Starlink Targets Smartphone Customers in Indonesia. Cellular Operators Ask Government to Be Bold

Elon Musk as the owner of StarLink, a satellite-based Internet Service Provider will launch Direct to Cell in Indonesia. This can be seen on StarLink's website, they display Direct to Cell for business class users.

What kind of service is Direct to Sell? Direct to Cell is a service where Smartphone users can directly connect to the internet from StarLink satellites. So smartphones no longer need to be connected to cellular operator BTS towers.

Elon Musk's business strategy has certainly received attention from several cellular operators in Indonesia, especially XL Axiata. XL Axiata's view is that Elon Musk is targeting B2C (Direct to customer) sales. Henry Wijayanto as Head of External Communication from XL Axiata asked the government to emphasize healthy competition in the Indonesian telecommunications industry because Henry believes this will have a big impact on other cellular operators.

"So we encourage or ask the government so that Starlink at least cooperates with cellular organizers, operators in this case. So it's not direct to the end user,"

Henry also said that Starlink is a new breakthrough and XL Axiata is open to collaboration opportunities with StarLink. At the same time, XL Axiata's Group Head of Corporate Communication, Reza Zahid Mirza, added that XL Axiata is waiting for the Indonesian government's command on Starlink. But Reza hopes that the government must be firm in providing the same telecommunications regulations for StarLink.

"We hope that the government will equalize telecommunications regulations for them. Don't just come in. Legally, it's not B2C yet,” said Reza. In addition, Reza continues to discuss this matter with the Association of Telecommunications Operators throughout Indonesia (ATSI) and also the Indonesian government about this issue.

/Yunan