Bisnis.com, JAKARTA – In early February 2021, in a working meeting with members of Commission I of the DPR, the Minister of Communication and Information (Menkominfo) Johnny G. Plate had stated that the 2.3 GHz frequency auction would still be targeted to be completed this year. In fact, even though the ecosystem in Indonesia is considered not ready to accept 5G technology, he said this auction is still important.
“I need to emphasize here that the 2.3 GHz spectrum auction has nothing to do with 5G deployments. The selection for the use of the 2.3 GHz radio frequency band aims to increase the capacity of the cellular mobile network, “said Johnny, at that time.
The Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo) then restarted the auction, which had stalled with a new scheme in early March 2021. Interestingly, several changes to the auction rules were enforced.
One of the most prominent is that it allows operators to bid for more than one block, aka taking bids. This differs greatly from the previously terminated auction mechanism, in which bidders were limited to only making bids for one block.
Reliance Sekuritas analyst Anissa Septiwijaya assessed that this new auction tends to benefit operators that previously already have existing frequency bands on the 2.3 GHz network.
For information, currently, there are only two companies that have obtained Kominfo licenses to deploy networks in the 2.3 GHz frequency. Both are PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Persero) Tbk. (TLKM) and PT Smartfren Telecom Tbk. (FREN).
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