First Media has launched 4G Wimax serices in Indonesia under a new brand called Sitra WiMAX earlier this week. Sitra Wimax service will be available in the Greater Jakarta area (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi) from early July 2010. 

First Media won a tender held by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology in July 2009 for government bandwidth, securing a license for a 2,3 Gigahertz frequency band in order to develop its WiMAX service. First Media was awarded with 15Mhz within the 2,3 Gigahertz frequency band.

These services will also be extended to the territory of Banten, Aceh and northern Sumatra in the near future. This is according to the license obtained by PT First Media of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology since July 2009.

"We are proud to announce the First Media can provide the first Wimax-based services in Indonesia," said Hengkie Liwanto, President Director of PT First Media Tbk, during the soft launching WIMAX Sitra performed at the Imperial Hotel Aryaduta, Karawaci.

He said, formerly, the First Media has been providing services to the cable broadband access via Fastnet. We provide wireless broadband access services that complement its kind to focus on providing high-speed Internet access.

The tariffs themselves are still kept secret but the First Media promises that tariff is not more expensive than cable broadband services today.

PT. First Media has invested US$ 50 Million and will keep up investing up to US$ 350 million for this WiMAX deployment project.