Telekom beefs up WiFi service

By JEEVA ARULAMPALAM
jeeva@thestar.com.my


It intends to increase Streamyx hotspots and hotzones to 10,000 by year-end

KUALA LUMPUR: Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) will focus on strengthening its wireless solution by growing its WiFi hotspots as market competition intensifies in the mobile broadband space.

We are strong in the fixed network, both in copper and fibre, but alongside this network, we will need some form of a wireless solution to help our customers enhance their experience when they buy services from us, TM group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa told StarBiz in an interview on Tuesday.

He said TM would focus on increasing its TM Streamyx hotspots and hotzones to 10,000 from 8,800 by the year-end.

Eighty per cent of the time when people are mobile and want to access the Internet, they would be seated somewhere, either in a cafe, hotel lobby or at an airport, Zamzamzairani said. This means these people are located in a building and that gives us the opportunity to serve those customers using our WiFi solutions.


Datuk Seri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa … ‘We are strong in the fixed network, both in copper and fibre.’

However, he said customers would seek both mobile and fixed broadband solutions, depending on their needs. Customers want mobile solutions when they are moving around while fixed-line services would be ideal for home or office needs.

The latest wireless solutions provider in the market is YTL Communications Sdn Bhd, which launched its 4G Mobile Internet service with voice last month.

TM, which initially dominated the local Internet market share with Streamyx, has seen its retail market share erode with the entry of other mobile and wireless players.

Market share is important to us and when you start at 100%, the only way to go is down. So the challenge for us is to try to slow down that reduction, Zamzamzairani said. While we note that the pie has gotten bigger, we have gone down to 63% (in market share) and will continue to see erosion.

While TM works to preserve its retail market share, he said the company would also focus on other business opportunities in the wholesale segment as well as in new media.

We have opportunity in the wholesale side and in the global side. No one else is investing in capacity, i.e. submarine cables systems and so on.

We have been investing for many years and will continue to do so, giving us the ability to provide global connectivity such as IP transits, not just for Malaysian customers but for surrounding markets like in Indonesia going out to the US and North Asia, he added.

On potential tie-ups for TM's high-speed broadband (HSBB) wholesale services, Zamzamzairani said the company was still in talks with telecommunications operators.

Wholesale is not like selling retail, as the scale for wholesale is big in terms of volume and term commitments. You are also dealing with other operators and they have their own plans, he added.

To date, TM's residential HSBB services, Unifi, has closed some 30,000 orders and premises have surpassed 700,000.

By next week, we would roll out Unifi to cover 34 exchange areas and hit 48 by the year-end. In terms of premises, we are on track to meet our 750,000 target by the year-end, Zamzamzairani said.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/12/2/business/7538955&sec=business