KUALA LUMPUR: Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), fresh from securing RM3.4 billion worth of deals to expand broadband services nationwide, is moving closer to its transformation as the nation’s convergence champion.
Next year, it will roll out the missing link — its mobile broadband offering via P1 (Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd, acquired last year), TM group chief executive officer Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa said.
TM, with a market capitalisation of more than RM25 billion, is nearly omnipresent in a person’s daily life, from when they’re at home (Streamyx/UniFi), at work (high- speed bandwidth) or at the mall (WiFi).
“When they are in their car, in the train or walking in the street, they are not our customers. We needed another piece to complete this portfolio of services in order to provide the convergence experience to our customers. We needed the mobility piece. P1 has the spectrum — the missing link.
“Now, customers can choose the device of choice and we will provide the seamless service for their day-to-day journey — convergence service,” Zamzamzairani, 54, said in an exclusive interview with the New Straits Times and Berita Harian on the 55th floor of the group’s iconic tower in Jalan Pantai here.
On Thursday, TM announced that it had signed two public-private partnership agreements worth RM3.4 billion with the government to implement the High-Speed Broadband Phase 2 (HSBB2) and Sub-Urban Broadband (SUBB) projects.
HSBB2 will expand the previous HSBB infrastructure and cover state capitals and major towns, while SUBB will cover sub-urban and rural areas, including educational institutions.
Zamzamzairani, who has led the telecommunications giant since April 2008, said the country’s largest broadband service provider was leveraging information and communications technology (ICT) and innovation to expand its business.
“It is beyond connectivity. We have to start thinking about creating vertical expertise, for example, in education, healthcare, financial institutions and property. We are providing them with solutions.”
In the property sector, TM is moving into the smart city approach. It recently signed several agreements with Medini Iskandar Malaysia Bhd (for business) and UEM Sunrise Bhd in Nusajaya (residential). It is also in talks with Cyberview Sdn Bhd on providing the service in Cyberjaya.
“The idea is to meet the digital lifestyle needs of the people there. Smart means parking, security, traffic lights, CCTV… all in, because the customer expects that. The important element is the Internet of Things (IoT), which means you have sensors everywhere and you collate all these data and carry out data analytics to provide better services to the customer.”
In healthcare, TM is working with hospitals to support them in providing better services for the patients in terms of remote diagnostics and keeping records electronically in a repository accessible to doctors.
“In education, we are working with Mara schools to provide them with high-speed connectivity plus learning management system, which is doing very well. They are very happy with our service and we hope to expand it to other schools,” Zamzamzairani said.
TM is also looking to evolve its award-winning business process outsourcing sector, which is spearheaded by VADS.
“We would like to move into shared services like managing human resources and salaries, and finance and HR SSO (Single Sign-On). These are other areas of growth. We have VADS to look at this and create centres of excellence in all these verticals.”
These ICT initiatives also extend beyond Malaysian shores, with plans to capitalise on collaborations and operations in Indonesia and Singapore.
“That is a very exciting development, I must say,” Zamzamzairani said.
To date, TM has deployed UniFi to 103 TM exchange areas nationwide, covering 1.769 million premises. TM has 2.29 million broadband customers, of whom more than 800,000 are UniFi customers. Additional
reporting by Francis Dass