Indonesia’s top phone carrier leaves door open for Huawei 5G
- Telkom Indonesia’s chief says he will wait to see how the dispute between the US and the Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor plays out
- Indonesia is in no rush to pick suppliers since it is still years away from launching its 5G wireless service
Southeast Asia’s largest market for telecom services is still several years from launching 5G, allowing PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, commonly known as Telkom Indonesia, time to decide whether to pick Huawei as a supplier, President Director Ririek Adriansyah said.
“We’re still waiting to see what’s going to happen with Huawei and the US and China and the US,” Adriansyah said. “We use all major vendors in the world, so we can wait and see. We can go in any direction that we believe to be the best option for us.”
The Trump administration has blacklisted China’s largest technology company while accusing it of aiding Beijing in espionage. The US has also curbed sales of technology Huawei has used in some of its phones and telecommunications equipment, creating the risk that customers of the company will not be able to update software in its devices.
Huawei has been one of the Indonesian carrier’s key equipment suppliers.
With smartphone penetration estimated at only 70 per cent and far-flung regions in the vast archipelago still using 2G services, Indonesia will be behind regional markets such as Singapore, Thailand and South Korea in introducing 5G services, Adriansyah said.