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Telekom Malaysia's 3G rollout
Malaysia 3G rollout and implementation is indicated in the report. It also indicates Telekom Malaysia's current 3G partners.
Telekom Malaysia Berhad will be rolling out its initial 3G services to select Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan areas on January 31, 2004. The first launch of its 3G services will have limited coverage, restricted content and applications. Nationwide rollout is planned for end of 2004.
In July 2003, Telekom Malaysia assigned five partners to its pilot 3G projects. The Cyberjaya, Malaysia’s cyber city area is assigned to Ericsson. The MINES/ Serdang area which is south of Kuala Lumpur, is assigned to Nokia. A major suburban of Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, is assigned to Alcatel. Central Kuala Lumpur is assigned to China’s Huawei. The Putra World Trade Center, Keramat and Gurney area is assigned to Simens and NEC.
All five 3G pilot areas will have independent 3G systems and roaming services will not be available initially. Each system will have their own content and applications, but videophones services will be made available by most of the partners. 3G users will have access to location based services, news reports, and video streaming. Initial handsets will be provided free and users will pay token sum for domestic call usage. Telekom Malaysia 3G target is to have 2000 users.
The other 3G spectrums holder, Maxis Communications Berhad plans to offer its commercially deployed 3G services by end of 2004. Maxis started its pilot project in the Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area in 2003. Over the next decade, Telekom Malaysia and Maxis are expected to spend RM7.8 billion (US$1.00=RM3.80) to deploy 3G services to Malaysian consumers. Telekom Malaysia’s investment will come up to RM4.3 billion while Maxis portion is approximately RM3.5 billion.
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