Indonesia’s largest mobile carrier Telkomsel has formed a strategic partnership with Microsoft in order to boost connectivity for consumers and businesses, particularly in Indonesia’s remote areas.
The memorandum of understanding was signed by Microsoft Indonesia president Haris Izmee and Telkomsel CEO Setyanto Hantoro, and witnessed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, in Jakarta.
The partnership leverages Telkomsel’s innovations in its private LTE network offerings and upcoming 5G network, allowing its geographically widespread network infrastructure to provide better data processing, according to an official statement. Meanwhile, the technical collaboration utilizing Microsoft’s cloud capabilities includes cloud edge, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things, and data hubs, which are expected to provide lower latency between devices. This will result in better solutions for consumers and businesses.
“In accordance with Microsoft’s focus on digital transformation, we are collaborating to establish a pilot project utilizing Telkomsel’s Private LTE infrastructure with the implementation of Azure Stack Edge. This will support customers in remote areas who need internet connectivity and AI solutions,” said Microsoft Indonesia president director Haris Izmee in a statement.
Microsoft will also support tech and sales empowerment and prepare development programs to help Telkomsel improve their sales capabilities. This partnership will strengthen Telkomsel’s focus on the enterprise segment. Telkomsel had previously collaborated with various partners to strengthen its digital services, including POS platform provider Pawoon and HR software player Gadjian.
Microsoft plans to build data centers in Indonesia. The company’s CEO Satya Nadella met with President Joko Widodo last week to discuss this plan, which the president welcomed positively. The president even promised Nadella that the government would develop a regulation to facilitate this move.
