XLSMART, ZTE launch Indonesia’s first nationwide 5G blanket coverage network

By Romel S. Gurky

Indonesia’s operator XLSMART, in partnership with China’s ZTE Corporation, has launched what the companies describe as the country’s first nationwide 5G blanket coverage network under the XL Ultra 5G+ service.

The commercial launch marks deployment of 5G coverage across 24 of XLSMART’s 33 designated 5G cities as of January 2026, spanning five major regions including Surabaya, Semarang, Medan, Makassar and Balikpapan.

ZTE said it supported network planning, deployment and optimization, integrating and upgrading more than 20,000 existing 4G base stations and deploying over 7,000 new 5G base stations. The rollout is aimed at improving spectrum utilization and coordination between 4G and 5G networks.

At a launch event in Surabaya, on site tests showed peak downlink speeds of up to 769 Mbps and average speeds exceeding 500 Mbps, according to the companies.

The network was certified by Ookla as the fastest 5G network in Indonesia in the second half of 2025.

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During the XL Ultraverse Festival music event in Surabaya, the network handled more than 10,000 concurrent users, supporting high definition streaming and other data intensive services.

ZTE Corporation is a China based provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, listed in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The company supplies wireless, wireline and core network infrastructure globally.

XLSMART is an Indonesian telecommunications operator providing mobile and data services. The companies said the nationwide 5G deployment is intended to support Indonesia’s digital infrastructure development and expansion of 5G applications across industries.

Editing by Alexander Ginting