The company profile of Smartfren Telecom has been added to the Indonesian companies section. Smartfren Telecom (FREN), controlled by the Sinar Mas Group, is an Indonesian telecommunication services provider focused on internet services and CDMA-based cellular phone services. Indonesia's telecommunications industry is a highly competitive one which makes it difficult for the smaller companies, such as Smartfren, to survive. Fitch Ratings has repeatedly warned that the company is at risk of default.

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Bakrie Telecom is one of the dozen Indonesian telecommunications operators that provide fixed digital radio cellular telecommunication network and services. The company currently has around 12 million cellular subscribers (mostly prepaid). However, both its operational and financial results are showing a worrying development. In April 2013, Fitch Ratings said that Bakrie Telecom is likely to default on its debt and needs to restructure its USD $380 million senior unsecured bonds due in May 2015.

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Indonesia Investments updated the company profile of XL Axiata. The company is one of Indonesia’s leading cellular service providers, offering various types of telecommunication products and services including Voice, SMS, Data, and other mobile telecommunication services to Indonesians through its extensive network in the country. However, Indonesia's telecommunication market has lost some of its glory as the mobile phone market has become saturated while competition remains rife.

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Indonesia's largest telecommunication & network provider Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) has conducted a stock split with a ratio of 1:5 yesterday (29/08). The company, which is majority owned by the Indonesian government and has a dominating market share of around 47% in terms of mobile phone subscribers in Indonesia, decided to conduct the stock split to increase the company’s share liquidity. A cheaper price will be more appealing to investors. The stock split was agreed upon at the general shareholders' meeting on 19 April 2013.

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Research institute Frost & Sullivan expects that broadband internet penetration in Indonesia (fixed and wireless) will grow to 25% at the end of 2013 and, depending on the development of the Palapa Ring, to 45% by 2018. Internet growth in Indonesia is particularly supported by the mobile broadband segment due to high demand for social media applications and mobile videos among the younger generation of Indonesians. By 2015, about 145 million Indonesians will have internet access. Currently, Indonesia's population numbers about 250 million people.

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Indonesia Investments presents the updated company profile of Indosat, one of the largest telecommunication networks and services providers of Indonesia. The company currently has about 57 million cellular subscribers and a market share of around 20 percent. In the first half of 2013, Indosat's net loss was IDR 231.2 billion (USD $21.0 million) particularly caused by increasing telecommunication service costs, depreciation and amortization expenses, as well as labor costs.

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The Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia, abbreviated APJII) expects the number of Indonesian Internet users to increase between 20% and 30% to 80 million people at end 2013. With Indonesia's current population numbering about 240 million people, it means that Internet penetration will grow to 33.3%. This development means that both Internet services providers and the Indonesian government should provide supportive conditions to accommodate increased Internet usage.

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Media Nusantara Citra (MNC) is Indonesia's leading integrated media company. It owns the most popular TV channel of Indonesia (RCTI) as well as two other free national channels (MNCTV and GlobalTV). The company also provides 16 Pay-TV channels which cover a whole range of genres. Most of its revenue is gained through advertisement on its TV channels. Apart from television, the company's supporting businesses include print & online media as well as radio.

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Local and foreign smartphone vendors are eager to assemble 4 Generation long term evolution (4G LTE) smartphones in Indonesia. No less than 26 companies (and brand owners) have established assembly plants in Southeast Asia's largest economy with a combined investment value of USD $600 million since 2015. Of these 26 companies, 14 are local players. The number of foreign smartphone manufacturers in Indonesia is expected to grow as a new government regulation comes into force per 1 January 2017.

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Indonesia's Communication and Information Ministry urges American multinational technology company Google to set up a permanent establishment in Indonesia. This way Google, which is owned by US multinational conglomerate Alphabet Inc, would need to start paying taxes to Indonesian authorities. Currently, Google only has a representative office in Indonesia, while transactions and revenue generated in Indonesia are booked at Google Inc's Asia Pacific headquarters located in Singapore.

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State-controlled Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Indonesia's largest telecommunication and network provider, plans to launch its Telkom-4 satellite in 2018 through its subsidiary TelkomMetra. The Telkom-4 satellite, which will replace the aging Telkom-1 satellite, is equipped with 49 transponders that will be capable of beaming 100 Gbps mobile broadband across Indonesia, India and Southeast Asia. The USD $200 million satellite is expected to have a life span of 15 years.

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Indonesian drivers of taxis, buses and bajaj (three-wheeled scooters) gathered on Monday (14/03) on several locations - in front of the State Palace, City Hall, and the Ministry of Communication and Information - in Central Jakarta to demonstrate against the presence of online transportation applications such as Uber Taxi, GrabCar and Go-Jek. Protestors claim that these mobile apps are operating illegally in the country (as these services are not regulated by law) and cause a decline in income for long-time established transportation services, including taxi services, bus services and the more traditional transportation services such as bajaj and ojek (motor taxi).

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The financial performance of Indonesia's listed telecommunication and network providers improved in 2015. Indonesia's three largest listed telecommunication companies Telekomunikasi Indonesia, XL Axiata and Indosat Ooredoo all recorded a better financial performance last year. However, this does not mean all three companies posted net profit. In fact, only Telekomunikasi Indonesia recorded net profit. The other two companies still posted a net loss, albeit their losses were much lower compared to one year earlier. Given that Indonesia's economic growth is expected to accelerate in 2016, these companies should be able to continue growing this year.

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During Indonesian President Joko Widodo's visit to Googleplex, Silicon Valley (California) - headquarters of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Plug and Play - he emphasized that the government of Indonesia is committed to push for the development of the digital economy, aiming to make it the largest in Southeast Asia, worth USD $130 billion by 2020 (including the emergence of 1,000 Indonesian technopreneurs). In this context, Widodo also requested the assistance of Google, Facebook and Plug and Play in the form of IT development education.

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While Indonesia is currently in the middle of expanding its 4G network, the nation remains placed among the countries that have the poorest Internet penetration rate in the world. A recent World Bank report, titled 'World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends', zooms in on the economic and social impact that occurs when a relative large part of the population cannot be connected to the Internet or when the government fails to keep pace with the growth of technology.

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The government of Indonesia targets to see 35 million domestically-produced mobile phones (per year) starting from 2017. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s wireless network is to be upgraded to 4G speeds by the same year (a 4G network is the new necessity for those with smartphones or tablets) although currently the country’s telecommunication operators are still in the middle of building receivers to boost 3G utilization. The government hopes to see a total of USD $4.5 billion investment in the telematics sector.

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Despite sharp competition, slowing profit margins and a saturating voice and SMS services market, Indonesia’s telecommunications industry still has lucrative prospects as there is still room for growth in data services, value-added services and still relatively low smartphone penetration (as well as low Internet penetration). However, of the big three Indonesian telecommunication network and services providers - Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), XL Axiata and Indosat - only Telkom managed to post net profit over 2014.

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Today, Indonesian president-elect Joko Widodo (commonly referred to as Jokowi) and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met in Jakarta to discuss how Facebook can be utilized for the benefit of the people and how the social media network can support Indonesian micro businesses. With nearly 70 million, Indonesia contains the world’s fourth-largest Facebook community. With a total population that numbers about 250 million people, a burgeoning middle class and relatively low Internet penetration, there remains a large untapped potential.

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