Indonesia - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Indonesia - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

Indonesia’s mobile market to undergo a major shakeup with the merger of Indosat Ooredoo and 3

Indonesia’s telecom market – driven principally by the mobile segment – continues to enjoy year-on-year total revenue growth as the country’s youthful population increases its personal spending power. The general increase in telecom revenue over the last decade (at a CAGR of 6.7%) has occurred in spite of – or perhaps because of – the country’s highly competitive market with a range of large and small operators vying for a slice of the emerging opportunity in the world’s fourth-largest cellular market.

Yet despite the overall positive results for the sector, the country’s five major players have been struggling to produce growth in their own businesses. Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Informatics (MoCI) has been a key driver in the part-privatisation of the industry’s state-owned incumbents as well as the liberalisation of the market to allow new entrants as well as foreign ownership. But the declining state of the health of the major operators has generated calls from the government for consolidation within the industry, and 2021 saw a major announcement from Ooredoo and CK Hutchison regarding the merging of their respective Indonesian mobile operations. Assuming the merger receives the necessary regulatory approvals (highly likely, given the government’s stated desire for industry consolidation), then the new entity (to be called Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison) will create a much more viable contender for market leader Telkomsel, which currently enjoys around 50% market share.