• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Indonesia's Cell Phone Market Continues Rapid Growth

Posted on: Friday, 22 July 2005, 09:01 CDT

Indonesia's cell phone market continues rapid growth

JAKARTA, July 21 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian Cellular Telecommunications Association (ATSI) is optimistic that the market penetration of cellular phones in Indonesia next year will reach a level equivalent to 40 percent of the population.

ATSI chairman Johnny Swandi Syam said the cumulative growth of the country's cellular phone industry to June was satisfactory, with 10 million new subscribers being signed up, put the total number of subscribers to 40 million.

"Regions like Batam, Riau Islands, Yogyakarta and Jakarta recorded average growth of more than 30 percent, which makes us optimistic that 40 percent market penetration will soon be achieved," he said.

However, Johnny said Indonesia's market penetration level lagged well behind many countries in Southeast Asia. Singapore has 89 percent market penetration, Thailand 41 percent, Malaysia 53 percent, and the Philippines 36 percent.

Johnny said Indonesia's penetration level today was only about 18 percent.

ATSI secretary-general Rudiantara said that if the growth continued, the number of subscribers could reach more than 80 million next year.

He also said that the huge investments being made by cell-phone operators here would lead to more services being available to customers.

"So far this year, ATSI has recorded 1.8 billion US dollars in new investment in the industry, already 30 percent higher than the figure last year," he said.

He said that most of the new investment was focused on the introduction of new technology, particularly 3G.

With 3G technology, cellular operators can provide multimedia facilities at faster speeds and with much more data than the current cellular technology being used here, which is classified as 2.5G, the Jakarta Post daily said.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

More News in this Category