XL Axiata Expands Network In North Sulawesi Supports Local Economic And Tourism Potential

JAKARTA - PT XL Axiata Tbk (XL Axiata) continues to be committed to supporting the government in providing equal distribution of broadband network coverage throughout Indonesia. One of XL Axiata's concerns is North Sulawesi Province which has great economic potential, including tourism.

For this reason, XL Axiata continues to expand its quality data network in order to facilitate the digitization needs of the local community. Group Head East Region XL Axiata, Dodik Ariyanto said, XL Axiata is very serious about continuing to improve telecommunications and data services in the North Sulawesi region.

"As a result of the network expansion that we carried out, currently XL Axiata services in North Sulawesi have been reached 100 percent with the 4G network, a total of 97 sub-districts, and 776 villages. In recent years, the company has also continued to expand to areas that have not affordable cellular services, especially in this area, XL Axiata has added around 161 4G BTS," said Dodik in his written statement, Thursday, June 24.

Dodik Ariyanto added that in North Sulawesi, XL Axiata currently has more than 1,000 BTS spread across four cities and seven regencies serving a total of more than 150 thousand customers. All areas in North Sulawesi have been served by the 4G BTS network.

The most customers are in Manado City, with more than 63 thousand customers, followed by Minahasa Regency with around 30 thousand customers, and North Minahasa with around 22 thousand customers. This expansion will continue to be carried out so that services can more evenly reach areas with great economic potential, including a number of tourist destination areas and industrial areas.

In the last two years, XL Axiata data service traffic has continued to increase by around 183 percent. This traffic has the potential to continue to increase considering that the people of North Sulawesi in general are also increasingly dependent on various digital services to support productivity and gain access to entertainment services.

Not to mention, said Dodik, school children and students must also take part in distance learning. For this reason, XL Axiata is also intensively implementing a data network fiberization program in this province. Until now, fiberization has reached about 22 percent of BTS in the area.

"If the toll road currently being built from Danowudu to Bitung is completed and operational, economic activity will increase. Various economic sectors will grow because the mobility from Manado to Bitung as two economic centers, becomes smoother. Especially in the Bitung Special Economic Zone and the Manado-Bitung-Likupang National Tourism Strategic Area, XL Axiata has operated around 58 3G/4G BTS," said Dodik.

Strengthening the XL Axiata network in North Sulawesi is part of strengthening the network throughout Sulawesi and Eastern Indonesia which is currently being intensively implemented. Throughout Sulawesi, XL Axiata has a total of more than 7,000 BTS, more than 40 percent of which are 4G BTS, which serve more than 2.5 million customers.