Heightened competition in Indonesia's mobile communications market, where a government spectrum auction is expected to increase the number of operators to 30 this year, could overload the country's infrastructure and ruin the quality of services, industry experts warn.
Indonesian media have reported that at least 73 companies will participate in the broadband wireless access (WiMax) tender for 2.3 gigahertz bandwidth spectrum, including three big operators - Telkom, Indosat and Bakrie Telecom.
The tender results will be announced next month.
Indonesia is one of the fastest-growing mobile markets. It had more than 140 million users at the end of last year, more than 40 per cent growth from the previous year. Cellphone penetration was 60 per cent.
However, with the strong growth in the past few years, industry players and analysts worried that the pro-competition regulatory framework in Indonesia implied limited access to scarce spectrum resources, which led to poor service quality once subscribers were increasing.
Indonesia is one of the most vibrant economies in Asia.
