Headquarters of Indosat in Jakarta. Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas / CC-BY-SA-3.0

Intelsat is helping bring more connectivity to Indonesia, one of Asia’s biggest markets by expanding its partnership with some key players in the region. Intelsat is working with Lintasarta, an Indonesian information and communication technology company via its mobile network operator subsidiary Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH), to roll out a network to cover remote areas in Indonesia. Intelsat announced the rollout June 27.

Nearly 400 sites, across Central and Western Indonesia including Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara have received broadband connectivity with Intelsat’s help using cellular backhaul. In doing so, this is the first time a mobile operator is covering these areas. Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago, home to the world’s fourth-largest population, with a population of around 275 million people. Its citizens are widely dispersed across 6,000 inhabited islands, residing in more than 500 districts and 80,000 villages.

“Intelsat has been and continues to be our trusted partner. The partnership has always allowed us to quickly deploy and expand network coverage wherever it’s needed in Indonesia. Tens of thousands of households will receive first-ever connectivity and benefit from digital connectivity,” Zulfi Hadi, Marketing & Solution director of Lintasarta, said in a statement.