He is really a nice and humble guy. I recently met him in his office in Wisma Bakrie Building, Kuningan, Jakarta. Wearing a white shirt and a tiny, rounded glasses, he looks like a fresh university graduate rather than a high-profile businessman.

He is also a good mate to discuss with. He listens to the questions asked him carefully, thinks first, then answers it clearly.

Anindya Bakrie, who is president director of Bakrie Telecom, a CDMA provider, pointed out that investors looking for opportunities in Indonesia's fast-growing cellular sector need to change their mindsets when reviewing the country's listed telcos "because the rules of the game are about to change drastically", he said.

That is why his company, which has just launched its initial public offering (IPO) in the beginning of this year, is confident of taking on the big boys of the industry such as PT Telkom and Indosat which dominate the market.

"The telecommunications service provider business is not merely about the latest state-of-the-art technology. It's about fulfilling what consumers really need," he added.

Although size does matter in the fiercely competitive world of the cellular industry, Bakrie calculates that being the smallest kid on the block has its advantages, too. "As a small player within a fast-changing and highly potential market, we have the advantage of nimbleness and responsiveness." According to him, it can allow BTEL to experiment and launch cheaper services that its larger rivals would find financially impossible.

Anindya Bakrie

"Our business goal--rapid growth through the provision of low-cost services to the masses--has dictated our choice of the CDMA 2000 1x technology," he said, adding that his company also has a plan to launch 1xEV-DO-based 3G services in the near future.

So far, two W-CDMA-based 3G operators in the country, PT Telkomsel and Excelcom, have already launched their commercial 3G services.

Asked why he chose CDMA2000 1x, he revealed that the technology uses a better compression technique and a more efficient signaling method. "The technology requires a smaller number of base transfer stations (BTS), which translates into lower capital expenditure (CAPEX) in infrastructure."

Future migration to 1xEV-DO (3G) will require incremental CAPEX as opposed to the migration from GSM to W-CDMA, necessitating a changeover by writing off the existing infrastructure. "In short, the upgrade from CDMA2000 1x to its 3G high-speed wireless services will be the cheapest and fastest."

Just 32 years old, but armed with an MBA from Stanford University, Bakrie is following in the footsteps of his father, Aburizal Bakrie, who headed Bakrie & Brothers before entering politics by joining the Cabinet of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Bakrie is also CEO and president director of PT Cakrawala Andalas Televisi (ANTV), which recently entered into a joint venture with Star Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

He is also the COO of Capital Managers Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore. Prior to that, he was deputy to the COO and managing director of PT Bakrie & Bakrie Brothers Tbk. He also served as a financial analyst in Salomon Brothers Inc, New York.

A pioneer in wireless telephone services since 1995 by offering Wireless Local Loop (WLL) services under the brand name Ratelindo, which utilizes E-TDMA technology (developed by Hughes Network System, US), the company changed its name to PT Bakrie Telecom in 2003. It then launched a new limited mobility service under the brand Esia, using the latest CDMA 2000-1X technology.

In his view, Indonesian consumers will now start focusing on how much talktime they get per rupiah instead of how much they pay per pulse.

Esia charges just 3,000 rupiah per hour of talktime in the region that it covers, which the company claims is the lowest in the country. "We are the AirAsia of the telecommunications industry," said Bakrie, referring to the budget carrier that has shaken up the airline industry. Other CDMA providers in Indonesia are PT Telkom with Telkomflexi, PT Mobile-8 Telecom with Fren, and PT Indosat with Star-one.

He believes that telecommunications is a birthright for every Indonesia. According to him, consumers deserve reliable yet affordable telecommunications services.

"It is our belief that 'thinking out of the box' is the main recipe for success in this industry. We call it disruptive innovation and it has been ingrained so deeply in our corporate culture that it has become our business DNA," he added.

He is convinced that one day most Indonesians here or abroad will use a Bakrie Telecom service to talk, message, surf, mail, watch TV, send photos, and do financial transactions. "Hopefully, we will be an integral part of most Indonesians' daily life," said Bakrie, a rising star in Indonesia's telecommunications industry nowadays, optimistically.

 

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