Indonesia to reveal 2.3GHz WiMAX winners in July

By telecoms.com editorial

The winners of Indonesia’s tender for 2.3GHz WIMAX licences will be announced in July. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MoCI), according to local media reports, has still to work out the fee policy in each of Indonesia’s 15 zones where WiMAX services will initially be made available.

Each zone is to have two 2.3GHz WiMAX operators but it will be possible, says MoCI, for a company to become an operator in more than one zone at the same time.

More than 70 companies are said to have made a bid for the WiMAX licences available, including Indonesia’s major telcos: PT Indosat, Bakrie Telecom and state-owned PT Telkom.

Indonesia has one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the Asia-Pacific region. Around 30 million people out of a population of 240 million have a fixed-line online account; the broadband penetration rate is much lower.

The Indonesian government aims to connect half of the population to the internet by 2015, which would bring the total up to 120 million.