Best Emerging Markets Carrier | XL Axiata |
| Last year's winner: | Smart Communications |
| Shareholders: | Axiata Group Berhad through Axiata Investments |
| Business segments: | Mobile voice and data |
| Chairman & CEO: | Hasnul Suhaimi |
| Key stats (2012): | 45.8 million total subscriptions; revenue of 21.3 trillion rupiah ($2.2 billion), up 15%; profit of $285 million |
Last year XL outperformed the Indonesian market in terms of revenue, mainly on 50% year-on-year growth in the data business followed by a 16% jump in SMS.
This gave XL a much stronger foundation, with further investments made to enhance the data infrastructure for better service quality.
With such strong take up and a huge upside for data in the country, XL accelerated efforts related to 3G network construction, expanding its investment 168% to support data services development. Various other efforts were also made, such as increasing the capacity of backhaul, core and backbone, to ensure the quality of the end-to-end network infrastructure.
The company is now building up for future business development with digital services, including content and applications, mobile finance, mobile advertising, machine to machine and cloud computing. While its digital services are still in incubation on the introductory stage, XL CEO Hasnul Suhaimi believes they will become the future business for Indonesia's telecom industry.
"The year 2012 was a year of continuing investment, transition and transformation for XL," said Suhaimi. "To lead the transformation to data, we are focusing on shifting to data, enhancing service quality, intensifying programs to increase customer retention, and strengthening brand positioning." He added that with the strong demand for data in Indonesia, data services offer the best opportunity to become a major revenue generator for XL.
Judges' comment
"XL has developed sustainable business models and posted steady growth in a very competitive market. The company is a leader in offering innovative products and campaigns and various business transformations have seen it improve on multiple fronts."
Telecom Asia Awards 2013 Winners:
- Best Asian Telecom Carrier - NTT Communications
- Telecom CEO of the Year - David Thodey, Telstra
- Best Mobile Carrier - SK Telecom
- Best Broadband Carrier - Telekom Malaysia
- Best Emerging Markets Carrier - XL Axiata
- Best Managed Services Provider - BT Global Services
- Best International Wholesale Carrier – Pacnet
- Best Data Center Services Provider - Equinix
- Best Community Telecom Project - Smart Communications' NOAH Mobile
- Most Innovative Telecom Project - Globe Telecom's My Super Plan
- Best Cloud-Based Service - NTT Communications
- Most Innovative Partnership Strategy - 3 Hong Kong and WhatsApp
- Most Advanced Approach to CEM - CSL
VIDEO: TELECOM ASIA AWARDS 2013 CEREMONY