JakartaPost-Jan 19, 2023
Telecommunication towers are set to remain lucrative this year amid worsening global economic conditions and challenges in the industry with firms aiming to tap potential in rural areas and in the country’s growing digital adaptation. Huawei Indonesia information and communication technology (ICT) strategy and business director Mohamad Rosidi said on Friday that the rural areas have turned into potential markets thanks to increasing digital activity in the less-developed regions. Indonesia internet users amounted to 204.7 million as of January last year, whereas before the pandemic the figure was only 150 million in 2019, according to a We Are Social report. The growth in internet users was also followed by a rapid increase in overall digital-economy size that grew to US$77 billion of gross merchandise value (GMV) last year from previously just $41 million before the pandemic in 2019, according to a Google and Temasek report last year. “Given that ICT access has turned into a primary need, coverage services will continue to exist this year,” Rosidi told The Jakarta Post. Tower business falls into two categories, namely network-capacity services that focus mainly on optimizing each tower’s capacity and use and network-coverage services that focus on providing internet access in areas that are not yet covered through building infrastructure, which in this case consisted of, but was not limited to, towers. Rosidi explained that while business performance on capacity services needed to be evaluated case by case, the coverage services would continue increasing each year. Coverage expansion projects in rural areas will most likely grow in 2023, but Rosidi said it would depend on geographical factors and market potential, the latter determined by total population, purchasing power, population density and internet traffic, among many others. Once it has been figured out, it could be translated into technical implementation and then the required investment number would follow, he said. However, cities and suburbs are unlikely to see similar growth, as these areas already have well-established telco infrastructure, meaning demands will not appear much as well. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/business/2023/01/18/tower-business-to-thrive-in-2023-despite-macroeconomic-headwinds.html.
