Nusa Dua, 20 October 2022 – PT Dayamitra Telekomunikasi Tbk or “Mitratel” will focus on developing the telecommunications tower ecosystem starting from the tower construction business, fiber optics, providing power supply from solar panels as well as entering the area of edge computing to support 5G services. This business development step is considered to increase the company’s revenue and profits compared to just operating and building a tower business.
This was conveyed by Mitratel Investment Director Hendra Purnama in a meeting with investors at the SOE International Conference which is part of the Roa to G20 agenda which took place in Nusa Dua Bali on 17-18 October 2022. Hendra added that Mitratel, which is currently supported by the Telkom Group, has a team that is strong throughout Indonesia, so it has more capabilities than other similar companies.
“This is a good opportunity in 2023, with the tower business supported by fiber optics, edge computing, and power to tower, the margins obtained from the tower industry will be more attractive than just towers,” said Hendra. Furthermore, Hendra explained, in terms of financial performance, Mitratel’s revenue this year is expected to increase by around 12%, and EBITDA is expected to increase by around 15%. Mitratel is organically targeting expansion of 1,000 towers, and around 2,500 for colocation, in addition to deploying 9,000 km of fiber optic to support high-quality and high-capacity connectivity.
He added that currently Mitratel has several competitive advantages. First, in terms of coverage, Mitratel has 35,000 towers spread throughout Indonesia, of which around 58% are outside Java. This will add attraction for mobile operators if they want to expand outside Java.
“They (mobile operators) don’t need to build another tower, just occupy (collocate) our existing tower, because building a tower takes quite a long time. “That’s the advantage of our towers which are spread throughout Indonesia,” he added. Apart from that, most of the Mitratel towers are connected using a fiber optic network. “Fiber optics is a solution to increase bandwidth capacity and reduce latency,” he explained.
The next solution, continued Hendra, is that Mitratel is working with Telkomsat to provide connectivity solutions using satellite services. According to him, with the support of connectivity via satellite, tower construction can be carried out anywhere, including in remote areas, with quite good quality. “4G services can still be enjoyed, you can enjoy them for video conferencing, video streaming and so on, because they have high bandwidth and low latency,” explained Hendra.
Meanwhile, on the same occasion, Hendra said that the company’s progress so far has proven its vision and mission in implementing environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) principles.
He explained that in the environmental sector, Mitratel has more than 600 off-grid towers that use solar panels. Furthermore, currently the company is also conducting research and development to use solar panels as a power source in on-grid locations with a hybrid model.
With the development of these additional services, this confirms that Mitratel is not only the largest telecommunications tower company in Indonesia but also the tower company with the most complete services in Indonesia. Mitratel is ready to become the market leader of telecommunications tower companies in welcoming the 5G era in Indonesia.
