ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, the Singapore-headquartered operator, has entered Indonesia through a joint venture with the Indonesian conglomerate Triputra Group and the investment company Temasek. The venture plans its first campus at the Greenland International Industrial Centre in Kota Deltamas, Cikarang, in Bekasi regency, supporting multiple buildings and up to 72 megawatts of critical IT capacity.

Construction of the first phase is expected to begin in the coming months and to be completed by the first quarter of 2023, the company says.

Why the site matters as much as the capacity

Seventy-two megawatts is a large campus by regional standards, and the choice of an industrial estate rather than a city centre is the part worth noting. Data centres need power, water and fibre more than they need to sit near their customers, and land on Jakarta's eastern edge offers all three at a cost a central business district site cannot match. It also puts the campus beside the manufacturing corridor where industrial tenants are.

STT GDC's president and group chief executive, Bruno Lopez, described Indonesia as the largest internet economy in Southeast Asia. The entry follows several operators into the same market within a short period, and the constraint in Indonesia is not demand but delivery — power connections, permits and construction, each of which can move slowly. Triputra's director, Arif Rachmat, said demand for digital and cloud services in the country is growing and pointed to the government's digital roadmaps, which is the case every operator entering the market makes.

The announcement is a commitment, not capacity. No investment figure is given, and the campus reaches its stated ceiling only if later phases are built. The first phase is due in 2023; whether the rest follows is the test.