Saturday October 23, 2010
YTL Communications Bhd executive
director
Datuk Yeoh Seok Hong
“The Government’s objective is that it wants the private sector to offer services to the people at the cheapest price since it does not want to take that risk.
We were promised that the 2.5/2.6GHz will not be given until 2015 but with all the lobbying (it has been given out). The original spirit was to give 2.6G in 2015. By doing this, they are making it difficult for the new players (to offer services). It is not the right thing to do but if we have to fight and compete, we will do it.
We see convergence of voice, data and video. We plan to launch on Nov 18. You will see convergence. Next year, it will be hybrid TV. We are also bringing digitalisation of broadcasting to Malaysia. All this is being done without any cost to the Government. We are investing billions to transform the way people communicate in future.”
Axiata Group spokesperson
“The element of contest allows regulatory regimes to ensure that innovation is encouraged, inefficient players are weeded out, sustainable business approaches are adopted, and companies with track record are nurtured. Ultimately the goal is to benefit the public and consumers.
Globally, the exponential growth of mobile broadband services has necessitated commitments of new spectrum particularly for services utilising smart phones, connected laptops, tablet computers and the like. For Celcom, the spectrum will pave the way for these new services. It comes as no surprise that globally, governments are being encouraged to allocate as much as 190Mhz of 2.6Mhz spectrum for mobile broadband services.
Given Celcom’s track record in driving broadband penetration, we do believe we could contribute more towards driving this further if we are allocated more spectrum. We hope that in future, additional spectrum will be reallocated to players who effectively use them, as opposed to those who do not.’’
REDtone International Bhd
CEO
Zainal Amanshah
“The way the spectrum is awarded is the government’s prerogative.
We will roll out services to the SMI market as there is a real need for more broadband services to this sector. The role of SMIs in moving to a higher income nation is critical – they have a direct positive impact to our GDP.
Increasingly more SMIs have begun embracing the Web. Many people tend to think of consumer services only when it comes to wireless broadband services or assume that fixed line services will only serve the SMIs. This is not true as wireless broadband services for SMIs is a good, cost effective and reliable alternative solution. This will be an extension to our current services. So, we don’t need to build an entirely new sector.’’
Maxis Bhd spokesperson
Maxis is appreciative that spectrum is available to us in the 2.6GHz category, though it is not reflective of our requirement which is to serve our 13.5 million subscriber base and their data needs.
We have been the first to get off the blocks to trial LTE successfully, already in anticipation of what our customers will want. We have been the leading network investor with an investment of over RM3 billion in just the last 3 years. In addition, we will spend over RM1.4bil this year, therein having covered 94% of the country’s population on 2G and over 64% on 3G and high-speed broadband.
Globally, any allocation of spectrum is widely applied to make sure that progressive incumbents are not throttled and yet new players have a fair opportunity to participate in the nation’s march.’’
Asiaspace Sdn Bhd
chairman
Datuk Abdul Ghani Abdullah
“If merely 3 or 4 players got the LTE, the Government would have been accused of cronyism. What the ministry has done is a clear signal that it wants to be fair and give all a chance to roll out services. If a player is not able to do this, then the player should seriously consider teaming up with another. And if any player fails, it is purely based on market conditions and nothing to do with the authorities.
The business plans should be allowed to change with technological changes. Who are the best people to decide on the merits of the business plan – the players who invest in the business or the regulators?
The government can help by ensuring that backhaul charges are reduced.
If a spectrum is awarded, it is normally for 5-10 years but awarding an apparatus assignment just sets some players back. With yearly renewables, which banks are going to give us the financing? A review is necessary.’’
DiGi spokesperson
To deliver an optimum mix of services (on voice, small and large screen data), it is key for DiGi to have a mix of spectrum to enable the co-existence of different network technologies (2G/3G/LTE), and to have strong capacity/coverage in our network (e.g. the right spectrum to be able to provide basic coverage in rural areas, and high capacity in urban areas).
There are a number of key spectrum bands critical for mobile and broadband in coming years, namely 700/800MHz, 850/900MHz, 1800MHz, 2600MHz (and 2100MHz – the main 3G band).
The use of these bands is influenced by the equipment available (and planned), and the associated technical characteristics. We are excited about the prospect of using the 20MHz of 2600MHz spectrum as the basis for us to launch LTE services by 2013, but as we expand we would expect to use other bands for LTE services as the process of spectrum re-farming continues.
An efficient and transparent refarming process which sees optimal usage of spectrum will provide for more widespread mobile broadband, voice and data access at competitive prices.
Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd
CEO
Michael Lai
‘‘The provision of the 2.6GHz spectrum shows the government’s foresight in preparing for the next wave of technology.
P1 will continue to do its best in utilizing the allocated spectrum. Just like any other scarce resource, the more the allocation, the better it is for any service provider. With ample spectrum, service providers would be able to offer faster broadband speeds and better internet experience to more concurrent users.
With additional spectrum, P1’s main objective is to offer even better and faster broadband speeds to more Malaysians.
It’ll enhance Malaysian’s experience and bring convergence of ubiquitous internet-related services thus living up to the ultimate potential of being a truly connected man to man, man to machine and machine to machine communications.
Any fee for the spectrum in this case would translate to higher cost for Malaysians. This may not be something the country wants if its objective is to offer affordable broadband for the masses.
The bidding system will not contribute to affordable broadband access for the masses and will likely not help a country to accelerate its socio-economic status.’’
U Mobile spokesperson
“Giving out the 2.6GHz spectrum band will put Malaysia in the ‘future’ broadband map on par with other broadband leaders such as US, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Scandinavia.
However, it would be critical that the LTE spectrum be distributed in a holistic manner through a transparent consultation process to garner industry’s view and study the impact of distributing all these spectrum to the market as a whole.
There are several others LTE spectrum bands i.e. the lower bands frequencies such as 700/800Mhz that need to be considered holistically together with the higher band frequencies such as 2.6GHz.
The competitive impact of the market needs to be assessed by the Government to ensure that LTE and future Broadband technologies benefits can be realized to the fullest.
The LTE infrastructure that we will consider building is greenfield. Cost-effective investment is necessary to meet our long-term investment objective to complement our 3G and HSPA+ networks.
We are open to also consider the possibility of working with other operators in the market for infrastructure sharing to minimize our cost.’’
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/23/business/7278718&sec=business
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