KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 9): Shares of Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) rose 1.55% at mid-morning today after the utility giant said it and the federal government were in the final stage of discussion over the RM1.8 billion high speed broadband phase 2 project (HSBB 2).

At 10.08am, TM was up 10 sen to RM6.56 with 287,900 shares done.

TM’s group chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa told reporters yesterday that the discussion was now in “finalisation stage” and expects to seal the deal within the next two months.

Aside from that, the dominant player in the domestic telecommunication industry also inked a five-year agreement with Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) to provide wide-area network services to BSN’s 413 branches nationwide for an undisclosed contract value.

“We normally don’t disclose the value (of the contract), because we don’t want our competitor to know,” he said, adding the project is 40% completed. It targets to finish the project by the first quarter of 2016 (1Q16).

Under the agreement, TM will provide the banking group with connectivity aside from information and communication technology (ICT) services.

With this, Zamzamzairani said BSN will be able to focus more on its core business, improving its efficiencies and overall experience.

“We hope to extend its service agreement with BSN for another five years,” he added.