Indosat’s heritage of innovation is based on its ability to introduce new technologies ahead of the competition

Innovation nation led by Indosat’s drive
Indosat technology

Indosat is a technological developer and innovator, operating a top-to-bottom policy that has made the company the foremost telecommunications services provider in Indonesia and lent a competitive advantage to its position on the national and regional markets. This is in evidence in Indosat’s determination to pioneer new technologies and deliver them with the optimum levels of affordability and reliability to the Indonesian people.

The second largest provider of cellular services in Indonesia, Indosat operates through three subsidiary brands, Matrix, Mentari and IM-3.

Indosat has always been considered a vanguard provider of cutting-edge technologies, often being the first Indonesian company to introduce the latest global advances to the market. It operates Indonesia’s first nationwide GSM900 and GSM1800 networks and was the first company to introduce 3G services, and also inaugurated GPRS and 2.5G services via prepaid and contract arrangements. Indosat also recently launched its fixed wireless service. Using CDMA2001.1x technology, the service is designed to appeal to clients who require limited mobility with reliable, high-speed connectivity. The company has dipped its toe into the lucrative waters of niche, offering Indonesia’s first 3.5G service and 3G-High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSPDA) technology, which operates at speeds of up to nine times faster than standard 3G services. Indosat also afforded the Indonesian market its first glimpse of the BlackBerry. In November 2006, Indosat signed an agreement with mobile telephony giant Ericsson to deliver a 3G/WCDMA network in Indonesia, further enhancing Indosat’s WCMDA network in Jakarta, West and Central Java and Yogyakarta.

“We constantly have to think about what is next for Indosat because we cannot change our business overnight,” explains Johnny Swandi Sjam, Indosat’s president director. “There has been a lot of internal discussion and discussion with external consultants recently. Our next step could be broadband, fixed lines or wireless - we are examining all possibilities. In Jakarta we are developing both broadband and wireless. From these base services we have also developed a newer technology service, 3.5G, which we have already implemented in sixteen cities across Indonesia. Another area of huge potential is on the content side of things and we are developing new ways of attacking this new business area. As our competencies lie in telecom, we have to develop alliances with companies who have competencies in content.”

The projected investment of 15 per cent of capital expenditures during 2007 - $1 billion - to develop network infrastuctures and an optical cable network stretching from Surabaya to Bali and Makassar, and from Batam to Singapore and Pekanbaru will serve to continue Indosat’s expansion and cement its position as the leading innovator in the market. Indosat also plans to move some of its Internet connection lines to Europe and Australia, in order to prevent a sharp reduction in capacity in the event of another unforseen natural disaster such as the Hengchun earthquake of 2006. Indosat’s business solutions division already has an operational optic cable network that serves 200 buildings in Jakarta, with a subsrciber base of 1,000 companies.

“Indosat is not completely focusing on 3G technologies. We are focusing on delivering what we call wireless broadband. Why? Because fixed lines are limited in Indonesia. In Indonesia there are maybe 8 or 9 million fixed line subscribers, whereas there are already around 75 million wireless subscribers. This is our future focus,” concludes Mr Sjam.