Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison reported outstanding performance in the 2023 fiscal year (which concluded on December 31, 2023), with strong growth in total revenue, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, data traffic, and the number of 4G BTS (Base Transceiver Station).
Indosat generated a total revenue of USD 3,323 million in 2023— a 10% increase over the previous year. Total revenue growth was driven by improved consumer and enterprise customer quality, as well as strong performance across all company business lines. Cellular revenue increased by 8.7% YoY, which can be attributed to increased data and interconnection revenue. Meanwhile, multimedia, data communication, and internet revenue increased by 13.0% YoY, driven by higher revenue from IT services and Fixed Internet. Furthermore, fixed telecommunications revenue increased by 28.4% year-on-year, driven by higher revenue from international calls and fixed networks.
This revenue growth was accompanied by cost optimization, resulting in a 23.0% YoY increase in EBITDA to USD 1,553 million. Indosat also achieved a solid EBITDA margin of 46.8%— an increase of 4.5 percentage points year on year. With these accomplishments, the current period’s normalized profit attributable to the owners of the parent entity reached USD 231 million and has remained positive for three years in a row.
Vikram Sinha, President Director and Chief Executive Officer of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison, said, "The achievements of Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison in 2023 are attributed to the contributions of all parties, including business partners, customers, shareholders, and all of our employees. This strong financial and operational performance underscores Indosat's commitment to continuously driving advancement in the telecommunications industry ecosystem in Indonesia. Sensitivity to market dynamics, technology-centric based service innovation, and integrity in operational excellence are keys to navigating business growth and contributing to value creation for our stakeholders."
In 2023, Indosat deepened its relationship with its nearly one hundred million customers across both consumer brands, IM3 and Tri, resulting in a 5.3% increase in mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) to USD 2.3. The IM3 customer satisfaction score (CSAT) increased by 4 points year-on-year to 84.1, while Tri CSAT rose by 3 points to 84.0. These results demonstrate the success of Indosat's go-to-market strategy and reflect the exceptional customer experience that the company provides.
Journeying into Telco to TechCo Territory
Indosat's transformation from a telco to a techco reached significant milestones in 2023. To improve service quality and expand connectivity in rural areas, Indosat increased the number of 4G BTS sites by 30.7% year-on-year to 179 thousand in Indonesia. Indosat also completed network integration at over 46,000 sites in a single year using Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) technology. All Indosat customers, including IM3 and Tri, can benefit from this technology, which provides wider network coverage, improved indoor service quality, and doubled internet speeds. Better download speeds and lower latency improve customers' digital experiences for popular services such as video streaming and gaming. This service quality improvement helped to drive 14.8% year-on-year data traffic growth to 14,417 Petabytes (PB).
Indosat's capital expenditure totaled USD 829 million, with the majority going toward cellular business development and expanding network coverage to rural and remote areas. Furthermore, the company continues to engage in various strategic collaborations with global-scale partners, ranging from the launch of the innovation exhibition center, Indosat Marvelous Xperience (MX) Center, to strategic collaboration in managing high-tech data centers.
Indosat is working to become a technology company by developing fixed broadband internet services, including acquiring MNC Play's customer assets, in order to strengthen its position in the Home Broadband (HBB) market. By the end of 2023, the company had increased its HBB customer base to 336.9 thousand. Meanwhile, Indosat's own app, myIM3, and bima+ monthly active users (MAU) increased by 8.6 million YoY to 37.7 million, indicating a promising digital business opportunity.
Vikram also emphasized Indosat's strategic role in spearheading the expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based data center infrastructure in Indonesia. Indosat and its strategic partners are committed to advancing Indonesia's development of a world-class AI Cloud.
