TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Indonesia’s telco banks growth on rural areas amid global headwinds
Telco tower firms seek to tap growth from rural areas and increase digital adoption in Indonesia.
Change Size
A tower owned by PT Dayamitra Telekomunikasi (Mitratel) is pictured in an undated photograph in Langsa, Aceh. (Mitratel/-)
T
elecommunication towers are set to remain lucrative this year amid worsening global economic conditions and challenges in the industry with firms aiming to tap potential in rural areas and in the country’s growing digital adaptation.
Huawei Indonesia information and communication technology (ICT) strategy and business director Mohamad Rosidi said on Friday that the rural areas have turned into potential markets thanks to increasing digital activity in the less-developed regions.
Indonesia internet users amounted to 204.7 million as of January last year, whereas before the pandemic the figure was only 150 million in 2019, according to a We Are Social report.
The growth in internet users was also followed by a rapid increase in overall digital-economy size that grew to US$77 billion of gross merchandise value (GMV) last year from previously just $41 million before the pandemic in 2019, according to a Google and Temasek report last year.
“Given that ICT access has turned into a primary need, coverage services will continue to exist this year,” Rosidi told The Jakarta Post.
Tower business falls into two categories, namely network-capacity services that focus mainly on optimizing each tower’s capacity and use and network-coverage services that focus on providing internet access in areas that are not yet covered through building infrastructure, which in this case consisted of, but was not limited to, towers.
Rosidi explained that while business performance on capacity services needed to be evaluated case by case, the coverage services would continue increasing each year.
