Which provinces have the highest BTS number? Population number matters.
- hastuti
- Sep 10, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 14, 2023
Indonesia, as an archipelagic nation of thousands of islands spanning a vast area, faces significant geographical challenges when providing broadband access to its population. These challenges contribute to the country's digital divide and hinder efforts to connect remote and underserved areas.
Most Indonesians rely on mobile subscriptions from telecommunication providers rather than broadband connections. This is not without a reason. Like other developing countries, building and maintaining wired broadband infrastructure, such as fiber-optic networks, is costly. Developing countries often have limited resources and budget constraints, making investing in extensive fixed-line broadband infrastructure challenging. Mobile networks, on the other hand, can be deployed more cost-effectively, especially in densely populated urban areas.
BTS or Base Transceiver Station infrastructure, is a fundamental mobile network component that connects mobile devices to the core network infrastructure. It facilitates wireless communication by transmitting and receiving radio signals, allowing users to make calls, send messages, and access data services while moving. The strategic placement of BTS units and the process of handovers ensure that mobile connectivity remains consistent and reliable in the network's covered area.
However, BTS infrastructure for mobile telecommunications in Indonesia also presents several geographical challenges due to the country's vast and diverse landscape. These challenges affect the expansion and maintenance of mobile networks across the archipelago. The challenges can be understood based on the following figure, which presents the disparity of BTS among provinces in Indonesia.
Java Island remained the dominant
The chart shows the number of BTS in 34 provinces in Indonesia from 2019 to 2021. In 2021, the provinces with the highest number of BTS were East Java (Jawa Timur), Central Java (Jawa Tengah), and West Java (Jawa Barat), with numbers of 4826, 4642, and 4601 respectively. These three provinces are located on Java island--the main island where the infrastructure and transportation are mostly well equipped. The three provinces are also Indonesia's biggest and most populous.
Other islands: Dominated by the most populous ones
In Sumatra Island, Sumatera Utara (North Sumatra) was the province with the highest BTS number, followed by Aceh, Sumatra Selatan (South Sumatra), Lampung, and Riau. North Sumatra is the largest province in Sumatra and the fourth most populous province in Indonesia after the East, West, and Central Java. North Sumatra's population was around 15.115 million in 2022. Sulawesi Selatan (South Sulawesi) has the most BTS number on Sulawesi Island. Again, this province is also the most populous in Sulawesi.
Provinces with the least number of BTS are North Borneo (Kalimantan Utara), West Sulawesi (Sulawesi Barat), and Gorontalo; their BTS numbers were 216, 235, and 302 respectively. North Kalimantan has the smallest population in Indonesia and is located at the top north of the island and is situated at the border between Indonesia and Malaysia. The geographic location and small population could explain this province's lowest number of BTS. Both Gorontalo and West Sulawesi are located on Sulawesi Island. Their populations are also the lowest among other provinces on the island.
To conclude, the BTS number in Indonesia varies across the nation. However, from the 2019 to 2021 data, provinces in Java Island had the highest number of BTS compared to other islands. Other provinces with high population density were also seen to have higher BTS installed than other less populous regions in other islands in Indonesia. Demographic locations and the number of populations influence the BTS installation.
Data sources: