the country.

The deals were signed between Ericsson and PT XL Axiata, PT Indosat and PT Telkomsel to cover connections in Jakarta, Central Java and Kalimantan.

Head of Ericsson Indonesia Thomas Jul said that Ericsson would mostly provide the technology in order to help the firms roll out their network services through their base transceiver stations and RBS6000 radio service platform.

The deals vary according to the companies. With XL Axiata, Ericsson signed a three-year agreement to help implement XL'€™s 2G, 3G and upcoming 1,800 MHz 4G/LTE services in the Jakarta and Central Java regions.

With Telkomsel, Ericsson will develop and improve the GSM network in Kalimantan in order to prepare the region for the 4G/LTE network that Telkomsel will provide at the end of November with other carriers as well.

Ericsson will develop up to 4,500 mobile network elements in Kalimantan in order to optimize the rapidly increasing data in the region.

Meanwhile, the partnership with Indosat involves a three-year contract that focuses more on developing, improving and optimizing the carrier'€™s 2G, 3G and especially 4G/LTE networks in the Jakarta area.

With Indosat, Ericsson will develop its single Radio Access Network (RAN). The development will bring energy efficiency and make Indosat'€™s operations more effective.

'€œAll of these agreements are in the stages of rolling out as we speak,'€ Jul said.

'€œThis agreement will definitely ensure that our customers receive better mobile broadband service. With the advent of smartphones in this country, our customers have always asked us to provide the best service we can,'€ Indosat chief executive officer Alexander Ruslie added in a written statement.

Furthermore, Ericsson Indonesia'€™s vice-president for marketing and communications Hardyana Syintawati said that some of Ericsson'€™s equipment would be utilized in implementing the 4G/LTE networks.

'€œIn some areas, the telecommunications companies will use Ericsson'€™s base transceiver stations. Where and who we cannot say, but what'€™s certain is that we have already sold our products to them and whether or not they use it is up to them,'€ she said.

Ericsson is currently one of the largest suppliers of LTE technology with around 40 percent of global LTE traffic passing through an Ericsson network.

Stressing the emergence of '€œthe internet of things'€, Jul predicted that there would be 26 billion connected devices by 2020.

Ericsson has been operating in Indonesia since 1907 and also specializes in landline and mobile phones.