Telkomsel Was Awarded Additional Spectrum in 2.3 GHz
Jakarta, 23rd October 2017 – In relation to the government's (Ministry of Communication and Informatics) announcement on the spectrum auction winner for 2.3 GHz frequency, Telkomsel is pleased with the outcomes. Telkomsel reaffirms its commitment to maximize the use of additional spectrum to support Indonesia Broadband Plan 2014-2019. The investment for additional spectrum shows Telkomsel’s intention to deliver the best broadband services to its customers.
President Director of Telkomsel, Ririek Adriansyah said, “We are grateful to have been appointed as the spectrum auction winner. The value of IDR 1,007,483,000,000 was conducted on the basis of a sound investment strategy backed up by solid financial resource. The additional spectrum will be utilized to strengthen our leadership in 4G LTE and to maximize our service quality to customers in various locations in Indonesia. We hope, this will support us better in building digital ecosystem in Indonesia, including e-commerce, and encourage the development of SMEs.”
Ririek also added that in line with Telkomsel's consistency and commitment to build mobile networks throughout Indonesia, including remote and border locations, this additional spectrum will strengthen the company's attempt to open wider access of information for people in rural areas. “With higher speed of mobile broadband access, we are able to provide the best digital lifestyle experience for all Indonesian in this country,” said Ririek.
Telkomsel has managed to secure the spectrum at a fair valuation that is significantly lower than what operators in other emerging markets have paid, for example an Indian telecommunication company paid roughly 4 time at 0.34 USD/MHz/pop as compared to what Telkomsel has paid 0.08 USD/MHz/pop (no PPP adjusted). When compared to developed countries such as South Korea, Singapore, Australia and Hongkong, the price paid by operators in these countries is 1.5 to 5 times higher than that paid by Telkomsel.
“Currently, the availability of spectrum in Indonesia is still very limited and scarce, meanwhile the comparison between the number of subscribers and the allocation of frequency spectrum owned by Telkomsel is not proportional. With these considerations and to accommodate the growing subscriber number among the huge population in Indonesia, the value of this additional spectrum is very high and important for Telkomsel,” Ririek added.
“Furthermore, for the initial phase we plan to build more than 500 base stations using the 2.3 GHz spectrum in the next three months, especially in the areas with the highest need for data services after going through the process in accordance with the provisions including operational feasibility tests. This step will enable our subscribers to enjoy a maximum throughput of up to 400 Mbps, making Telkomsel the fastest network in the country,” explained Ririek.
With Telkomsel came out as the winner of 2.3 GHz spectrum auction, the current frequency allocation owned by Telkomsel is: 2.3 GHz frequency with 30 MHz bandwidth, 2.1 GHz frequency with 15 MHz bandwidth, 1.8 GHz frequency with 22.5 MHz bandwidth, 900 MHz frequency with 7.5 MHz bandwidth, and 800 Mhz frequency with 7.5 MHz bandwidth.
In terms of network deployment, until first semester of 2017, Telkomsel has built more than 146,000 BTS, of which as much as 65% of them are broadband BTS (3G and 4G). Currently, Telkomsel also continues to boost the growth of 4G LTE service to wider areas, which has been present in about 480 regency capitals and has 20 million customers.