Jakarta. Over the past three years, state-owned telecom company Telkom Indonesia has been striving to transform into a leading digital telecommunications company in a bid to support Indonesia’s digital sovereignty.

Telkom embraces three missions, namely: accelerating digital infrastructure and platform development, nurturing the best digital talents, and forming a digital ecosystem. Telkom said the company’s visions and missions aligned with State-Owned Enterprise Minister Erick Thohir’s directives.

“Indonesia must show other nations that we do have our own ecosystem. Telkom, as a digital telco serves as one of the backbones to Indonesia’s digitalization, must continue to innovate and collaborate for an equitable digital ecosystem in the future,” Erick was quoted as saying in a recent Telkom press release.

And this has driven Telkom to accelerate its transformative steps and drive Indonesia’s digitalization, the company said. Telkom finds that digital potential can make a great opportunity to support a more equitable and better quality digitalization in the country. 

The company's goal of building a robust and competitive telecommunications company is not solely to meet the growing demand for better connectivity and mobility. But it is also to strengthen national integrity. Digitalization would take Indonesia to make a leapfrog to be of the same standing as other advanced economies, according to Telkom.

The state-owned company also reiterated its commitment to support the achievement of a digitally independent and sovereign Indonesia. To this end, Telkom focuses on building its competence and capability in digital business by focusing on three pillars: digital connectivity, digital platform, and digital services.

In the past three years of its transformation journey, Telkom continues to develop digital infrastructure, platforms, and services. Telkom has set up 171,654-kilometer fiber optics which reach up to 499 cities and districts. This infrastructure is supported by two satellites equipped with 109 transponders, 255,107 Telkomsel base transceiver stations, and 36,767 telecommunication towers. Telkom also has 27 data centers, five of which are overseas.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Telkom helps the government in dealing with the health crisis and recovering the national economy. In addition to social assistance, Telkom helps provide connectivity, platform, and digital app support.

“Telkom’s steps in becoming a digital telco have shown great results and positive growth. This achievement is inseparable from the company’s consistency to strengthen the digital capability and make countless innovations for us to transform,” Telkom president director Ririek Adiransyah said.

“Telkom will continue to seize opportunities even amid the pandemic to accelerate its digital business for sustainable growth, optimal value creation for our stakeholders, and an abundance of benefits for the Indonesian people,” Ririek said.

Five Bold Moves
According to Ririek, Telkom has “five bold moves” for the company to strengthen its competitive edge. 

First is the fixed & mobile strategy (FMC) in which Telkom continues to boost its market presence, cost efficiency, and operation excellence, while also improving customer experience. Second is the Infra Co strategy. Telkom seeks to unlock the potential for consolidation of its infrastructure assets, including optical access network infrastructure and towers.

Third, in the Data Center Co strategy, Telkom is in the process of consolidating data center assets and enhancing data center business capacity. Fourth is the B2B IT Service strategy, which starts with both an internal and external transformation through collaboration and partnerships. Last but not least is to develop a digital company (digico) that focuses on B2B and B2C.

“As an engine of digitalization in Indonesia, Telkom will continue to proactively keep an eye on the market potentials and opportunities to expand our business. The Five Bold Moves have become Telkom’s priority to strengthen the company’s competitive advantages to be able to achieve equitable digital sovereignty for a better Indonesia," Ririek said.