Why Did Bolt! Bolt? A Case Study of Bolt!

BOLT! was the very popular operator of 4G (fourth generation standard of cellular telephone technology) Long Term Evolution, known as LTE, internet service provider in Indonesia launched by Internux on November 14, 2013. (Internux, 2017). In December 2014 it was reported that “KBLV [First Media] officially controls Bolt's parent shares.” Internux issued an investment worth 550 million US dollars, or around 6.3 trillion Indonesian rupiah, to rent BTS towers to provide mobile devices Wi-Fi on the market.

But despite BOLT!’s popularity things changed, and something went wrong. For one thing Wi-Fi access became much more easily available in many locations, but there were other problems and factors that led to the demise of BOLT! The Jakarta Globe’s rival newspaper The Jakarta Post reported in November 2018 “First Media stops sale of Bolt internet service amid uncertainty”. This was just after the Communications and Information Ministry revoked the frequency permits used for the service, which is controlled by the Ministry.