Is Indonesia the next big thing in broadband?

Posted on August 13, 2008 / 2 Comments

Indonesia is emerging as a hot broadband market, mainly as a result of the increasing availability of high-speed 3G and HSDPA mobile services. According to Arjun Trivedi, the head of business in Indonesia for Nokia Siemens Networks, high speed mobile services are now the dominant form of broadband access in the country. He says, “In Indonesia today, there are slightly more than a million broadband users. Quite a substantial number of these – we estimate some 60 per cent – are wireless broadband users, principally using HSDPA. We also estimate that there are about 400,000 fixed broadband users and a little over 600,000 mobile broadband users.” TelecomTV writes more.

2 Comments

Chanuka Wattegama
August 13, 2008, 8:26 am
One million broadband users is not as large as one would think for the fourth largest population in the world (nearly 250 million). Perhaps the more significant fact is that 600,000 out of that are mobile broadband. Indonesia was not successful with traditional broadband. This had led to a situation of excessive leased line prices (48 times compared to India) and unauthorised sharing of wireless connections.

If the reason for this high price is lack of International bandwidth (as in many other countries) the same would have happened with mobile broadband too. The initial success of mobile broadband indicates the reason is elsewhere.

However, I am not sure one would jump to term Indonesia as the “next big thing in broadband”. Yes, the growth rate is obviously high but that is largely because the huge gap between the small existing market and demand. At the initial stages of opening any market will show high growth rates which will subdue with time.
Chanuka Wattegama
August 13, 2008, 12:11 pm
Abu, Sorry to replace the image with this photo taken by Divakar about 2 years back in Bali. Hope this is more relevant to the subject. The four ATMS use four VSATs. Absolutely no sharing. This is not an indication of a developed market.

Can this be the ‘next big thing’ in broadband?

I will be grateful if my friends from Indonesia comment.