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Indosat, the country’s second-largest mobile phone operator, has sold 2,500 cellular phone towers to a mobile-phone infrastructure provider for $519 million in a bid to pay off its debt and focus on its core business.

The Jakarta-based Indosat signed the sale and purchase agreement with Tower Bersama Infrastructure on Wednesday.

“Tower Bersama will pay $406 million in advance and another $113 million in a later payment,” Indosat said in a statement to the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) without elaborating on the nature of the later payment.

Tower Bersama will pay for the acquisition in cash and by issuing new shares.

“The shares will be equivalent to 5 percent of the total capital of the new shares issuance,’’ Indosat said in the statement.

With the deal, Indosat will lease all 2,500 towers as an anchor tenant for at least 10 years.

Tower Bersama beat out several other companies, including Solusi Tunas Pratama and Sarana Menara Nusantara, according to a Bloomberg report last year, to win the bid.

Solusi Tunas Pratama is one of the country’s leading providers of telecom infrastructure. Sarana Menara Nusantara, another telecom equipment provider, owns and operates tower sites for lease to cellular phone operators.

Indosat will use the sale proceeds to repay its maturing debt, “with the remaining for capital investment and other general purposes,’’ the statement said.

Harry Sasongko, Indosat’s president director, said the sale of the company’s non-core assets would enable it to “monetize our non-core assets at a decent and interesting yield.”

Indonesian mobile phone operators including Indosat, Telkomsel and XL Axiata have shifted their focus to data business since calling services and text messaging services have become saturated.

Shares of Indosat fell 0.93 percent to Rp 5,350 on the IDX on Wednesday. Indosat announced the sale after the market's close.