Indonesia’s XL Axiata is tapping the popularity of Xiaomi’s smartphones to try to boost its declining market share, which fell by 3 points to 19 per cent last year.

XL, the country’s second largest operator with 60 million connections, will offer data packages bundled with Xiaomi’s 4G RedMi 2. It has set a target of adding 10 million subscribers this year, the Jakarta Globe reported.

Last year it lost almost nine million customers. The operator replaced its long-serving president director, Hasnul Suhaimi, on 1 April with Dian Siswarini, who was the group chief marketing and operation officer.

XL said it offers 4G service in Jakarta, Bandung (West Java), Surabaya (East Java), Denpasar (Bali), Medan (Sumatra) and Yogyakarta. It had 73,500 4G connections in Q1, while market leader Telkomsel had about 147,000 4G connections, according to GSMA Intelligence.

Telkomsel, with 142 million connections, has rolled out 4G service in Jakarta, Bandung (West Java), Surabaya (East Java) and Medan (Sumatra). It announced last week plans to spend almost a $1 billion to expand its networks and capture half the 4G market this year.

Telkomsel, a subsidiary of state-owned Telkom Indonesia, has a 46 per cent share of the country’s mobile market, but just 38 per cent of 3G connections and 11 per cent of the nascent 4G market.

XL has just 5 per cent of the country’s 4G connections, while upstart Bolt Super4G, which launched 4G services in the greater Jakarta area a year ago, has 1.15 million 4G connections for a 84 per cent market share.