Indonesia’s Telecommunications and Information Accessibility Agency (BAKTI) has outlined plans to construct 630 base transceiver stations (BTS) in remote areas by the end of 2024.

The plans were confirmed by Yulis Widyo Marfiah, acting director of telecommunications and information service earlier this month.

Indonesia is made up of around 17,500 islands, of which around a third (6,000) are inhabited, but much of the country has challenging terrain meaning it's difficult to deploy vast mobile coverage.

According to BAKTI, the initiative aims to bridge the digital gap in the country, providing cellular coverage to some of the most remote regions.

"The security and geographic conditions in eastern Indonesia, particularly Papua, as the main challenges in completing this infrastructure work," said Marfiah, per Antara News.

Marfiah noted that BAKTI has paired with other stakeholders, such as the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) and the National Police (Polri), to work on the construction of the sites.

Network operators in Indonesia have also been pushing their investment in rural areas of the country.

Indosat CEO Vikram Sinha told DCD earlier this year that since Ooredoo Indosat and Hutchison Asia Telecom Group merged to create Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH), the company has been able to plug gaps in its coverage.

"We are really focused on improving the customer experience in these areas. In 2023, Indosat invested around $800 million (IDR13bn) in capital expenditure, around 60 percent of this being spent to strengthen our network in rural Indonesia. We are continuing this investment in 2024."

By 2027, the telco plans to connect 21 million rural residents to Internet and mobile services, as part of this investment.

Our full interview with IOH's Vikram Sinha is featured in DCD Issue 53