Indonesia's PT Telkom has broken a former monopoly in Timor-Leste, and plans to commence call center operations in Australia very soon, according to its president director.
The operator launched mobile services in Timor Leste late last week, after spending an initial $50 million on the rollout, the Jakarta Postreported. The company aims to have a 60% market share within five years.
PT Telkom offer mobile services under the Telkomcel brand via new subsidiary Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Telin).
Telin has 30 base stations in Timor-Leste so far, and aims to expand that to 110 – covering 95% of the region – by the end of April.
Mobile services in Timor-Leste was previously only procided by Timor Telecom, which is 50.1% owned by Portugal Telecom. The fledgling nation has a mobile penetration of just 54.9%, and only minimal wireless data penetration.
President director Arief Yahya also told the Post that Telin plans to announce an expansion into Australia as soon as this week, offering call center and outsourcing services.
PT Telkom has been pushing to expand its operations beyond the Indonesian market, where ARPUs are only around 35,000 rupiah ($3.65) per month. Telin currently also has operations in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.