Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison’s H1 earnings benefitted from rising network investment over the past 18 months driving subscriber and ARPU gains.

The Indonesian operator added 900,000 mobile users, taking the total to 100.9 million at end-June. Mobile revenue grew 11.4 per cent year-on-year to IDR23.6 trillion ($1.4 billion) and blended ARPU 10.5 per cent to IDR37,900.

Capex increased 5.1 per cent to IDR4.3 trillion, with nearly 90 per cent allocated to the mobile business to fund data services growth.

The operator added 22,000 4G base stations, boosting the total to 188,000.

It also deployed 103 5G base stations.

In a statement, president director and CEO Vikram Sinha argued investments to expand coverage and capacity improved the customer experience and boosted loyalty, fuelling the ARPU gains.

Net profit rose 34.4 per cent to IDR2.7 trillion, with revenue increasing 13.4 per cent to IDR27.9 trillion.

The company set full year capex guidance at IDR12 trillion compared with IDR12.8 trillion in 2023.