Smartfren sets major milestones in 2022 Asian Telecom Awards

The Indonesian company won two major awards in the programme.

Indonesian-based smartfren. BUSINESS received two awards for its recent innovative projects in the recently concluded Asian Telecom Awards. The awards programme recognises remarkable achievements and initiatives of leading telecom companies across Asia.

The company first received the B2B Client Initiative of the Year – Indonesia for its Fiber in the Air projects. The judging panel considered the main features of the project as a solution to answer internet connectivity needs of companies.

Fiber in the Air (UBR) is a last mile wireless radio access technology that provides connectivity for companies for special internet or leased lines. It features an integrated solution based on Smartfren's PoPs throughout Indonesia to provide national coverage.

It uses fiber optic to deliver large bandwidth. It presents the SF Fiber in the Air as a highly-competitive offering in the local market.

According to the company, the benefits that clients receive by using smartfren UBR is having a lower cost compared to fiber-based connectivity and can receive bandwidth up to 100 mbps.

It also claims to be faster to deploy, from 2 to 3 weeks to 3 months, and has a faster restoration time of 4 hours from 12 hours.

Fiber in the Air is supported by Smartfren support 24 x 7 contact center, technical helpdesk, and an exclusive after-sales team.

Smartfren has a large number of BTS towers that are spread across several cities in Indonesia. Each has a radio distance of not more than 3 km, minimising distraction in providing quality service and good connection.

The second award received by smartfren. BUSINESS is the IOT Initiative of the Year – Indonesia, mainly for its achievements under the Smart Water Utilities Digitalisation for Smart Living project.

Through the IoT solution, the company helped transform municipality water companies digitally to provide better service, quicker response, billing accuracy, and transparency. The shift also provided customers with self-meter reading and billing functions.

Connected smart water meters provide operational excellence and customer satisfaction through auto meter reading produce accurate and real-time water consumption on specific customer segment.

The pilot was deployed in two municipalities in Central Java. The joint implementation utilised multiple technologies consisting of IoT connectivity, platform, application, smart water meters, multi-payment gateway, and cloud services as part of the overall roadmap.

During the COVID-19 pandemic situation and lockdown, meter self-reading and digital payment helped customers avoid bill shock and keep revenue for water companies.

Its smart payment solution provides cashless options such as credit card, debit card, or E-wallet.

According to the company, it is committed to increase customer service quality and competitiveness  with its end-to-end business process digitalisation.  It has noted that customer satisfaction has increased since launching these solutions.

The judging panel gave the award to the company mainly on its achievements of being able to provide operational excellence with accurate and quick water meter reading. The innovation also enabled data to detect anomaly behavior for fast preventive maintenance and correction.

It also recognised how the IoT in the form of the billing platform provided real-time data reports on customers, billing, and process payment, and became a platform on master data centralisation for customers.