PT Solusi Tunas Pratama plans to buy 3,500 telecommunications towers in an all-cash deal, with an aim to complete the acquisition by the end of this year, XL Axiata and STP said Wednesday.

STP, in which Carlyle invested between $100 million and $150 million in October 2012, owns 2,786 telecom towers in Indonesia, making it the country’s third-largest tower operator.

The sale comes as mobile operators globally are either selling or spinning off their capital-heavy tower investments in emerging markets to cut costs, instead opting to share towers by renting them from other telecom or tower companies. The acquisition of XL Axiata’s towers will help STP strengthen its business in a country that has experienced a rapid increase in mobilephone usage and growth in wireless access to data services through computers and smartphones. In August, Samsung Electronics Co. said it was considering producing cellphones in Indonesia, home to about 240 million people, half of whom are under the age of 30.

XL Axiata, which is 66.5%-owned by telecom operator Axiata Group Bhd. of Kuala Lumpur, is Indonesia’s second-largest mobile-phone operator by subscribers, after PT Telkomsel. The company started a sale process for its Indonesia tower business three months ago, attracting several bids ranging from Indonesia’s largest telecom-infrastructure company, Tower Bersama Group, to other operators such as Protelindo, a unit of PT Sarana Menara Nusantara, and Retower, a unit of PT Centratama Telekomunikasi Indonesia. XL Axiata had initiated the tower sale to repay some of the debt it took to acquire a smaller rival, PT Axis Telecom Indonesia, for $865 million earlier this year.

XL Axiata has said its debt was more than twice the size of its equity in the first half of this year.

“The sale unlocks the value of a part of our tower portfolio at an attractive valuation and on competitive terms. XL [Axiata] will be using the transaction proceeds to partially deleverage,” XL Axiata Chief Executive Hasnul Suhaimi said in a written statement.

XL Axiata isn’t alone in looking to unlock value from its tower business. In July, Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s largest cellphone company, said it had agreed to sell its tower business to Helios Tower African. In May, IHS Holdings Ltd., Africa’s largest independent mobile-infrastructure provider, completed an acquisition of 1,269 mobile-network towers from South African telecom company MTN Group Ltd.

XL Axiata, which has more than 65 million subscribers, owns about 8,000 telecom towers in Indonesia that relay radio and telecom signals in the world’s fourth-most-populous country.

J.P. Morgan and Standard Chartered Bank advised STP on the deal.

" Our 4G LTE definitely ( slide ) this year , at a frequency of 900 MHz , " said Head of Network Planning XL Axiata , Rahmadi Mulyahartono , when met KompasTekno in Jakarta , Wednesday ( 12/10/2014 ).

Nevertheless, the XL admits that they cannot disclose the exact date of his deployment of 4G LTE network. As well as the billing scheme is being finalized. "Just like the song Velasquez course, had its day,” added Public Relations Manager XL Henry Vitello.

XL Axiata has submitted a proposal for Operation Feasibility Test (ULO) 4G LTE and is currently in the review process. When it passed the test and got the Feasibility Certification Operations, mobile operators can launch 4G LTE service.

If it is held later , XL customers can enjoy 4G LTE data services in exchange for your old SIM card with a new SIM card that contains configuration settings 4G LTE network . This exchange can be done at the XL Center nearby. Old mobile numbers can be maintained.

Earlier, in late October 2014, XL Axiata has deployed 4G LTE trials in several areas in Jakarta, such as Casablanca City Mall, Mall Central Park, and Senayan City Mall. Cooperating with network equipment providers Huawei and Ericsson, XL Axiata promises 4G LTE data transfer speeds up to 100 Mbps.

Together with Indosat and Telkomsel, XL Axiata is one of the cellular operators who have 4G LTE frequency allocation in the 900 MHz frequency of 7.5 MHz. In addition to the frequency, XL Axiata also plans to roll out 4G services in the frequency of 1,800 MHz for use in aggregation with a frequency of 900 MHz.

Source: XL Axiata Axis capital Group Jakarta PT Telecom news

The adaptation of the internet has the same effect. Take for example when we are in a situation where we do not know of something, we would always resort to Google to learn. Netizens have also already risen and tagged as the unlicensed media. We now depend on it for information and ease of task. Without it, the world today as we now know would be dim and confusing. It is no longer hard to imagine impossible things in our heads being realized. 

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) has the brightest future out of all the services in the internet. A great impact in technology and data use is already being predicted to soar higher than ever with the access to WLAN connection everywhere. Nowadays, even public transportations have their own network, exclusive for their own customers and clients. The next generation WAN will mean different things to different enterprises. 

Since the easier access of the internet, transactions and deals have been done online. Data and information has been stored in the clouds and users for social media networks have tripled in number. 

But WLAN has not only done good things. There are also negative impacts of free Wi-Fi services. Dependency on it has been a great threat to our social and physical lifestyle. Moreover, the risk of identity fraud and other online scams has risen overtime.

Yet, WLAN still continue to grow even in developing cities. 

Many places have already adapted free wi-fi services in restaurants and other public places. The only trouble is the huge data traffic that causes connection to dwindle and slow. Axis Capital Group, one of the leading telecommunications operators in Indonesia under the subsidy of XL Axiata which is one of the Big Three of the archipelago noted that one of the biggest challenges is to provide steady stream of connection, especially in the capital cities, Jakarta and Sumatra where the center of activities are.

The adaptation of data may still come a long way and would take sufficient amount of time and effort but with the powerful capability of IT, WLAN is still here to stay.