Indosat Ooredoo 5G commercial rollout reaches Makassar

Indosat Ooredoo’s commercial 5G services have made it to Makassar, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, the local launch is part of a partnership with Huawei aimed at reviving key economic sectors, specifically in agriculture, trade and tourism.

The Indonesian telco’s latest 5G services launch follows previous launches of 5G commercial services in Solo, Jakarta and Surabaya. It is claimed the move represents the first introduction of Indosat Ooredoo commercial 5G services in Eastern Indonesia.

“I am deeply humbled and proud to launch Indosat Ooredoo’s 5G commercial services in Makassar to continue the 5G revolution across the country, reaching Eastern Indonesia,” said Indosat Ooredoo president director and CEO Ahmad Al-Neama, who inaugurated the launch.

“This technology will open up huge opportunities for the locals to revive the economy across industries at the epicentre of trade in Eastern Indonesia, ranging from agriculture, trade and tourism sectors.

“With the presence of 5G connectivity, we continue our commitment to power digital transformation to strengthen Indonesia’s economic recovery in this challenging time,” he added.

Jacky Chen, CEO of Huawei Indonesia, noted that the launch was the second time the Chinese telco equipment maker had helped to underpin the commercialisation of Indosat Ooredoo’s 5G services in Indonesia after a previous launch in Solo, Central Java.

“It is an honor for Huawei to be trusted to support the launch of 5G services in Makassar, which is the largest city as well as the centre of trade, business and industry in Eastern Indonesia,” Chen said.

“Support for our trusted partner Indosat Ooredoo is a manifestation of Huawei’s ongoing commitment to helping build Indonesia as a developed country based on innovation, becoming more intelligent and connected and opening up digital economic opportunities throughout the country, which we believe will be accelerated with the support of 5G technology,” he added.

For Andi Sudirman Sulaiman acting governor of South Sulawesi, the launch of the new services is set to introduce newfound capability to the local business landscape in Makassar and the island more broadly.

“We are proud to see 5G technology finally reached Makassar, thanks to Indosat Ooredoo and Huawei,” Sulaiman said. “We believe this 5G technology will improve the productivity of the locals and help boost the local economy.

“Such technology will transform the way industries operate, businesses create value and consumers access products and services. Hopefully, the launch of 5G commercial services can bring huge benefits to the people of Makassar and Eastern Indonesia,” he added.

The launch comes just weeks after Indosat Ooredoo moved to target the small- and medium-sized business (SMB) market after striking a new strategic partnership with Google Cloud.

It is claimed the partnership is strongly aligned to the Indonesian government’s digital economy development program goals and will serve Indonesia’s SMBs as a priority target segment, spanning many areas that are core to the capabilities of both Indosat Ooredoo and Google Cloud.

The strategic deal will see the two organisations work jointly to digitally transform Indonesia’s SMBs across their business lifecycles.

Specifically, Indosat Ooredoo and Google Cloud plan to create a marketplace of tailored software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings with a goal of fully digitising SMBs from the day they register their businesses and at every stage of their business journeys.

Days before the the partnership with Google was announced, the telco revealed it had deepened its partnership with networking vendor Cisco in a bid to help strengthen the telco’s mobile and fibre network to support more commercial launches of 5G and high-speed connectivity services.

The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 3 November with the intention to collaborate on the development of next-generation connectivity solutions for businesses of all sizes across the country.
 
The agreement followed an earlier partnership, announced in June, that saw Indosat Ooredoo work with Cisco in its first commercial deployment of segment routing over IPv6 (SRv6) technology to support the development of its 5G services across the country. Channel Asia