Picking the Radio for IoT Devices in Indonesia

Choose by where the device sits and what powers it. For mains-powered devices with verified coverage, compare 4G options. For battery meters, test NB-IoT at the mounting location. For dozens of battery sensors at one site, compare LoRaWAN on the class-licensed 920-923 MHz band through your own receiver box; it still needs a working backhaul connection. WiFi only when the site's WiFi is managed like infrastructure.

That is the short version. The rest of this piece explains why, with the Indonesian rules, the failure modes we see in the field, and a cost model you can fill in with your own numbers.

What are the four options, in plain terms?

Every connected device needs a way to get its data out. In Indonesia there are four realistic choices, and they differ mainly in who owns the network.

NB-IoT and LTE-M are slimmed-down versions of 4G built for devices that sleep most of the time and wake up to send a reading. LoRaWAN uses a different network design: a long-range, low-speed radio that talks to a gateway, a small box that listens for every sensor nearby and forwards their messages to your server over a normal internet connection.

What does Indonesian regulation allow on 920-923 MHz?

The rulebook is Permenkominfo No. 2 of 2023 on class-licensed spectrum, signed 21 March 2023. It replaced the 2019 regulation that most older blog posts still quote. Class licence means you need no individual frequency permit, as long as your equipment follows the technical limits.

For LPWAN, the regulation's term for long-range low-power radios like LoRa, the 920-923 MHz band comes with these limits (Appendix II):

EIRP below is the power that actually leaves the antenna, antenna gain included.

• Gateway: maximum 400 mW EIRP (26 dBm).
• End device: maximum 100 mW EIRP (20 dBm).
• Channel bandwidth: maximum 250 kHz.
• Duty cycle: 1% uplink (device transmission) and 1% downlink (gateway transmission).

Duty cycle is the share of time a device may transmit. One percent works out to 36 seconds of airtime per hour. That sounds generous until you know a single small packet sent at LoRa's longest-range setting can take more than a second on air. A sensor at the edge of coverage gets a few dozen messages per hour, not hundreds. Design your reporting interval around that budget.

Two more clauses matter in practice. Article 11 requires every device used in Indonesia to meet the technical standard, proven by a certificate from Komdigi's device certification process. And Article 10 reserves the cellular variant of LPWAN, meaning NB-IoT and LTE-M, for licensed mobile operators. You can run your own LoRaWAN gateway on your own site. You cannot run your own NB-IoT network.

The practical trap is buying hardware from a global marketplace. LoRaWAN devices come in regional variants. The Things Network uses its own regional labels; do not infer the permitted frequency range from the label alone. Check that every configured channel falls within Indonesia’s 920–923 MHz allocation. A cheap EU868 or US915 sensor transmits on the wrong frequencies: it will not talk to a correctly configured local gateway, and it is not legal to operate here.

Where does each option fail in the field?

Every option has one failure that shows up again and again.

WiFi fails on ownership. The device works on day one. Six months later the building changes its router, rotates the password, or puts guests and devices behind a captive portal, the login page hotels love. Nobody tells the device. If you do not control the access point, WiFi is a dependency on someone else's IT schedule.

4G fails indoors and on SIM administration. Basements, panel rooms and steel buildings eat signal. The SIM side fails quietly: expiring validity periods and cards registered to a technician who has since left, which we covered in what the new leftover-data rule means for IoT SIM cards.

NB-IoT fails on coverage outside cities. Operators sell it, but coverage is uneven. Telkomsel's own product page says its NB-IoT network reaches major cities across Indonesia, which also tells you what it does not promise. Before committing, put a test unit at the real mounting spot, not at the office.

LoRaWAN fails on the gateway. One gateway covering fifty sensors is also one box that, when it loses power or internet, silences fifty sensors at once. Treat it as infrastructure: backup power, a second internet link (backhaul) if the data matters, and monitoring on the gateway itself. The same reasoning appears in our piece on single points of failure in IoT gateways and brokers.

One more thing that is gone: 3G. Indonesian operators switched it off in 2022-2023 under government direction, and 2G survives only because people still need voice and SMS, with XL saying its 2G will wind down naturally (detik, August 2023). Do not buy 2G-only modules, however cheap they are.

What is the rest of the world buying?

The global market gives a useful signal. According to IoT Analytics (29 April 2026), cellular IoT connections grew 13.3% in 2025 to 4.7 billion. In module shipments, NB-IoT led with 33.5%, followed by LTE Cat-1 bis at 21.4% and regular 4G at 18.6%.

Cat-1 bis is the quiet winner here. It is a simple, single-antenna 4G module: fast enough for most telemetry and firmware updates, cheaper than full 4G, and it runs on the ordinary 4G network every Indonesian operator already covers. For mains-powered devices, it is the sensible default.

How much does each option cost per year?

The cost structure matters more than the unit prices, which change every quarter. Cellular options scale per device. LoRaWAN scales per site.

A simple model, with illustrative numbers you should replace with current quotes:

• Cellular: devices × monthly SIM cost × 12. At Rp30,000 per SIM per month, 50 sensors cost Rp18 million per year. Forever.
• LoRaWAN: gateways × (hardware + installation) once, plus gateways × one internet line per month. One outdoor gateway around Rp10 million and one Rp100,000 SIM for the gateway costs Rp11.2 million in year one and Rp1.2 million per year after.

Add what the model leaves out. LoRaWAN needs someone who can run a network server (the software that sorts messages from the gateways) and plan coverage. Certified sensors in the right regional variant cost more than marketplace hardware. Cellular needs someone to manage SIM renewals, and battery devices on 4G drain far faster than on NB-IoT or LoRa.

Break-even depends on device count, site distribution, and support costs. LoRaWAN is worth comparing for many devices at one site; cellular may be easier to manage for fewer devices spread across sites with adequate coverage.

Which one should you pick?

Some patterns we see repeatedly:

• Poultry houses, factories, campuses, plantations. Many sensors, one fence, often poor signal inside metal buildings. LoRaWAN with one or two gateways is usually right. The telemetry design for this case is in closed poultry house monitoring.
• Water or electricity meters across a city. Battery, fixed location, spread out. NB-IoT, after a coverage test at each meter type's usual location.
• Vehicle and asset trackers. Moving, spread across provinces. Compare 4G Cat-1, or LTE-M where the operator confirms service and mobility support. LoRaWAN is the wrong tool unless every vehicle stays inside your own yard.
• Cameras and anything that sends video. 4G or wired. Nothing low-power carries video.
• A controller inside a hotel or office with good managed WiFi. WiFi, with the device on its own network segment, separate from guest traffic.

What should you check before buying hardware?

1. Regional variant. LoRaWAN devices and gateways: verify the configured channels against Indonesia’s 920–923 MHz allocation, as well as the regional-plan label. Cellular modules: must support the 4G bands your operator uses, not 2G/3G only.
2. Certificate. Ask the supplier for the Indonesian device certificate for that exact model. No certificate, no purchase order.
3. Coverage test at the real spot. One unit, mounted where it will live, reporting for a week. Signal at the office means nothing.
4. Airtime budget (LoRaWAN). Check that your reporting interval fits inside the 1% duty cycle at the worst-case range setting.
5. Who manages what. SIM renewals, gateway power and backhaul, network server updates. Put a name on each.
6. Backend fits any radio. Keep the radio choice out of your data model, so a site can move from 4G to LoRaWAN without rewriting the application. Our IoT backend guide covers that separation.

The radio is the cheapest part of an IoT project to choose and the most expensive part to change after two hundred devices are bolted to walls. A week of coverage testing can help avoid repeated site visits and module replacements.