2013-2015, Data Operator Revenue Grew by Almost 100%

Revenue from the two cellular operators nearly doubled in two years. Between 2013 and 2015, Indosat's data traffic revenue grew the fastest at 98.87 percent, followed by Telkomsel at 93 percent and XL Axiata at 59.65 percent. However, Telkomsel still had the largest nominal revenue from data traffic, reaching Rp 20.2 trillion.

The booming smartphone market and increased social media usage have driven a continuous rise in domestic data traffic demand. Wider cellular signal coverage, decreasing smartphone prices, and faster data services have fueled rapid growth in consumer data demand.

Customers now prefer using social media to interact and communicate with others compared to SMS (short messages) or phone calls. This is why cellular operators' revenue from data traffic is growing faster than revenue from SMS or voice calls.