Mobile Data Traffic in Indonesia

We all know that when we are talking about traffic, there is one place which tops it all: Jakarta, Indonesia. The traffic in Jakarta has been too heavy that many travelers, tourists, locals and even government institutions have raised warning precautions for those travelers who want to visit the place.

As the fourth most populous country in the world, Indonesia is not surprisingly plagued with traffic issues. But speaking of traffic, vehicular and road traffics are not the only ones to look forward to. Mobile data traffic is starting to get congested in the country.

With three leading data providers domineering the steer of the market, citizens and subscribers get decent promotions for the use of their data plans. Competitions among Telkomsel with 60% of data market share, XL Axiata with its integration with Axis Capital Group (another ) and Indosat is reviewed to have 19% of the populations' subscribers has advanced from promoting their brand to creating new services to entice the growing number of users.

Young Indonesians' enthusiasm for smartphones and social networking has helped boost economic development and has been good news for the likes of RIM (Research in Motion), which sells millions of its Blackberry phones in the country each year, and Facebook.

But, unless the government frees up more spectrum to meet surging demand for mobile data services, the mobile phone network could end up resembling the Jakarta traffic system – clogged up, unable to function properly and stymieing economic growth.

With 180 million subscribers predicted to increase in 2017, the challenge is for operators to find ways to lessen the complaints of loss of connection, busy networks and choppy calls.

With more mobile phone connections than there are people in Indonesia, a nation of 240m, and a growing number of them using mobile internet services, the network infrastructure is struggling to keep up.

Dropped mobile phone calls are already an everyday inconvenience for everyone from motorbike taxi drivers to tycoons.

Freeing up more spectrums for mobile internet data will support economic development, particularly in rural areas where there is no fixed-line access.

Many believe that the task, albeit challenging is not impossible. As long as the archipelago can adapt the systems used the United States of America's major cities like New York where mobile traffic is worse than its stream of people, they can sustain their mobility on the vtop ranks of the board.