Investment

GSMA says Indonesia must accelerate targeted digital investment

GSMA says Indonesia must accelerate targeted digital investment

Mobile industry association the GSMA has urged what it calls a sharper, investment-led push to accelerate Indonesia’s digital transformation and drive innovation.

To support this call, the GSMA has highlighted findings from its recent GSMA Digital Nations 2025 and ASEAN Consumer Scam 2025 reports and outlined a practical programme to unlock private capital and speed deployment across 5G spectrum, fibre backhaul and AI‑ready data centres, supported by policy certainty and cross‑sector collaboration.

Clearly the GSMA sees this as a more than promising market, one in which, it says, enterprises are signalling one of the region’s strongest appetites for digital transformation.

According to the GSMA’s data platform, GSMA Intelligence, the next wave of 5G investment in Indonesia can unlock a further US$41 billion in gross domestic product for the nation’s economy between 2024 and 2030. In addition, it says, mobile operators have invested almost US$29 billion in Indonesia’s network infrastructure and services since 2015.

So why this message? And why now? The answer comes, again, from the GSMA’s Digital Nations report. It not only highlights Indonesia’s strengths around people, digital skills and cybersecurity. It also pinpoints areas of potential improvement in innovation and investment.

Delays to mid‑band spectrum allocation, uneven rural coverage and limited AI-ready capacity risk slowing momentum just as demand accelerates, the GSMA points out. It also mentions strains on consumer trust due to mobile-led scams and frauds.

It therefore suggests a number of calls to action for Indonesia, including the publication of measurable targets for rural 4G/5G coverage, fibre backhaul densification and AI-ready data centre capacity, aligned with power availability.

It also argues for the use of timebound subsidies and blended finance vehicles (including sustainability linked instruments) to derisk rural sites and next generation data centres.

Spectrum is another focus. The GSMA says Indonesia should confirm multiband timelines, adopt assignment mechanisms that prioritise coverage and investment over short-term receipts, and enable infrastructure sharing.

And, of course, there are also calls to extend live antifraud APIs across banks, wallets and platforms and to harmonise data flows, cybersecurity and digital trade rules to lower compliance costs and expand addressable markets for Indonesian innovators.



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