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Indosat 4G services to expand into 16 cities
Telecommunications operator PT Indosat Ooredoo says it will expand its 4G/LTE network to 16 cities across the country this year as demand for the services keeps growing
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elecommunications operator PT Indosat Ooredoo says it will expand its 4G/LTE network to 16 cities across the country this year as demand for the services keeps growing.
Indosat Ooredoo chief executive officer Alexander Ruslie said expanding the services to the 16 cities would be done gradually over the course of the year. Currently, the company's 4G network is available in 27 cities where internet users can enjoy data traffic at high speed.
Given the faster data traffic provided by the 4G service, Alex said more Indosat's customers were switching over from the 3G network to 4G. He added that demand for 4G mobile bundling packages was growing bigger than expected.
'With the number of transitions from 3G to 4G services, I'm glad that it is happening because it gives us more room to invest more in the 4G network,' Alex said recently.
Aside from the plan to expand its 4G network, Indosat Ooredoo will also improve efficiency through infrastructure sharing. However, the company is still awaiting a regulation on the matter from the Communications and Information Technology Ministry.
'With the number of transitions from 3G to 4G services, I'm glad that it is happening because it gives us more room to invest more in the 4G network.'
'Regulations on infrastructure sharing are not final and right now partnerships [with other telecommunications operators] are still very minimal because of that fact, but we are not closed to the idea of collaborating with other operators, as we are prepared to share in any area that makes sense to us,' Alex added.
Indosat is now in preparation to go into partnership with fellow operator PT XL Axiata to share its 4G network infrastructure in four cities.
Speaking about 4G network innovations, Alex said there are no plans to introduce the Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technology feature, even though it could be properly utilized by users of the network, since there is a lack of established standards between operators regarding the feature and most operators do not sell their own line of phones.
However, Indosat Ooredoo's competitor, PT Smartfren Telecom, recently introduced the feature in its new Andromax line of phones.
Indosat Ooredoo had also recently collaborated with Google to deliver a new home internet service, the GIG, which would enable subscribers to access the internet with speeds of up to 1 gigabyte per second.
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