1967 Indosat was established as the first foreign investment company in Indonesia that provides international telecommunication services using an international satellite. It was owned by American conglomerate company
ITT (through its subsidiary
American Cable and Radio Corporation) until 1980.
1980 Indosat expanded into becoming the first international company that was acquired and 100% owned by the Indonesian Government.
1994–2003 Indosat acquired Satelindo and SLI through share majority. They also established PT Indosat Multimedia Mobile (IM3) to provide and operate a nationwide
GPRS network, a first for the country. In 2003, Indosat merged with its 3 subsidiaries—Satelindo, IM3, and Bimagraha—and established itself as a
mobile network operator.
2003–2009 Indosat was granted a
3G network license and introduced a 3.5G service in
Jakarta and
Surabaya. In 2009, Qtel bought 24.19% of series B shares from the public and became Indosat's majority shareholder with a 65% ownership. They were granted the use of additional 3G frequencies later that same year. Indosat also won the
WiMAX bid from the government during this period.
2012–2020 In 2014, Indosat launched and commercialized a
4G service at 900 MHz, with a download speed of up to 42 Mbit/s. The service was first rolled out in the major cities, with planned expansions to rural areas. In November 2015, Indosat rebranded itself as Indosat Ooredoo. In 2016, Indosat teamed up with Swedish-based music streaming service
Spotify to become the first operator to offer Spotify music services in Indonesia.
2021–present In January 2021, Indosat announced that it will exit the satellite business. In September 2021, Indosat has announced that the latter company would be merged with
Hutchison Asia Telecom Group/Garibaldi Thohir's joint venture PT Hutchison 3 Indonesia (who operates
3-branded networks in Indonesia) to form Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison (IOH). The merger was closed on 4 January 2022. ==Subsidiaries==