Indosat Introduced 3G 900 MHz in Padang

Ilustrasi (Dok)

PADANG (Indotelko) – PT Indosat start to utilize 3G 900 MHz license. They choose Padang and Bukittinggi as the first city to launch services based on this technology.

Since Minister Tifatul Sembiring issued a decree no.504/KEP/M.KOMINFO/08/2012 on August 31st 2012, containing permissibility to use 3G technology based on 900 MHz frequency, Indosat keeps modernizing their network in a serious way.

Group Head Network Quality & Surveillance Group Network Directorate of Indosat, Mirza Helmi said the company has initiated a soft launch of 900 MHz 3G services in Padang and Bukittinggi.

“Until now there are 52 unit of BTS to support 900 MHz 3G in both city. By the end of this year, there will be 3 more BTS. It means total of 55 BTS will support 3G services in this frequency,” he said.

He explained, Indosat has 10MHz bandwidth in 900 MHz spectrum. They plans to use 5 MHz of it for 3G technology based on 900 MHz spectrum. “Using 900 MHz spectrum for 3G is more profitable in terms of penetration. In term of speed is also quite promising with 5 Mbps for download and 2 Mbps for upload,” he claimed.

Furthermore, he said other area targeted for network modernization at 900 MHz is Jabodetabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi). In this area Indosat appointed Ericsson as network providers targeted to be complete in first quarter of 2013.

As for West Java, Huawei is also working to install the Software Define Radio (SDR). It’s targeted to be complete in October 2012, so they can do commercial launch on the first quarter of 2013.

Indosat also has the same plan for Bali and Nusa Tenggara area. In October 2012 Nokia Siemens Network (NSN)-owned devices will be replaced with Huawei, so they can commercially launch next year.

“The rest of the area to be used for 900 MHz 3G technology will be decided by market demand. If our marketing team stated one area is proper to be optimized for data services, we simply plug SDR. We also have plans to make all the radio devices homogeneous, helped by Norcon as consultant. If it runs smoothly, the process to turn on the 3G at 900 MHz is easier,” he explained.

Previously, Director General Tools and Resources for Post and Information Technology at Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Muhammad Budi Setiawan promised to supervised Indosat trial on 900 MHz 3G services.

“We will oversee the 3G 900 MHz services. One of the deals is Indosat agree not to turn off the previous technology (2G) to run new services (3G),” Budi Setiawan said.

He added that 2G services predicted will disappear within 2 or 3 years in line with the growth of smartphone market. Today 2G services remains exist with large amount of users.

He promised, government will review and revoke the licenses, if 2G service runs slow or stop at the same time with 3G testing.