ZTE and Indonesia's XLSmart expand 5G coverage nationwide

Details: John Tanner; Category: Wireless Networks; 02 March 2026; 6639 views

Indonesian telco XLSmart launched its "Ultra 5G+" service on Saturday in partnership with ZTE, expanding blanket coverage of its 5G network nationwide.

XLSmart and ZTE launched the Ultra 5G+ service after jointly completing deployment of 5G gear in 24 of the telco’s 33 5G cities across five major regions – including Surabaya, Semarang, Medan, Makassar, and Balikpapan – as of last month.

That includes integrating and upgrading over 20,000 4G base stations and deploying over 7,000 new 5G base stations, ZTE said.

XLSmart launched operations as a single company in April 2025 after XL Axiata and Smartfren Telecom agreed to merge their operations in December 2024. XL Axiata launched 5G services in 2021 after receiving regulatory clearance.

XLSmart and ZTE said they also collaborated to improve spectrum utilization and 4G/5G coordination, and improve the converged XL Axiata/Smartfren network with higher quality, greater intelligence, and enhanced resilience.

At a commercial launch event in Surabaya, XLSmart and ZTE demonstrated peak downlink speeds of up to 769 Mbps, with average experienced speeds exceeding 500 Mbps.

The two companies say XLSmart’s “5G+” service launch is the largest in Indonesia in terms of blanket coverage. Rival telco Telkomsel offers 5G services in Jabodetabek, Surabaya, Makassar, Batam, Denpasar and Greater Bandung, while Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison currently offers 5G in select parts of Jakarta, Surabaya, Bali, Makassar, Balikpapan and Bandar Lampung.

ZTE also counts Telkomsel as a customer – in June last year, Telkomsel commercially deployed a simplified 5G site solution developed by both companies to make the operator's 5G network rollout easier, cheaper and more energy-efficient.