Telecommunication operators may enjoy better performances this year as data pricing will possibly increase and the number of subscribers could grow.

Last year was a hard time for the industry because of pressure from low data pricing.

The better data pricing expected this year would be a result of mergers and acquisitions among the existing telecommunications operators where a smaller number of competitors would bring about higher pricing.

“The end of the CDMA [code division multiple access] era and more consolidation in the GSM market should mean more rational pricing conditions in the [telecommunications] sector,” Bahana Securities analyst Leonardo Henry Gavaza said.

Currently, there are six operators competing in the country’s telecommunications industry and most offer GSM services. They are state-owned PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), which encompasses its cellular business PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), PT Indosat, PT XL Axiata, PT Hutchison 3 Indonesia, PT Smartfren Telecom and PT Bakrie Telecom. Smartfren and Bakrie have signed a deal for network sharing.

Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara said his ministry would encourage operators to merge with or acquire their competitors so that there would be three or four operators left, which would provide a far better competition landscape.

“For this year alone, I predict that the industry will grow between 7 and 10 percent, better than last year―when most operators kept bleeding because of low revenues and increasing costs,” he said.

Meanwhile, MNC Securities analyst Victoria Veny estimated more moderate growth of around 7 to 8 percent this year.

She said that besides more stable competition, data subscriber growth of between 20 and 25 percent,-supported by a fast 4G-Internet service, would spur the growth.