(Act) Chief Technology Officer of XL Axiata, I Gede Darmayusa said, “the rise in traffic is becoming evident along with the continued talks about the Corona virus outbreak in Indonesia within the last few days, which then started the development of ways to work from home followed by the closing of schools within various provinces. Access to a number of data services has indeed increased, especially to browse information through Google, as well as WhatsApp usage traffic, and social media use such as Facebook and Twitter, which are stronger compared to normal days/circumstances."
According to Gede Darmayusa, with more and more offices asking employees to work from home, and schools conducting learning activities to do at home, along with online lectures or courses, there will surely be an increase in need and access to the internet network. Until now, the existing XL Axiata network capacity can still serve the increase in traffic that have occurred.
The urban areas and surrounding location, which include business centers and residential areas of workers have drawn the attention of XL Axiata in terms of network services for work from home activities. XL Axiata have also given attention to nearby campus areas for their online lectures or courses. Moreover, XL Axiata will continue to ensure that network quality is maintained for all service areas, given the current needs of customers and the public for internet services that are also increasing. Gede Darmayusa estimates that traffic has the potential to increase by 10% - 15% compared to normal days/circumstances.
“We will continue to monitor the developments relating to the dynamics of the community who have applied the necessity function of WFH (work from home) and the application of learning at home for students. Of course, we hope that the Corona virus problem will end soon, but we will continue to be on alert if conditions develop shows otherwise, in which will have an impact on the increasing the need for data service access. Our field team are also ready to ensure that our network is always safe, without ignoring health and professional safety issues.” Gede Darmayusa added.
In terms of product, XL Axiata also has a number of services and products that can be utilized by the community to support their work or learning activities at home. One of these provided services includes the Xtra Unlimited Turbo package, which allows customers to access applications that can support work activities or studies at home more freely.
Since the beginning of March, the development of the Corona virus issue entered Indonesia, in which XL Axiata have continued taking various steps, including proactively helping the government through education towards the public about the dangers and anticipation, along with the prevention steps regarding the spreading of this dangerous virus. XL Axiata have also tightened the work environment also to help prevent the spreading of the Corona Virus.
A number of security procedures have been carried out since mid-January 2020, and continue to be improved along with the increased risk of the spreading of this virus based on the development of case data both abroad and domestic. This security measure was taken as part of the efforts in maintaining the continuity of the company's business in the present and for the near future.