With a population of 240 million people, the world’s fourth largest country is one of the strategic growth markets in Asia. ICT is a VAST and FAST growing market in Indonesia and is expected to bring more promising opportunities as the country strives to embrace and deploy IT in education, hospitals, households, including the government.

A recent survey shows that mobile users in Indonesia are recorded at 68 million by the end of 2006 and grow to 94.7 million in 2007. It is predicted to reach 133 million in 2010. Meanwhile, Indonesian PC market growth reported on early 2007 was exceeding expectations, at around 20%. Hence, the Indonesian IT market should grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of at least 14% between 2006 and 2010. This ensures opportunities both for local and foreign vendors as the demand for IT and communication services are tremendously increasing.

At the beginning of 2007, Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced the establishment of a new guiding body to provide strategic direction for the country’s ICT development. The National Information and Communications Technology Council Indonesia (DeTIKNas) will be tasked with formulating the ICT policy. The committee has been tasked with implementing a large and ambitious programme of ICT initiatives including completing the Palapa Ring Project which will cover 50% of major cities. There are also plans to establish broadband wireless networks in larger cities, alongside initiatives related to e-procurement, e-government, and applying IT to hospital & education.

With an established and favorable framework in place for the growth of the ICT industry in Indonesia, many global multi-national companies are now shifting base or focus to Indonesia as investor confidence is gradually being restored.

• Massive Expansion by PT. Bakrie Telecom (BTEL) - Feb. 2007

Cellular phone provider PT. Bakrie Telecom, which operates the CDMA-based Esia mobile phone service, planned to expand its coverage to 17 more cities including Surabaya, Medan, Semarang and Yogyakarta this year, in addition to its existing 15 coverage areas in Jakarta, West Java and Banten.

PT. Bakrie Telecom will allocate 2 trillion rupiah (about US$222 million) in capital expenditure to finance the company’s expansion this year. The investment would be used to double the number of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) from 400 to 800 BTS. Meaning, they will be prepared to accommodate 3.6 million subscribers this year from 1.5 million last year.

• Old Duo Back On Collaboration - August 2007

ZTE Corporation has recently signed an agreement with Telkom Indonesia to help the expansion of CDMA2000 network capacity for national coverage. The network expansion will cover the four main cities of the eastern part of Sulawesi, Indonesia. ZTE acts as the network provider as well as Telkom’s partner for the project.

To date, ZTE's CDMA network total capacity in Indonesia has reached 15 million lines, making the company as the key CDMA provider in the country.