TelkomGroup Says 85% of NTT BTS Back in Service by August 16

Labuan Bajo — — Telkomsel reported that 85 percent of its 735 mobile network sites in Nusa Tenggara Timur were operating by Sunday, 16 August 2026, following the magnitude 7.7 earthquake in the Flores Sea. The figure covers Telkomsel’s base transceiver stations (BTS) and related sites in several affected districts and is not a measure of all operators in the province.

In a statement carried by regional media, TelkomGroup said that “85% from a total of 735 BTS Telkomsel sites have resumed operations”, noting that restoration was progressing as electricity supplies and other supporting infrastructure were repaired.

A separate situation report by the Indonesian Humanitarian Coordination Platform (IHCP), citing monitoring by the Ministry of Communication and Digital (Komdigi), recorded 683 of 794 BTS or sites operating across 11 districts and cities in Nusa Tenggara Timur as of 16 August at 18.00 WIB. That corresponds to a recovery rate of 86.02 percent for the broader provincial network.

What the figures measure

The TelkomGroup update described an initial outage affecting around half of Telkomsel’s BTS in the impacted areas, with connectivity gradually restored as power and transmission links were repaired. The company said its backbone network remained functional with the support of backup routes, although damage to terrestrial and submarine fibre-optic cables reduced capacity in some locations.

In the fixed broadband segment, TelkomGroup reported that 16,788, or about 98.3 percent, of its 17,062 IndiHome home-internet customers in Nusa Tenggara Timur could still be served after the earthquake. That percentage describes customer connections, not physical network sites, and cannot be combined with the BTS figures to produce a single recovery rate.

The IHCP situation report, based on Komdigi data, said that 794 BTS or sites in 11 districts and cities were identified as affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Of these, 683 sites had resumed operation by 18.00 WIB on 16 August, while 111 sites remained disrupted. The report listed electricity supply problems at 701 sites and transmission issues at 93 sites among the causes, without providing a site-by-site breakdown.

IHCP also noted that Alor, Lembata and Timor Tengah Utara districts had fully restored telecommunications service in the monitoring period. Those districts lie outside Flores island, underscoring that the 683-of-794 figure represents a wider provincial tally rather than a Flores-only count.

Why the numbers are not directly comparable

Telkomsel’s 85 percent figure refers specifically to Telkomsel infrastructure, while the Komdigi–IHCP figure covers all monitored operators and technologies in the 11 affected districts and cities. The denominators differ—735 Telkomsel sites versus 794 total sites—along with the geographic scope.

Reporting times also differ. Telkomsel’s 85 percent figure was current on 16 August, while Komdigi’s monitoring snapshot, as cited by IHCP, was taken at 18.00 WIB, or 19.00 WITA in Nusa Tenggara Timur. Changes in site status between those timestamps further limit direct comparison.

More broadly, a site counted as operating does not guarantee uninterrupted service for every resident or road corridor. Access can still be constrained by local power cuts, damaged backhaul and transmission routes, congestion and the availability of compatible devices and services.

Context and ongoing recovery

The Flores Sea earthquake and subsequent tsunami triggered emergency efforts to restore telecommunications across Nusa Tenggara Timur. Komdigi stated that it was working with telecom operators to accelerate repairs, prioritising critical districts such as Nagekeo, Manggarai, Manggarai Timur, Manggarai Barat, Alor, Ende and Ngada.

IHCP’s humanitarian reporting, drawing on preliminary data from Indonesia’s disaster management authorities, recorded dozens of deaths, hundreds of injuries and thousands of displaced people in the days after the disaster. Those figures, while central to the emergency response, are separate from the telecommunications recovery metrics discussed here.

Both Komdigi and TelkomGroup have described network restoration as a continuing process, with remaining disruptions linked mainly to damaged infrastructure and electricity supply. As of the mid-August snapshots cited, no single province-wide denominator or verification of complete restoration across all operators had been published.

Sources

• IHCP Indonesia – Laporan Situasi #1 Gempabumi dan Tsunami di Flores dan Sekitarnya
• Detikcom – Menkomdigi Pastikan 86% BTS Terdampak Gempa di NTT Sudah Pulih
• Okezone – 86 Persen BTS Terdampak Gempa di NTT Sudah Pulih
• Sindomakassar – 85% Konektivitas Pulih, TelkomGroup Percepat Perbaikan Layanan Pascagempa NTT
• Bloomberg Technoz – Komdigi Sebut 86% BTS Terdampak Gempa NTT Telah Pulih
• Bisnis – Gempa NTT dan Penanganan Infrastruktur Pasca Bencana