It is operated as the parent company of the Telkom Group, which is engaged in a broad range of businesses which consist of telecommunication, multimedia, property, and financial services.

[5] Since 2008, Telkom Indonesia began changing its business, focusing on infrastructure, systems, organization and human resources, and the corporate culture, in order to face the rising competition.

[6][7] After privatization in 1995, Telkom Indonesia's total consumer base grew by 7.8% in 2010 to 129.8 million customers at the end of December 2011, making the company the nation's largest telecommunication service provider in terms of subscriber count.

The company can be traced back to the establishment of the first electromagnetic telegraph service in Indonesia on 23 October 1856, by the Dutch colonial government to connect Batavia (Jakarta) and Buitenzorg (Bogor).

[8][10] The outbreak of World War II greatly weakened Dutch defense forces, especially when telephone services were was nationalized by Nazi Germany on 14 May 1940.

[11][12] In 1961, PTT was converted from an official government agency into a newly established statutory corporation, the Postal and Telecommunications Services company.

Each Witel had full responsibility for all aspects of business and operations in their respective regions, such as telephone services, property management, and security.

Under a series of Cooperation (KSO) Agreements, Telkom transferred the right to operate five of its seven regional divisions (I, III, IV, VI, and VII) to private sector consortia.

[17] In 1999, Indonesia passed a deregulating telecommunication law that set in motion a sweeping array of reforms and enlivened competition policy, private investment, and long term industry direction.

[8][18] On 7 June 2004, Telkom began to provide their own international direct dial fixed line services.

[citation needed] In March 2019, Telkom Indonesia was one of the first Asian telco's to launch a cloud gaming service in cooperation with Gamestream.

[citation needed] Telkom Indonesia businesses are operated under government regulation by the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information.