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Indonesia’s largest tower company said it will invest the funds over the next four years, using funds from its recent initial public offering (IPO)
In November last year, Mitratel launched its IPO on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, raising $1.3 billion for the sale of a 28% stake in the business. The remaining 72% of the company remains privately owned by Telkom Indonesia.
At the time, Mitratel said that approximately 90% of the funds raised by the IPO would be spent to upgrade and expand their network, with roughly 6,000 additional towers to be built across the country.
The scale of this expansion should not be underestimated. Mitratel is already the largest tower company in Indonesia, owning and operating around 18,000 mobile towers across the country, so an additional 6,000 would see their footprint increase by half.
Now, we may be beginning to see the first of these investment plans, with Mitratel announcing that it has earmarked one trillion Indonesian rupiah (roughly $69.5 million) for the construction of new towers in the country’s frontier and outermost areas.
This funding will be on top of the company’s annual capex, which reached was roughly $688 million in 2021.
This move takes place against the backdrop of wider campaign by the government, aiming to expand broadband access to boost the country’s digital economy. Last month, the government’s Telecommunication and Information Accessibility Agency, Bakti, said it is currently building 7,904 new base stations in the 2021–2022 period, with around 12,500 blank spots still unserved around the country.
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