Mobile Broadband is the Backbone behind Indonesia’s Telecoms Growth
The fixed broadband internet market in Indonesia is still in the relatively early stages of its development. With Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) as the dominant fixed broadband technology in the country, the penetration of fixed broadband subscriptions was sitting at under 4%. The take up of high speed services based on fixed access platforms has only been modest.Fixed broadband penetrations stood at only 1.7% in 2016 and is predicted to increase to between only 2.7% and 3.3% by 2021.
This level of internet penetration remains low by world standards, but has been relatively consistent with its economic status and the availability of infrastructure, especially fixed-line services.
Low subscription patterns have been a challenge for the government in its building of the online nation that it is keen to realise. Of particular importance in addressing the challenge has been the rapid growth in mobile broadband access. 4G mobile services offering mobile broadband is relatively advanced and act as direct substitute to fixed line broadband and acts as an inhibitor for further fixed broadband rollouts. Mobile broadband subscribers have grown significantly over the past few years in Indonesia and penetration rates now stands at 50% of the overall population.
The country’s mobile market was characterised for many years by the large number of players licensed by the local regulator. Seven mobile operators are competing for revenues in the Indonesian market: Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata, 3 Indonesia, SmartFren, Bakrie Telecom an dInternux (Bolt). Market leader Telkomsel continues to maintain a huge presence but is under increased threat from the competition.
All the major mobile operators in Indonesia are well advanced in the deployment of their 4G LTE networks. The two largest providers, XL Axiata and Telkomsel both have networks that covered over 70% of the country by 2017.
Over the last decade Indonesia’s mobile market has displayed solid growth over the last five years with penetration increasing from 103% in 2011 to 148% in 2016. This strong growth has been driven by an increase in subscribers from the market leader Telkomsel, supported by increases from Indosat, and 3 Indonesia. Growing use of mobile broadband has been a major driver. Mobile broadband subscribers have grown significantly over the past few years in Indonesia and penetration rates now stands at 50% of the overall population. Growth is predicted to taper off over the next five years to 2021 as the market has now reached a higher state of maturity.
The mobile market in Indonesia has been growing strongly, but at a more modest rate than previously.
Broadband services were finally starting to grow, boosted by surging mobile broadband.
PT Telkom constructed more fibre-optic backbone networks, terrestrial and submarine
XL Axiata has rolled out 4G LTE services to around 100 towns and cities in Indonesia.
Telkomsel’s strategy in 2017 is to focus on its Digital Business including an aggressive 3G/4G base transceiver station deployment.
Telkomsel, working with Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia and ZTE, launched 4.5G services in nine cities
PT Indosat Ooredoo was preparing to launch 4.5G (presumed LTE-A Pro)
PT Telkom, TelkomNet, Telkomsel, PT Indosat, Bakrie Telecom, PT Indosat, PT Internux; PT First Media.
Table 9 – PT Telkom – Revenue and EBITDA – 2012 - 2016
Table 11 – PT Telkom – revenue contribution by market segment – 2015 - 2016
Table 12 – PT Telkom – Operations results by Segment – 2015 - 2016
Table 14 – Fixed lines and penetration – 2012 - 2016
Table 20 – Forecast of fixed broadband subscribers and penetration rates – 2016; 2018; 2021
Table 25 – Forecast of mobile subscribers and penetration rates – 2016; 2018; 2021
Table 27 – Historical - Fixed-wireless (WLL) subscribers – 2003; 2007 - 2015
Table 29 – Mobile subscribers and market share by operator – 2015 - 2016
Table 33 – PT Indosat – revenue and contribution by market segment – 2015 - 2016
Table 35 – PT Indosat - postpaid and prepaid mobile subscribers (million)– 2015 - 2016
Table 36 – PT Indosat postpaid and prepaid mobile ARPU (IDR thousand/month)– 2011 - 2016
Table 40 – Internux (Bolt!) – Mobile Subscribers – 2014 - 2017