Digital Mastery

The COVID-19 has fundamentally changed PT Telkom Indonesia to be a digital telecommunication company.

- Ulisari Eslita

The COVID-19 pandemic is a catalyst for digitalization. And telecommunication company, being the infrastructure provider, has become ever more central to how modern society operates. As many are aware, due to the pandemic, telco companies around the world are facing surging bandwidth demand as people are forced to do almost everything from home, from working, studying, shopping, to leisure activities. Consequently, to fulfill their needs, telco providers must build customers' trust by providing reliable services.

Luckily, last year, the state-owned telecommunication company PT Telkom Indonesia decided to transform itself into a digital telecommunication company with core business such as digital connectivity, digital platform, and digital services.

We have to change so that our core business is not merely telecommunication, but also connectivity, data center, cloud, and services, says Ririek Adriansyah, CEO of Telkom.

The change of plan has brought a strong fundamental for Telkom during the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting its third quarter of 2020 performance. During the first nine months, Telkom booked a slight increase of 1.33% net profit to Rp16.6 trillion, while its net profit margin increased slightly from 16% to 16.7%. Thanks to some improvements and efficiency, which help Telkom to gain an increase in net profit.

Indihome, the fixed broadband Internet service, posted a strong performance both in financial and subscribers growth. IndiHome generated Rp 16.1 trillion revenue, an increase of 17.1% from the same period last year. Its subscribers increased 752,000 by the end of the third quarter, reaching out to a total of more than 7.76 million subscribers. Telkom sets a target to reach 8 million subscribers by the end of this year.