XLSmart Accelerates 5G Base Station Build, Users Spend More

XLSmart recorded a 294% year-on-year surge in normalised net profit to Rp 2.73 trillion in the first half of 2026. This achievement came after the merger of XL Axiata and Smartfren began operating in April 2025.

In the same period, XLSmart’s total revenue reached Rp 24.03 trillion, growing 26% from the previous year. Meanwhile, normalised EBITDA amounted to Rp 11.05 trillion, up 19% year-on-year, with a normalised EBITDA margin of 46%.

Users of XL, Axis, and Smartfren are also becoming more generous. This is reflected in XLSmart’s blended ARPU, which rose to Rp 47,100 from Rp 38,200 in the first half of 2025. Data traffic also grew 19% to 7,934 petabytes.

President Director & CEO of XLSmart, Rajeev Sethi, said the first half was an important phase for the company following the integration process. The company has now entered an optimisation phase with a strong corporate foundation, a larger network scale, a broader spectrum portfolio, and realised multi-brand strength.

“This is reflected in sustainable revenue growth, supported by healthy data consumption and strengthening ARPU, as well as improving commercial momentum through stronger customer experience and wider 5G adoption,” said Rajeev in an official statement.

On network consolidation, XLSmart has integrated 92% of its network. Around 15,000 duplicate or redundant sites have also been dismantled, resulting in lower recurring operational costs.

XLSmart now has 265,442 BTS, up 26% year-on-year. Around 50% of the BTS additions were made outside Java, such as in Sulawesi and Kalimantan, over the past year.

5G service expansion also continues. A total of 52 cities had access during the first half of the year, including Bekasi, Tangerang, Kendal, and Binjai, with 15,000 BTS.

5G traffic contribution grew by around 27%, with a 2.5-fold improvement in experience quality compared to the 4G network.

XLSmart also recorded gross merger synergies of US$153 million, three times the figure from a year earlier. This achievement came from network savings in site operations, utilities and fibre, regulatory cost savings from deregistering deactivated sites, organisational optimisation, marketing synergies, and lower integration costs.