Jakarta, 28 March 2022. PT XL Axiata Tbk (XL Axiata) has strengthened its telecommunication network to face Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr this year. Strengthening the data network needs to be done in anticipation of a possible spike in usage traffic throughout Ramadan and especially during the long Eid ul-Fitr holiday. Moreover, with easing from the government along with the decline in Covid-19 cases, people's mobility will also increase.
Director & Chief Technology Officer of XL Axiata, I Gede Darmayusa said, "With the easing in which the government will allow the Eid ul-Fitr homecoming, people's mobility is likely to increase compared to last year when going home was still strictly restricted. Mobility during Eid ul-Fitr means that people can travel for vacations outside the city like what happened before the pandemic. Traffic for all telecommunications services, especially data, will increase. Strengthening the network is a necessity that we must do, both in residential areas and in the exodus destination area. In general, we have prepared a larger network capacity, up to 2 times compared to normal days."
Gede estimates that traffic will increase by up to 10% during Ramadan compared to traffic on weekdays, and will increase to 15% when entering the Eid ul-Fitr holiday period. In addition to increasing capacity, other anticipatory steps are in the form of network optimization by looking at the possibility of community or subscriber mobility movements during the Eid ul-Fitr holiday period. For that purpose, a number of areas that are usually the destination of exodus, especially on the island of Java, will receive special attention.
Special locations that become crowded places every time the long holiday period comes also do not go unnoticed. In addition to tourist sites, there are also shopping centres, places of departure for passengers, both land, air and sea modes of transportation. Also, of course, strengthening the network along inter-provincial highways, both toll and non-toll roads, both in Java and outside Java.
In addition, XL Axiata also takes into account the possibility of increasing traffic driven by technological developments. Every year, of course, technology is getting more advanced, which is applied by the latest smartphones and gadgets. The more sophisticated the gadget, the more features with better capabilities, which makes users comfortable, and ultimately increases data usage. For example, the trend of using video streaming will increase when every smartphone level is now able to provide easy access to streaming video with maximum quality.
"Currently, on a normal day, XL Axiata's data network traffic is 22 PB (Petabyte). However, to ensure our network's ability to accommodate traffic spikes later, we will continue to increase the capacity up to 3x from normal days," added Gede.
This network strengthening is also at the same time to support the Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr promo programs held by XL Axiata. As XL Axiata does every year, during the Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr Program, various attractive promos will be offered for prepaid and postpaid subscribers. These promos certainly provide various additional benefits to subscribers, which are likely to further spur increased traffic.
In order to further ensure network security in serving the community throughout Ramadan and Eidul-Fitr later, XL Axiata has also prepared adequate resources, both in the form of a technical team that will monitor network conditions 24 hours, 7 days a week, as well as a field team that is ready to move at any time if needed. In addition, the deployment of a BTS mobile fleet is also carried out to support network strengthening in locations prone to traffic congestion. From the XL Axiata head office, monitoring of network conditions in all operating areas is also carried out through the Customer Experience & Service Operation Center (CESOC) monitoring centre facility.
Until the end of 2021, the XL Axiata network was spread across 34 provinces, a total of 458 cities/districts. Some of the networks have penetrated and served people in remote areas and are located on national borders. A total of 162 thousand BTS, of which 77 thousand 4G BTS, and a fiber optic network of more than 113 thousand kilometres, supports the strength of XL Axiata's network, to serve 57.9 million subscribers.