Indonesia finally became the third Southeast Asian nation, after Singapore and Malaysia, to launch 3G services commercially. The country's largest cellular operator, PT Telkomsel, rolled out its W-CDMA-based 3G service yesterday, marking this the first commercial introduction of 3G to Indonesia.

Owned by PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) (65 percent), the largest full-service telecommunications operator in Indonesia and SingTel (35 percent), one of Asia's leading telecommunications service operators, Telkomsel provides GSM cellular services in Indonesia through its own nationwide dualband 900/1800MHz GSM network, and internationally through 244 international roaming partners in 148 countries.

At the kick-off ceremony, Telkomsel president director Kiskenda Suriahardja said that the launch marked the start of a new era in the industry of Indonesian cellular telecommunications.

He explained that the rollout of 3G around the country over the next three years will cost Rp3 trillion. "We are optimistic that by 2009, we will have arrived at a breakeven point for the overall investment," he was quoted as saying by The Jakarta Post.

As Antara news agency reported today, Telkom has high market expectations that the launch of the 3G service of its cell phone unit, Telkomsel, will eventually boost the company's revenues, dealers have said.

Telkomsel president director Kiskenda Suriahardja (left) at the kick-off ceremony

Telkomsel also launched a customer pre-registration program through which its current GSM customers, who already have a 3G-equipped phone, can sign up by simply sending a text message containing "3G" to 3636 to become part of the initial group of 10,000 early adopters to experience Telkomsel's 3G services.

"We should verify our customer handset and number by our system to experience our 3G services firsthand," Suryo Hadiyanto, corporate communications manager of Telkomsel told me today. This provider's customers reportedly stand at a current 31.5 million, accounting for about 55 percent of the country's total mobile users.

As I wrote here last week, Indonesia has decided to deploy both 3G technology models: W-CDMA and 1xEV-DO.

There are about 45 million people using mobile phones in the country at present, and almost six million of them deploy CDMA2000 1x. In addition to Telkomsel, Indonesia has four other 3G W-CDMA licensed operators: Indosat, Excelcom, Cyber Access Communications and Natrindo Telepon Selular. So far, only Telkomsel has launched 3G services commercially. Moreover, four CDMA operators--Telkom, Bakrie Telecom, Mobile-8 and Indosat--have already carried out 1xEV-DO trials since last year.

The 3G phenomenon in Indonesia, especially W-CDMA-based technology, is quite interesting to observe. In comparison, its northern neighbors Singapore and Malaysia--especially since both countries launched 3G services at about the same time--have seen starkly different uptakes in this services.

ZDNet Asia recently reported that figures from Singapore's industry regulator Infocomm Development Authority indicate that as of end April, 8 percent of the country's 4.4 million mobile subscribers--or over 360,000 users--are 3G users. Alayne Wong, Asia-Pacific communications research manager at IDC, called these numbers very encouraging.

Relative to Singapore, Malaysia's rate of growth has been significantly slower. According to Wong, as of the first quarter of 2006, only 0.6 percent of all mobile lines in the country were 3G.

Since Indonesia customers is waiting for other 3G operators to launch their service effectively, we cannot predict how the country's market will respond.

I myself will wait to enjoy the 3G services because my mobile phone is using another provider's services, namely Indosat's Matrix.

But one thing is clear thing: Indonesia has entered the 3G gateway and found that there is no point of return. So? Go!

 

amir101
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fekimoki
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firdaus
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rendy
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