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Indonesian Phone Operators to Invest $4b in 2015

Jakarta. Investment on Indonesia’s information and telecommunication this year is forecast to reach $4 billion, helping to boost growth in those industries, according to the head of the ministry of communication and informatics.

Communications minister Rudiantara said that such investment this year would come from five telecommunications operators: Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), Indosat, XL Axiata, Smartfren Telecom and 3 Indonesia. He added that the figure is the same as total investment in 2014.

Investment on network infrastructure could help boost growth in the telecommunications industry by 7 percent to 10 percent in 2015, Rudiantara said, without elaborating.

“The investment for setting up the networks from the five operators is around $4 billion,” he said recently.

Telkom would make up the biggest share, at up to 45 percent of total investment. The state-owned company is allocating $1.8 billion for capital expenditure in 2015.

“We want shared infrastructure, on towers and equipment. This should help to lower fees, giving people more money to spend,” said the former Indosat commissioner.

The ministry, he added, did not have any plan on setting the lower limit on pricing to avoid a price war among telecommunication operators.

“There are still operators that offer data below market price, but we won’t set a floor price because it will not be good for competition and as long as they [operators] don’t deteriorate the quality of the service. Consumers must have options,” Rudiantara said.