Budiey
Celcom Axiata Berhad, the first and foremost mobile telecommunications provider in country, and Malaysia’s Convergence Champion; Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) strengthened its partnership today by signing an agreement on the provisioning of additional Long-Term Evolution (LTE) sites through TM’s Next-Gen BackhaulTM (TM NGBH) services, following the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in November 2013.
Under this Phase 2 network collaborative agreement, TM will continue to support Celcom’s transmission requirements, whilst enabling Celcom to optimise cost and efficiently utilise its infrastructure. This collaboration will essentially avert unnecessary duplication of network infrastructures and strategically, will enable Celcom to be operationally efficient as the industry matures. Through the inking of the agreement, additional LTE sites, provisioned by TM across Malaysia, with a special focus for Putrajaya, Klang Valley, Johor Bahru, Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan, will be fiberised, and this will cater to extensive and robust backhaul with high bandwidth capacity for a ten-year period.
Celcom & TM Seal Collaborative Deal On Phase 2 For Tm Next-Gen Backhaultm Services
The move is in adherence to the requirement by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for service providers in the country to have a robust backhaul network for LTE rollout and fiberised, within a two-year timeline.
TM NGBH service is indeed an effective way of increasing Celcom’s coverage and ramping up its capacity in a shorter time due to TM’s existing capacity and fibre coverage. This signifies TM’s strength in rolling out mobile backhaul in an effective, efficient manner ensuring resource efficiency, as Celcom could focus on their core business while outsourcing the backhaul planning and deployment to TM.
By leasing wholesale bandwidth services and leveraging on TM’s strength on its nationwide fibre coverage and resilient network platform for access and aggregation fibre network from TM, Celcom will be able to obtain quick access to fibre infrastructure to support its future network capacity demands, to deliver affordable and high-quality internet connectivity to more Malaysians.
The agreement was signed by Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad, Dato’ Sri Shazalli Ramly, and Group Chief Executive Officer of TM, Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa. Also present at the event were Mohamad Rozaimy Abd. Rahman, Executive Vice President of Global & Wholesale, TM and Ramanathan Sathiamutty, Chief Technology, Operations and Experience Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad.
Dato’ Sri Shazalli Ramly, Chief Executive Officer, Celcom Axiata Berhad said that the collaboration was yet another momentous milestone for Celcom as it showcased the industry’s alliance, and it was in line with national objectives whilst taking a step closer towards achieving excellence in customer experience.
Partnership paves way for high quality internet and seamless connectivity for users
“The demand for high speed and quality internet services has accelerated in the country. Malaysians have become technologically astute and require access to always-on, high-speed data connectivity to cater to their increasing needs. With this leasing opportunity for access and aggregation of fiber network from TM, Celcom will be able to obtain quick access to fiber infrastructure to support our future network capacity demands, in order to deliver affordable and high-quality internet connectivity to more Malaysians.
“We remain committed to enhancing our network excellence aside from expanding and accelerating our LTE of network development nationwide, to sustain superior quality network, and this will stimulate heightened internet experience for our customers. The agreement represents one of many key investments into network quality that Celcom is currently implementing.
“Celcom’s journey to be “the best in the class of customer experience” has evolved from tackling the basics to differentiating our services and we are geared for robust growth,” he added after the signing ceremony here today.
Tan Sri Zamzamzairani thanked Celcom for the trust and confidence in choosing TM as the supplier of choice to provide TM Next-Gen BackhaulTM services and supporting Celcom’s LTE deployment in the country.
“This is definitely in line with TM’s aspiration of being the partner of choice for our customers’ end-to-end connectivity and ICT requirements. This collaboration is an achievement in itself as it represents another step forward in enabling TM to provision additional LTE sites for Celcom in Peninsular Malaysia, in the wake of our earlier collaboration in 2013.
“The signing of this agreement re-iterates TM’s commitment in providing an open access for all MCMC-licensed service providers – allowing these operators to provide and deliver value-added services to their end-users hence further strengthening TM’s position as a neutral service provider and as an Information Exchange. At TM, we believe in working together, cooperating with other service providers and complementing each other in bringing the nation closer to achieving the National Broadband Initiative, in line with the Government’s aspiration to increase the household broadband penetration to 75% by 2015. We look forward to be part of this accelerated journey in enabling an enhanced integrated digital society, and will continue to boost our efforts via such collaborative deal to digitalise businesses of all scales / sizes, in line with our promise of ‘Life and Business Made Easier’,” Tan Sri Zamzamzairani concluded.
The sealing of the deal signifies Celcom’s commitment to stay ahead of competition and up-to-date with the ongoing demands and needs of the ever-evolving industry, while delivering considerable upgrades as part of its network excellence objective to offer high bandwidth to its customers.
Moreover, Celcom will be able to apply and accommodate higher degrees of flexibility and scalability, and facilitate finer quality customer experience as customers’ gain access to high-bandwidth digital content, or run real-time applications on their mobile devices, with the availability of better connection to backhaul network.
This collaboration between TM and Celcom is in line with the Government’s call for greater industry partnerships and at the same time promoting healthy competition among the telco players as service providers will be focusing on delivering improved customer experience and better value offerings, which ultimately will benefit Malaysian consumers as a whole.
For more information on Celcom, visit www.celcom.com.my. For further information on TM, visit www.tm.com.my.
