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elecommunications operator Telkomsel will offer mobile financial services to rural areas nationwide to contribute to achieving the government'€™s goal of a cashless society, in 2016.

Telkomsel CEO Ririek Adriansyah said the company would focus on further developing its mobile financial services, such as educating and extending its range into rural areas in the country.

Given the fact that many people still did not have bank accounts, he said, the best way to reach them and direct them into a cashless society was through mobile banking, with heightened measures toward text-message banking, for example. Telkomsel would help the government achieve its cashless society goal, he added, through these mobile financial services measures.

'€œOnly about 60 million people in Indonesia have bank accounts, making them a rather unbankable segment. This segment usually exists in remote or hard-to-reach areas, or even within small cities where transactions are usually done in small amounts,'€ Ririek said Tuesday.

'€œEither way, traditional banks consider them too costly to reach out to. So how else can we reach this segment? Utilize mobile banking,'€ he added.

Ririek added that around 92 percent of all financial transactions in Indonesia were conducted with cash, thereby also resulting in opportunity losses for traditional banks as well.

This problem, he said, could be covered by the partnership of banks and financial institutions with operators to make mobile banking more efficient.

'€œTelkomsel'€™s 2G network covers about 95 percent of the entire population. We believe that the population has already been covered and we are able to provide that potential to them. It'€™s in line with the government'€™s goal of achieving a cashless society,'€ he added.

Telkomsel has a range of its own mobile finance services, notably the TapCash system. Formerly named T-Cash, the service has been in operation since 2007, with around 20 million subscribers as of December.

Telkomsel vice president of corporate communications Adita Irawati said that only a small fraction of that 20 million comprised monthly active users.

'€œThat is why the company will try and hold introduction programs to people in rural areas to educate them about e-payment services, such as our TapCash. The first programs will probably start in early 2016,'€ Adita said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, commenting on the state of the telcom industry in the coming year, Ririek said that while he hoped Telkomsel'€™s voice and text-message usage increased in 2016 despite the relative decrease throughout major operators, growth would likely be slower than usual.

Telkomsel, along with three other major telecommunication companies, launched 4G/LTE broadband networks on the 1,800 MHz frequency in November following the completion of nationwide frequency refarming. Telkomsel'€™s new 4G network has been deployed to 11 cities thus far, says Ririek, with a target of 14 cities by the end of 2015.

The Financial Services Authority (OJK) reiterated recently its plan to require all telecommunication operators to separate their mobile finance entities as separate subsidiary companies.