Packet One to offer High Speed Broadband services in Malaysia

P1 Signs With TM To Accelerate HSBB To More Malaysians

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (“TM”) and Packet One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (“P1”) are joining forces to accelerate the delivery of High Speed Broadband (HSBB) services to all Malaysians, powered by TM’s HSBB infrastructure.

Under the agreement sealed between the two parties, TM will be providing the HSBB (Access) and HSBB (Transmission) services to P1 whereby P1 will have access to all 1.3 million homes covered by the HSBB areas nationwide. The signing of the HSBB Services Agreement with P1 reiterates TM’s commitment to boosting the HSBB ecosystem locally by getting service providers to come on board and roll out their differentiated value-added services directly to consumers.

The agreement was signed by Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Group Chief Executive Officer, TM and Rafaai Samsi, Executive Vice President, Wholesale, TM while P1 was represented by Micheal Lai, Chief Executive Officer and Mohamad Idham Nawawi, its Chief Operating Officer. The signing ceremony was witnessed by YB. Dato’ Joseph Salang, Deputy Minister of Information, Communications and Culture. Also present at the event were Datuk Dr. Halim Shafie, Chairman of TM together with P1 Chairman, Shukor Karim.

According to Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Group Chief Executive Officer, TM, this collaboration is an outstanding achievement by itself as it represents another step forward in the HSBB rollout plan for the nation, in the wake of TM’s earlier collaborations with Maxis and Celcom.

“TM’s partnership with P1 not only reflects TM’s intent to work with the industry but further strengthen our position as a neutral wholesale service provider. We are also keeping our promise of open access to all MCMC-licensed service providers, as we said at the beginning of the HSBB project under the Public-Private Partnership Agreement (PPP) in 2008. With this collaboration, the telecommunications industry ensures consumers and businesses throughout the country will get to participate in the new wave of digital transformation sweeping across the country, thanks to HSBB. HSBB services will reach out to more Malaysians and will ultimately provide numerous benefits which include bridging the digital divide and lead to innovations at home, work, business and much more,” said Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani.

Michael Lai, CEO of P1, said, “P1 was the first in the region to launch 4G wireless broadband and now, as we are expanding our broadband offering, we are the first to offer the combination both 4G and fibre optic solutions for a segment of customers who want premium speed broadband. No other broadband provider offers such a complete broadband package with such high capacity both at home and on-the-go, coupled with 4G and fibre optic broadband solutions.”

Lai continued, “P1 customers are big consumers of data with an average usage of 12GB per month. HSBB perfectly complements the demand for large data consumption at home. We are indeed excited about what this partnership means for our current customers and for future P1 customers who want the best of both worlds – fibre optics at home and 4G broadband on-the-go.”

The HSBB service will allow P1 to also provide Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), Video on Demand (VoD) and other rich multimedia services in the future.

“We are confident that this partnership will bring enormous benefits to all end users, as it is in the consumers’ best interest to have a range of options to choose from, based on quality of service, extent of coverage, range of features and competitive pricing to boot,” added Dato’ Sri Zamzamzairani.

The HSBB (Access) and HSBB (Transmission) services offered by TM is open to all Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission-licensed service providers who wish to offer IP-based services and applications to end users.

As at today, TM has rolled out the HSBB service to more than 1,044,000 premises passed in 77 exchange areas nationwide. TM is well on its way to meet the targeted 1.3 million premises passed by end of 2012. This progress is in accordance with the completion of the first phase of the PPP Agreement signed in September 2008 between TM and the Government of Malaysia. The RM11.3 billion national HSBB project is aimed to develop next generation high speed broadband infrastructure and services for the nation. TM is investing RM8.9 billion into the project while the Government is contributing RM2.4 billion on an incurred claims basis based on project milestones reached by TM.