In late 2021, Indonesia’s Communications and Informatics Minister, Johnny Gerard Plate, unveiled the 2021-2024 Indonesia Digital Roadmap – the first of a four-pronged approach to accelerate digital transformation. Achieving this goal, the Minister said, required laying the right foundations: “Equal access to quality telecommunications services is the precondition for realising digital transformation.”

We could not agree more. At edotco, connectivity is at the core of everything we do. Being one of the largest towercos in the region, we have seen first-hand its transformative power in ensuring equitable access, broadening economic opportunities, and achieving a nation’s digital ambitions in the eight Asian markets that we are present in.

That is why we were very pleased to announce that in February 2022, PT edotco Infrastruktur Indonesia, our local subsidiary in Indonesia, signed an agreement to acquire a portfolio of approximately 1,000 towers from XL Axiata – marking our first foray into one of the world’s largest online markets with over 200 million Internet users.

Taking the plunge into a highly contested market

Indonesia has long been a market of interest for many telcos, and edotco is no exception. Its billion-dollar telecommunication industry ranks among the fastest-developing in Asia, yet there is still incredible potential for growth because of the sheer size of Indonesia’s population and increasing digital competitiveness across various sectors.

The strategic acquisition marked a successful resolution to our years-long efforts to enter Indonesia, as well as a new milestone for the edotco Group. Since 2020, we have pursued several entry strategies in parallel over the last 12 months. There was a scarce availability of sizeable tower assets in Indonesia, and this was imperative for us as we were a new player and required a significant head start to gain a foothold in a highly contested market.

However, after several months of intense work and negotiation from multiple parties, we came to a satisfactory conclusion. Under this acquisition, edotco acquired 859 towers through a sale and leaseback agreement, as well as entered a managed service agreement for an additional 162 sites with a Build-to-Suit potential with XL Axiata. This gave edotco a pan-Indonesian platform with a footprint across Java, Sumatra, Bali, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Eastern Indonesia.

Connectivity for the common good

Our timely entry into the Indonesian market, as well as the scale of edotco’s presence across all the major islands, makes us well-placed to accelerate Indonesia’s digital transformation ambitions. Building an inclusive, safe and reliable digital and connectivity infrastructure is one of the first strategic directions within the Roadmap, and we are committed to achieving this goal together with all stakeholders.

As the connectivity foundations are laid, we will also be looking to develop enhanced features and services in parallel, which will be ready to serve Indonesians almost as soon as the connectivity framework is in place. This helps to narrow the digital gap more quickly. Some examples of our revolutionary yet sustainable solutions include the Smart Lamp Pole initiative in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which creates an energy-efficient and multi-purpose smart urban connectivity system.

We also stand ready to support local efforts to leverage enhanced connectivity for sustainable development. Recently, the Ministry of Communication and Information of Indonesia announced the start of the Analogue Switch Off (ASO) Programme, which will see analogue broadcasts migrating fully to digital this year in stages. This programme is expected to unlock more opportunities for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), as well as create more jobs, facilitate a better consumer experience and boost the digital economy – all made possible by robust Internet connectivity.

The first step to larger impact

Indonesia is a significant achievement in edotco’s regional expansion strategy – our third merger & acquisition (M&A) deal in less than a year following the successful acquisitions of D’Harmoni and Touch Matrix in 2021. It marks our ninth country where we have a presence in and brings our total portfolio to over 50,000 owned and managed towers. As of April 2022, we are the sixth largest towerco in the world.

However, we will not rest on our laurels. Our team is hard at work on several other strategic opportunities, the details of which we hope to release later in the year. We are determined to enable connectivity for the future by providing world-class telecommunication infrastructure services and solutions – for that is the only way that the digital-first world we have all been dreaming of can become reality.