In December 2014, STP closed a transformational 3,500 site deal with XL Axiata, a deal which concentrated over 90% of STP’s revenue as coming from Indonesia’s Big Four operators from 2015 onwards, while consolidating their position in a competitive tower market. Despite these critical motivations, the deal has been criticised by some commentators and analysts due to the fact that XL Axiata unilaterally created many of the terms, initiating a bidding competition among towercos. During the recently concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, TowerXchange sat with Nobel Tanihaha, President Director of STP, to discuss the deal in detail and get his take on why the deal made sense for the towerco.
