Telkomsel Leads with the Most BTS Towers in Indonesia, Reaching 237,000

Indonesia's archipelagic nature, stretching from Aceh to Papua, presents a significant challenge for cellular operators in building telecommunications infrastructure. Cellular operators are racing to build Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) to serve customers throughout the country. As of June 2021, PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) had the largest number of BTS, with 237,300 units across Indonesia.

This number represents the highest number of BTS compared to other cellular operators, even considering the merger of Indosat Ooredoo and Hutchison 3. Of Telkomsel's BTS, 187,050 are 3G and 4G. This subsidiary of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Persero) Tbk has 169.2 million subscribers.

PT XL Axiata Tbk ranked second with 156,710 BTS in June 2021. This breaks down to 38,510 2G BTS, 52,530 3G BTS, and 65,660 4G BTS. It has 56.77 million subscribers.

PT Indosat Tbk (Indosat Ooredoo) ranked third with 132,430 BTS by the end of the first half of 2021. This includes 28,600 2G BTS, 35,070 3G BTS, and 68,760 4G BTS. PT Indosat Tbk has 60.3 million subscribers.

PT Smartfren Telekom Tbk (Smartfren) has 38,810 4G and 4.5G BTS. Its subscriber count reached approximately 30 million by the end of December 2020. PT Hutchison 3 Indonesia (Tri) has approximately 33,000 BTS and 44 million subscribers.

On September 17, 2021, Indosat Ooredoo and Tri officially announced their merger, valued at Rp 85 trillion. This merger created a new entity, PT Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison Tbk, and is expected to become the second-largest cellular operator in Indonesia.

Over 500,000 BTS have been built across Indonesia by cellular operators, but not all areas are served by communication networks, especially in the most remote, outermost, and underdeveloped areas (3T). Therefore, the government plans to build 7,904 BTS in 3T areas. This includes 4,200 BTS in 2021 and 3,704 BTS in 2022.