First Operating commercially since 1996, XL Axiata is one of the major cellular providers in Indonesia. Its focus is to provide digital services for the people of Indonesia as well as to encourage the development of Indonesia’s digital economy. XL provides various digital services for both the consumer and corporate segments which is supported by its wide and high-quality network across the nation. The company is a part of the Axiata Group (“Group”). The Group’s mobile subsidiaries and associates operate under the brand name ‘Celcom’ in Malaysia, ‘Dialog’ in Sri Lanka, ‘Robi’ in Bangladesh, ‘Smart’ in Cambodia, ‘Ncell’ in Nepal, ‘Idea’ in India and ‘M1’ in Singapore.
XL Axiata continues to ensure topnotch quality of data experience to its customers with continued roll-out and upgrades of its network. XL Axiata’s total BTS recorded more than 118,000 BTS with 4G-LTE service now available in 400 cities and areas across Indonesia and with over 28,000 4G BTS, and more than 45,000 km fiber optic network across Indonesia, serving approximately 55 million subs. XL Axiata remains innovative and is the first telecommunications operator in Indonesia to commercially launch 4.5G Ready on the 1,800 MHZ spectrum.
Unique Solutions for Unique Customers
XL Axiata serves people as well as corporate markets through business solutions and services. These services are Mobile communications, fixed connectivity services, Internet of things, Cloud & data Center, and Mobile Advertising. For consumer market, the company serves through dual brand, which are XL and AXIS brand. XL brand focuses to serve the market of white collar, blue collar, and alsi premium market segment via XL Prioritas, while AXIS serves youth segment market.
Intrigued by Telecommunications
Dian Siswarini is the CEO and President Director of XL Axiata. She believes the telecommunications space is very dynamic compared to other industries. This intrigued her and drove her to start her career in the industry. Therefore she decided to focus on telecommunications field after she graduated from Electrical Engineering at the Bandung Institute of Technology.
Dian started her career as a supervisor in engineering at PT. Citra San Makmur (CSM) in 1991 and in 1994; she joined PT Satelindo for the same position. Dian was appointed as a Manager of Network Design & Engineering an year after she joined XL. Her hard work and passion for her work led her to occupy the Vice President Network in 2005. Dian also took an executive program at Harvard Advance Management Program, Harvard Business School, in USA in 2013.
Releasing Pressure
Currently, telecom industry in general, is facing pressure in most of its products including retail and business segments due to more fierce competition. For retail customer, it is clearer to be seen since all operators are trying to offer competitive packages for customers which definitely is slashing companies’ margin. Different with enterprise segment, the offering is based on tender of projects where XL Axiata has tailored the offers based on its client needs. However, the pressure comes when its clients are also trying to be more efficient in term of cost.
Despite the pressures coming from all angles, XL Axiata is confident that it can compete in the market as it keeps investing in its network for wider outreach and better quality and always innovates to be more efficient internally, for example, in digitalization, network design, power management, etc. to bring the most competitive products for its customers.
Revamp. Rise. Reinvent.
The development of telecom industry in Indonesia is still very challenging. Competition among operators is still high, especially in providing better services to customers. The operators also face challenges in terms of the declining of voice and SMS services. XL Axiata also believes that the voice services will gradually vanish from the market. Therefore, it is very important for it to push the business of data services for the company growth. In order to face the upcoming challenge, the company has already prepared itself by implementing business transformation through the strategy of 3R since 2015 until now.
The transformation involves: Revamp – to shift subscriber acquisition (from largely ‘no value’ to ‘value’ subs) & distribution strategies as well as a total overhaul of the product portfolio to improve yields. Rise – moving the XL brand up the value ladder and via a dual-brand strategy with Axis to address different segments of the market. Reinvent – going beyond today’s business model.
Aspiring Development
Right now XL Axiata provides various digital services for both the consumer and corporate segments which is supported by its wide and high-quality network across the nation. For future, its focus is to provide digital services for the people of Indonesia as well as to encourage the development of Indonesia’s digital economy. Additionally, the company’s vision is “to be the most preferred data connectivity provider by 2020.”
