What is Mobile Number Portability?
From next month, mobile phone users in Kuala Lumpur will benefit from the "Mobile Number Portability”(MNP) system which allows them to switch Service Providers while retaining their numbers. These facilities will be available throughout the country from October 2008.
Countries like Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe, Australia, South Korea and Taiwan have benefited and implemented this system. The Malaysia Government thru Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission(MCMC), wants to enhance the mobile phone coverage from the present 92 percent to 97 percent by the end of 2010 through a programme called Time 3.
By using MNP system, you can take your Mobile Number from one Service Providers Network to another. It enables you to retain your existing mobile phone numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another mobile network operator.
I am using MAXIS Operator Number (017-345 XXXX) and can switch my mobile network service to other competitor either CELCOM or DIGI without surrender my existing number(017-345 XXXX) to CELCOM or DIGI. How Cool? J
This is useful when some Network Service is stronger in certain area compare to other operator especially when driving in hilly road. Whenever I want to call, No more "No Network" problem! I notice when in certain areas like building, the mobile reception vary among the service provider.
Before this if we Not Happy with our existing operator and want to change Network service, we got to get a new number. Changing phone numbers would be a big inconvenience for me, as I did not want to spend time updating my friends and family members of the new numbers.
It definitely will improve mobile phone Connectivity and Domestic Roaming nationwide. Consumer now have Greater choices and can select service providers based on the Price, Quality And Type Of Service.
I expect competition to intensify once MNP is launched, as Service Providers could reduce call rates or offer better packages to attract rivals’ customers. DIGI has launched four new postpaid plans-DG250, DG150, DG50 and DG20. The DG250 gives customers free local voice call and SMS to any Network at anytime for rm250 a month. This is the best package in town if you are a Heavy user! .
Look like Consumer is the BIGGEST Winner here.
I expect More goodies to come…………
Celcom, DiGi.Com can save by sharing infrastructure
By B.K. SIDHU
KUALA LUMPUR: Rivals Celcom Axiata Bhd and DiGi.Com Bhd could save a few hundred million ringgit a year in capital expenditure (capex) and operational expenditure (opex) by sharing infrastructure.
Both parties signed a memorandum of understanding in June to explore areas of possible collaboration in the areas of operations and maintenance, transmission and site sharing, and radio access.
“We have not identified the kind of savings we will get as we have to understand the philosophy but it could be a few hundred million ringgit a year. We are probably coming to an agreement,’’ Axiata Bhd managing director/president/group CEO Datuk Seri Jamaludin Ibrahim said. Celcom is Axiata’s wholly owned unit.
Celcom is the second largest player in Malaysia’s cellular sector and a major contributor of Axiata’s earnings for now. DiGi is the third largest player by subscribers and whose major shareholder is Telenor.
A collaboration would mean both cellular companies do not have to build or expand their own networks individually in the areas of cooperation but can combine efforts and work on upgrading what they have.
There is a similar tieup in Bangladesh between Axiata and Telenor which led them to explore ways to cooperate in Malaysia. The reason that operators are looking to share infrastructure is that cost of developing a network that can support data transmission compared to voice needs to be several times bigger and that would involve a lot of capex.
“As we look at the future to support mobile data, we need to build more sites and more transmission be it in the form of microwave or fibre. The best way is to co-build or co-rent,’’ Jamaludin said,
But could this possible collaboration lead to something bigger such as a merger?
“Not a merger. Not to that extend, and it has never been in discussions. We want to jointly develop transmission to share the sites,’’ Jamaludin said.
Sharing of infrastructure is not entirely new in this country. There are various alliances, and even though the lead is taken by the players this time around, the regulator had in the past cajoled operators to share infrastructure to avoid duplication and to save cost.
Celcom is also not opposed to working with any other player, including the largest player in terms of subscriber base Maxis Communications Bhd.
“We would work with Maxis if it is willing. We do not want to compete on transmission but services. We have approached them casually,’’ he said.
The bottleneck is really at the transmission level, said Jamaludin, and to address that by laying fibre cables would help celcos get the reliability in speed and huge capacity for data.
But Celcom is not going to invest millions of ringgit in laying fibre unless it is for short distances. It would rather collaborate or rent.
Is using Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s UniFi network for the transmission an option?
“We could but sometimes it does not go to homes. We do not want to build the fibre, we want to lease it. However, if we do not get a reasonable price and if they are not focusing on certain areas, then we build our own or co-build,’’ he said.
Capex wise, Celcom is spending RM300mil this year on broadband infrastructure, of which the transmission cost is between 20% and 30%.
Its 3G coverage has reached 75% of the population, while the 2G network coverage is 98%.
fr:biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/19/business/6684511&sec=business
Celcom Axiata to double BlackBerry prepaid users
By DANNY YAP
It expects its new BlackBerry Messenger Plan to be a hit
KUALA LUMPUR: Celcom Axiata Bhd (formerly Celcom Malaysia Bhd) expects to double its Blackberry Xpax prepaid subscribers by year-end with its new BlackBerry Messenger Plan (BMP).
Xpac is Celcom’s main prepaid brand accounting for over half of the telco’s eight million prepaid subcribers so far.
Marketing director Zalman Aefendy Zainal Abidin said the telco operator was confident of doubling its BlackBerry prepaid subscribers this year with its latest BlackBerry Messenger service offering.
Zalman declined to give figures, but expects BMP to be a big hit with Celcom BlackBerry prepaid subscribers.
He said currently there were over 20 million active BlackBerry Messenger users globally and the figure was growing rapidly every year.
The new service provided by Celcom enabled its BlackBerry subscribers to have unlimited chat via BlackBerry messenger for a mere 50 sen per day.
“We are the first telco operator in Malaysia and in Asia-Pacific to roll-out such a service,” he said after the BMP launch yesterday.
Zalman said at 50 sen per day, BMP was very affordable to the masses of Celcom prepaid BlackBerry subscribers.
“We believe BMP will help boost Celcom’s market share in the BlackBerry prepaid subscriber market segment significantly in the near future,” he said.
“It’s inevitable that other telco operators will come out with a similar service,” Zalman said.
He said Celcom also provided other services under its BMP service such as shared pictures, voice notes and large media data transfer (up to 6 megabytes), via BlackBerry Advance and BlackBerry Social, but the additional services come at a premium of RM2.50 and RM1 per day respectively.
“We now have three main BMP services targeted for various market segments that are based on cost and usage customised to our subscribers requirements,” Zainal noted.
fr:biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/8/17/business/6867093&sec=business
New mobile phone service coming up in M’sia
By LEONG HUNG YEE
Firm will also launch its 4G mobile Internet services soon
KUALA LUMPUR: YTL Communications Sdn Bhd (YTL Comms), which is gearing up for the launch of its 4G mobile Internet services next month, is expected to unveil its own mobile phones soon.
“We are working on our own Android platform phones and it is likely to be introduced in three months,” said executive director Datuk Yeoh Seok Hong.
He said this at a signing ceremony to appoint ECS ICT Bhd as a distributor of YTL Comms’ 4G devices.
Although details on the mobile phones remain sketchy, market talk has it that YTL Comms was working on a number of WiMAX devices and had outsourced the production of its mobile phones to a smartphone manufacturer
It is not known if the mobile phones will be under the YTL brand.
YTL Comms is expected to launch the name for its 4G mobile Internet services early next month, to be followed by the launch of the services on Nov 18. The group will embark on a series of roadshows later.
Yeoh remained tight-lipped on pricing, saying the services would be “affordable”.
However, he hinted that YTL Comm’s pricing plan might do away with the usual monthly commitment packages currently available in the market.
YTL Comms chief executive officer Wing K. Lee said the group had acquired some 2,500 base stations from Samsung and had about 1,000 yet to be deployed.
He said it may complete the deployment of all the base stations next year.
However, Lee said YTL Comms would review the density of the usage from time to time and add more base stations if needed.
ECS managing director Foo Sen Chin expects the distributorship agreement would contribute significantly to the company’s earnings.
ECS has about 2,500 information and communications technology-related resellers comprising retailers, system integrators and dealers.
For the six months ended June 30, ECS posted a net profit of RM13.5mil on revenue of RM626.2mil.
fr:biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/27/business/7302871&sec=business