21 million Indonesians will go online by 2027, lowering digital divide: Indosat CEO

Twenty-two percent of Indonesians still don’t have internet access, Indonesia communications minister Budi Arie Setiadi said in October. Most unconnected Indonesians live in non-metro urban areas, according to the World Bank. 

But that’s changing fast. Vikram Sinha, CEO of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchinson, the country’s second-largest telecoms company, estimates that 21 million Indonesians will go online between now and 2027. To compare, that’s close to the population of the U.S. state of Florida or the country of Sri Lanka—and equal about 8% of Indonesia’s entire population. 

“We have to make sure we tap that opportunity,” Sinha said.

IOH spent around $829 million on capital expenditure last year, much of it towards developing its cellular business and expanding network coverage to rural and remote areas. The company is also expanding its wireless coverage to Nusantara, the still-under-construction new capital on the island of Borneo.

Sinha hopes that being the service provider for rural Indonesians will create opportunities for sticky revenue. Providing data access in turn provides connection to other digital services; that means more time spent on phones, and in turn higher data consumption—and thus revenue per user.

Indonesians spend about five hours a day on their phones, Sinha says, but still lags other Southeast Asian countries like Thailand and the Philippines.

Sinha doesn’t want IOH to remain just a telecoms company. The company is making a long-term play to become a tech company, generating $15 million last year…