KUALA LUMPUR (April 26): Celcom Axiata Bhd has roped in Ericsson Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Huawei Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd as main network infrastructure partners, to integrate, deploy and manage its fourth generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) network developments.

At the signing ceremony today, Celcom chief executive officer Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly said the group has budgeted RM1.8 billion to RM2.2 billion of capital expenditure (capex) to deploy the infrastructure over the next five years.

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 (RAN), which is expected to further enhance customer experience.

"Celcom has always been at the forefront of upholding its brand promise to its customers by providing ultrafast, seamless and widest network. With a strong growth in subscribers today, Celcom is taking this step in ensuring that it will provide the best network quality and ultrafast 4G LTE data traffic," Shazalli said.

Shazalli also explained that this round of collaboration is to apply new technology supplied by Ericsson and Huawei to upgrade Celcom's current and future network base station sites.

With this new upgrade, Shazalli said Celcom will require lesser sites while still getting broader coverage, which will ultimately translate into cost savings at the group level.

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

At noon market break, Axiata was trading at RM5.74, down 12 sen or 2.05%, giving it a market capitalisation of RM50.6 billion.