Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 27, 2016.

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Celcom Axiata Bhd has axed Nokia Solutions and Networks Sdn Bhd (Nokia) from its new five-year infrastructure agreement to upgrade its fourth-generation (4G) network, which will see it spend as much as RM2.2 billion as capital expenditure (capex).

“Celcom’s network was built on a three-partner collaboration before — Nokia, Ericsson Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Huawei Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd, this exercise is to sort of streamline our partners moving forward, so we are cutting down to two,” Celcom chief of operations, technology, digital and enabler officer Ramanathan Sathiamutty told reporters yesterday.

He was speaking after Celcom inked an agreement to engage Ericsson and Huawei as its main network infrastructure partners to integrate, deploy and manage its 4G Long-Term Evolution network.

Under the agreement, both Ericsson and Huawei will be responsible for the full turnkey supply and delivery of product, equipment, system, works and services for Celcom Radio Access Network, which will further enhance customers’ experience.

“The significance of the signing is that we are adopting a lot of new technology from Ericsson and Huawei. There are two major benefits from this: one is the setting up of a 5G-ready foundation; the second is the reduction in the number of sites that we require moving forward, so we are going to be very efficient in deploying our technology,” Ramanathan explained.

Also present at the signing ceremony was Celcom chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly, who said the group had budgeted RM1.8 billion to RM2.2 billion as capex to deploy the new infrastructure over the next five years.

“So far, there is no public announcement on the refarming yet. If there is refarming, we will allocate RM2.2 billion. If there is none, we will only need RM1.8 billion,” he said.

With this new upgrade, Shazalli said Celcom will require fewer sites even as it broadens its coverage, which will ultimately translate into cost savings at the group level.

Further, Shazalli revealed that Celcom will be launching a new mobile Internet plan for businesses on Friday.

“In the telecom business, it is highly competitive and responsive. And it is too dynamic, because the change in consumer behaviour is so fast. [So] when we launch a new plan, it’s not necessarily that we are reacting to our competitors. [Rather] we are answering the ever-changing need of consumers,” he said.

Celcom is the Malaysian unit of Axiata Group Bhd, which also has operations in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

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