Indonesian cellco XL Axiata won’t be following in rival Indosat’s footsteps anytime soon with the launch of a 42Mbps HSPA+ service.
“Right now we see no need at all for 42Mbps,” said XL’s chief financial officer, Wim Timmermans.
“Apart from the marketing gimmick factor it is of little use today. Most data access is through handsets and for that we don’t need it.”
Currently about 15% of XL’s subscribers have handsets that can be used on the 3G network, said Timmermans.
Second-ranked Indosat launched the first 42Mbps HSPA+ commercial network in Asia-Pacific last month, according to network partner Ericsson.
Nokia Siemens Networks said last week it has also completed an HSPA+ upgrade for Indosat, enabling 42Mbps downloads for consumers and reduced network energy consumption by as much as 50%.
Meanwhile, XL, Indosat and Telkomsel are waiting for the regulator to hand over a second 5MHz chunk of spectrum at 2100MHz for 3G, says Timmermans.
“The original 5MHz cost 320 billion rupiahs ($34.97m) upfront and 160 billion rupiahs annually,” he said.
He expects the second 5MHz of 3G spectrum will “cost about the same.”
“There are some minor administrative issues that need sorting out [by the BRTI] and we are waiting for that,” he said.