AXIS and XL Sign Indonesia's First National Roaming Agreement

PR Newswire

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JAKARTA, Indonesia, November 12 /PRNewswire/ --

- Indonesian Mobile Market to Become Even More Dynamic and Competitive

AXIS and PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk (XL) have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding for national roaming, the first such agreement of its kind in the region. The technical implementation of this agreement will follow regulation determined by the Indonesian regulator. Similar to other partnership formed among mobile operators, the regulator has also supported this partnership initiative led by AXIS and XL. The agreement will give AXIS' customers full access to XL's network in Sumatera, followed by Kalimantan and Sulawesi. AXIS will maintain control of its own customers throughout, regardless of whether or not they roam onto XL's network infrastructure.

The agreement will commence in Q1 2010, with AXIS' own aggressive national network expansion for both voice and data continuing in parallel. This agreement builds on the existing partnership between the two companies as AXIS already leases a significant proportion of Towers from XL's portfolio.

Erik Aas, President Director and CEO for AXIS said: "This is a groundbreaking agreement for the country, not only enhancing the choice and affordability of mobile services throughout Indonesia but also accelerating market growth." He added, " Indonesia's mobile industry has experienced a period of rapid change, with innovation continuing to evolve our wireless market. Our agreement with XL is a clear example of this innovation and we are proud to join forces and demonstrate such strong leadership through our national roaming agreement."

Speaking about the partnership, Hasnul Suhaimi, President Director XL said, "Although XL and AXIS are competing operators, we are happy to collaborate in order to deliver a better mobile service experience to Indonesian subscribers. We believe that through our agreement with AXIS we will be able to deliver a sustained, high quality of service to both sets of customers as they take advantage of our abundant network capacity."

About AXIS

AXIS launched in February 2008 and is already available in over 190 cities across East Java, West Java, Jabodetabek, Banten, West Java, Bali, Lombok, North Sumatera, Riau Islands, Riau Mainland, and West Sumatera with more launching soon. In July 2009 the company launched "AXIS Worry-Free BlackBerry Service" to help its subscribers with enhanced communications and empower them to make the most of their time wherever they go. AXIS' vision is to provide affordable communications to all Indonesians and offer 2G and 3G services. AXIS is owned by

Saudi Telecom Company (STC), the no. 1 GSM operator in Saudi Arabia, and by Maxis Communications, the no. 1 GSM operator in Malaysia. Together, these companies serve more than 45 million customers with operations in 9 countries. Detailed information about AXIS is available at

http://www.axisworld.co.id.

About XL

XL is one of the major cellular providers in Indonesia. XL owns an extensive fiber optic backbone network. Started its commercial operations in

October 1996, XL's business consists of Consumer Solutions as triple band (900/1800/1900) cellular network and service provider and Business Solutions as corporate service provider. On 21 September 2006, XL launched XL 3G, the first fastest and widest cellular telecommunication services based on 3G technology. XL majority owned by Axiata Group Berhad through Indocel Holding Sdn Bhd (83,8%) and Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) through Etisalat International Indonesia Ltd (16%), and public (0.2%). As part of Axiata Group with Aktel ( Bangladesh), HELLO ( Cambodia), Idea ( India), MTCE ( Iran), Celcom ( Malaysia), Multinet ( Pakistan), M1 ( Singapore), Samart ( Thailand) and Dialog ( Sri Lanka), to advancing Asia. Additional information can be found at http://www.XL.co.id

SOURCE AXIS

2009-11-12 07:12:00