Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison stepped up the fixed-mobile convergence battle in Indonesia with the acquisition of the customer assets of fibre-based service provider MNC Kabel Mediacom (MNC Play), significantly expanding its FTTH business.

The operator stated the deal covers 300,000 fixed home internet and entertainment customers, and MNC Play’s IPTV business, which will allow Indosat to bundle FTTH and IPTV services as an integrated package.

Indosat president director and CEO Vikram Sinha stated the deal transforms the scale of its FTTH business. “We expect it to have a positive impact on EBITDA from 2024.”

Globe Data estimates fixed broadband subscriptions could grow 10.6 per cent annually between 2022 and 2027.

As part of the same deal, MNC Play’s fibre network was acquired by Asianet, a Lightstorm company, which will now own, manage and operate all aspects of the network.

In June 2022, rival XL Axiata acquired broadband and cable-TV provider Link Net. Its home broadband connections nearly doubled year-on-year to 206,000 in Q3, with fibre coverage expanded to 75 cities.