Phone operators brace for competition

JAKARTA. Cellular operators in the country are bracing themselves for tight competition ahead of the upcoming Islamic fasting month of Ramadhan and the Idul Fitri holiday by offering promotions and special services.

It is a regular annual competition for telecommunication operators, when they compete for more subscribers during the religious festival.

This year, however, competition will be even tougher as the operators will be fighting for market share during the much-anticipated World Cup soccer competition.

Ramadhan and Idul Fitri will overlap with the World Cup during June and July this year, when most schoolchildren will also be on holiday.

The country’s second-largest cell phone operator, PT XL Axiata, has prepared for the competition by targeting 3 million new customers for its value-added services (VAS), which include ring back tone (RBT), games and video streaming. Some of the services have already been launched.

XL recorded 68.5 million customers nationwide as of the first quarter, 37.5 million of whom are data subscribers.

“We are very prepared for the events. We have launched a special VAS called Gila Bola [Crazy Soccer] ahead of the World Cup, and we will also be launching some special VAS for Ramadhan and Idul Fitri,” XL’s senior general manager of digital entertainment, Revie Sylviana, said recently, referring to the firm’s service that will provide news and quizzes on the World Cup.

Revie said XL had booked a 30 percent increase in the number of Gila Bola subscribers each week and expected the number would surge when the World Cup kicked off on June 12.

XL also planned to launch special data services offering Islamic-themed wallpapers, greetings and interactive games to earn more revenue and attract more customers during Ramadhan and Idul Fitri, she said.

Revie added that XL expected all its special data services and VAS for the three occasions to contribute between 15 and 20 percent of the company’s total revenue in the second quarter of this year.

XL booked Rp 1.2 trillion (US$103.2 million) in revenue from data services and VAS in the January-March period this year, up by 29 percent from Rp 987 billion in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, PT Indosat spokesman Harsya Denny Suryo said data and VAS were not big revenue
contributors for the company, but that it would boost the services during June and July as they were the firm’s fastest-growing business sector.

Indosat’s data and VAS made up only Rp 285 billion or 5 percent of its total revenue of Rp 5.7 trillion in the first quarter this year.

The company’s year-on-year (y-o-y) revenue from data and VAS, however, grew by 6.7 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively. Its revenue from SMS and voice services, meanwhile, dropped by 5.4 percent and 7.4 percent, respectively.

“Demand for data use is on the rise, so we definitely want to add to our number of customers with special services dedicated to the World Cup, Ramadhan and Idul Fitri,” Harsya said, declining to reveal details of the firm’s target.

Previously, Indosat’s content and VAS division head, Hesti Diyahanita, had said that the company had developed a unique application, Domikado, which would allow customers to watch World Cup action live on their smartphones.

“We want to increase the number of customers with that application and other content applications,” she said, adding that Indosat had 59.7 million customers as of the first quarter.

The country’s largest cellular operator, PT Telekomunikasi Seluler (Telkomsel), meanwhile, aims to focus on holding live events besides developing its VAS and data services to attract new customers during the World Cup.

Telkomsel already had 132.6 million customers as of the first quarter in 2014, and it aims to have 137 million customers by yearend.

Telkomsel’s external communications general manager, Denny Abe, said the company, which is the official mobile broadcaster for this year’s World Cup, would invite its customers to watch World Cup matches on big screens at 250 sites across the country.

“We are also focusing on enhancing our 3G network in anticipation of surging demand for data services during June and July,” he added.

Denny said that Telkomsel would soon be launching a digital application, Bola Samba, which would allow smartphone users to keep up to date with all the World Cup news.

Telkomsel also plans to launch the fully digitalized Telkomsel Siaga, which will allow customers to access the schedule for their five daily prayers, as well as recommended restaurants for fast-breaking, route maps and many other things.

“Telkomsel Siaga is not a new application as we already launched it years ago, but what is new is that it is fully digital as many more people are now using smartphones with Internet access,” he said.

The number of mobile data subscriptions in the country is predicted to reach 107 million this year and 125 million by 2017, according to the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII). (Khoirul Amin)