Indosat Ooredoo returned to profit and registered double-digit revenue growth in 2021, with president director and CEO Vikram Sinha crediting a three-year turnaround plan initiated in 2019.

The Indonesia-based operator earmarked IDR10 trillion ($697.4 million) for capex in 2022, up 45 per cent, to expand coverage and improve customer experience.

Sinha explained quality of service for users will “remain our core priority going forward”.

The company posted a net profit of IDR6.8 trillion in 2021, overturning a IDR852.8 billion loss in 2020.

Revenue increased 12.4 per cent to IDR31.4 trillion, with mobile up 10 per cent to IDR25.4 trillion and data 16.3 per cent to IDR22.9 trillion, as voice and SMS fell 26.8 per cent and 40 per cent to IDR1.5 trillion and IDR172.9 billion, respectively.

Valued-added services were up 15.9 per cent to IDR1.2 trillion.

Its mobile user base rose 4.4 per cent to 62.9 million subscribers, with LTE users growing 26.5 per cent to 44.8 million.

Blended ARPU increased 7.7 per cent to IDR34,000.

A merger with Hutchison 3 Indonesia (H3I) was approved by regulators in January.

Based on 2021 figures, Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison became the second largest operator in the country with around 108 million subscribers compared with Telkomsel’s with 173.3 million.