Government Expected to Expand 5G Spectrum in Indonesia

The presence of 5G networks in Indonesia is still in the early stages of implementation by the government and several cellular operators.

Unfortunately, the implementation of the fifth generation of telecommunications technology in Indonesia still faces several challenges.

The Coordinator of Radio Telecommunication Standards at the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, Indra Utama, in an Online Webinar, Tuesday (11/01/2022), mentioned several challenges in Indonesia's 5G implementation.

The first is fiberization and passive infrastructure, fiberization efforts need to be accelerated by telecommunications operators so that inter-BTS connections and middle-mile/backhaul networks have a large and responsive transmission capacity. In addition, there is a need for support by facilitating access to passive infrastructure.

The second challenge that becomes the main challenge in implementing 5G in Indonesia is the radio frequency spectrum.

Globally, the 5G spectrum that is widely used in the world is in the Low Band (700 MHz), Mid Band (2.6 GHz, 3.5 GHz) and for the High Band it is at 26 GHz, 28 GHz).

In Indonesia itself, 4G and 5G services are currently in the 2.1 GHz and 2.3 GHz frequencies.

Telkomsel as one of the cellular operators in Indonesia expects the government to release new spectrums which will come with more flexible spectrum prices.

Then, the provision of spectrum is also expected to be based on the ability and commitment of the company's deployment to avoid the allocated frequency being not optimal and the government's PNBP is not reduced.

Christian G. Gustiana as GM Network Strategic Roadmap Telkomsel said that the ideal spectrum for operators is related to their needs.

"What is needed in the future are 2 things, the first is for coverage and the second is capacity ," said Christian.

According to his explanation, for coverage, operators need a low spectrum ( low ) because with a low spectrum the coverage will be wider. For capacity , you can use mid or high spectrums .

Then, another consideration is the ecosystem, the low spectrum at 450 MHz has a small and not optimal ecosystem.

"Hopefully, the low spectrum and many ecosystems are at 700 MHz, then mid and high , which have a lot of ecosystems, are at 2.6 and 3.5," he added.

Looking at the spectrum roadmap submitted by the Ministry of Communications and Informatics, the government has prepared a plan for a new candidate for a frequency band, namely 700 MHz which is expected to be auctioned in 2022, then 2.6 GHz is estimated to be present in 2025 or sooner, 3.3 and 3.5 GHz in 2020. 2023 or faster, and 26 and 28 GHz in 2022/2023.