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nfrastructure is the backbone that determines a society’s living standards and for years Indonesia has struggled to keep up with the rest of the world in terms of its internet infrastructure.

Despite the country’s large size, Indonesia’s internet network is considered to be among the weakest in the Southeast Asian region. Regulations and partnerships between telcom operators have so far only offered a faint glimmer of hope of network improvement.

To the Association of Indonesian Internet Providers (APJII), infrastructure is the highest priority.

Otherwise, all modernization efforts will be futile amid ongoing efforts by the telcom operators to improve and sell their network coverage, including through infrastructure sharing. Government regulations that require such sharing will also be pointless.

APJII chairman Jamalul Izza said changes would come at a slower pace than needed because both operators and the government were still seemingly deadlocked in indecision.

“In the end, any kind of regulation is useless if the infrastructure is not up to quality. Operators are also still undecided as to how they want the infrastructure sharing to be implemented, thus potentially jeopardizing their efficiency and their network quality in the long run,” Jamal said recently.

“I think that both the government and operators must put improving the infrastructure first before anything else.”

To address this slow pace, operators have embarked on their own measures to make operations more efficient and improve their networks in the months ahead.

Notably, operators XL Axiata and Indosat Ooredoo plan to collaborate to share their broadcast towers some time in the near future to boost the efficiency and quality of both their 4G networks.

Both companies have highlighted that the move will greatly help reduce costs. Indosat noted previously that the plan would reduce the company’s cost of tower rentals, which currently takes up 80 percent of their expenditure.

XL CEO Dian Siswarini has also highlighted the same urgency. She insisted the government should quickly introduce a regulation to urge telcom operators to share their infrastructure with one another.

“The fact is, the regulation has been in gestation for a while now and we’ve been asking for it to be finished, but alas, it hasn’t been completed yet. I guess there are a lot of obstacles to overcome for the government,” Dian said, adding that many parties with different interests were involved as well.

The Communication and Information Technology Ministry has announced that it has been working on a regulation that pushes for active network sharing since January.

The planned regulation will not only cover the sharing of tower infrastructure, but also affect vendors and business aspects.

Communication and Information Technology Minister Rudiantara described the planned regulation as “not compulsory for all operators, but will be done according to a business-to-business [B2B] method”.

However, the ministry’s telecommunications director, Benyamin Sura, said on Monday that the deadline for completion was unclear, adding that several telecommunications operators were still uncertain about on their own stance on such a decision.