TEFD: What is the outlook for the telecom industry for 2012?
Sandip: Overall growth in 2011 had been steady for the telecommunications industry at about 4% in the first three quarters of last year. Though we are seeing a maturing voice business, the telecommunications industry is moving fast into its next phase, largely driven by demand for broadband services.
As we move into 2012, we believe the overall demand from the consumer segment would remain relatively stable as the industry has continued to reinvent itself beyond voice business and is a surrogate enabler for other businesses and services. At the macro level, the Economic Transformation Programme, designed to spur growth across many industries by harnessing telecom infrastructure effectively, certainly augurs well for the telecommunications industry as a whole.
Having said that, the consumption for telecom services which is sensitive to the health of the economy could potentially face challenges in 2012, particularly with the smaller businesses and those at the bottom of the pyramid.
Will spending in the telecom industry increase next year?
As networks approach low-yielding rural geographies, we foresee operators becoming partial to sharing more infrastructure. This will help conserve excessive capital deployment while rationalising industry spends. Network sharing will also provide the insurance for marginal future revenues until such time as new businesses mature. On our part, we will continue to strengthen and modernise our networks while looking to build on the extensive passive infrastructure sharing we are already undertaking.
We expect to continue to invest prudently in networks to keep delivering the quality of services that customers expect from our brand. In October last year we took a major step in offering our 3G HSPA+ network to U Mobile, the first of its kind in Malaysia.
Besides monetising our network and bringing forward our return on capital expenditures, it also ushers in a new era of cooperation with competition by which we conserve capital resources which in turn helps us not duplicate infrastructure expenditure at the national level. These savings can be deployed for further enhancing customer service.
Can you comment on data explosion in the coming years? Can the network handle the surge in data traffic?
Yes, explosive growth in data traffic on a telecommunications network is not unique to Malaysia; it is a common experience in most major networks globally driven by adoption of devices and applications (such as smartphones and streaming services) that place significant demands on the network.
At Maxis, we do take into account in our planning process the behavioural change in our customer base by increasing capacity and adopting new technologies where and when needed. It is a moving target but we are up to it. Malaysia is a high Internet usage country.
It is particularly satisfying for us that our investment in high speed networks, considered the best in the country, supported by our strong range of content offerings, are enriching our customers’ lives. They are also underlying our thrust on data revenues which are beginning to compensate for voice sluggishness.
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, January 3, 2012.
Sandip: Overall growth in 2011 had been steady for the telecommunications industry at about 4% in the first three quarters of last year. Though we are seeing a maturing voice business, the telecommunications industry is moving fast into its next phase, largely driven by demand for broadband services.
As we move into 2012, we believe the overall demand from the consumer segment would remain relatively stable as the industry has continued to reinvent itself beyond voice business and is a surrogate enabler for other businesses and services. At the macro level, the Economic Transformation Programme, designed to spur growth across many industries by harnessing telecom infrastructure effectively, certainly augurs well for the telecommunications industry as a whole.
Having said that, the consumption for telecom services which is sensitive to the health of the economy could potentially face challenges in 2012, particularly with the smaller businesses and those at the bottom of the pyramid.
We expect to continue to invest prudently in networks to keep delivering the quality of services that customers expect from
our brand.
our brand.
Will spending in the telecom industry increase next year?
As networks approach low-yielding rural geographies, we foresee operators becoming partial to sharing more infrastructure. This will help conserve excessive capital deployment while rationalising industry spends. Network sharing will also provide the insurance for marginal future revenues until such time as new businesses mature. On our part, we will continue to strengthen and modernise our networks while looking to build on the extensive passive infrastructure sharing we are already undertaking.
We expect to continue to invest prudently in networks to keep delivering the quality of services that customers expect from our brand. In October last year we took a major step in offering our 3G HSPA+ network to U Mobile, the first of its kind in Malaysia.
Besides monetising our network and bringing forward our return on capital expenditures, it also ushers in a new era of cooperation with competition by which we conserve capital resources which in turn helps us not duplicate infrastructure expenditure at the national level. These savings can be deployed for further enhancing customer service.
Can you comment on data explosion in the coming years? Can the network handle the surge in data traffic?
Yes, explosive growth in data traffic on a telecommunications network is not unique to Malaysia; it is a common experience in most major networks globally driven by adoption of devices and applications (such as smartphones and streaming services) that place significant demands on the network.
At Maxis, we do take into account in our planning process the behavioural change in our customer base by increasing capacity and adopting new technologies where and when needed. It is a moving target but we are up to it. Malaysia is a high Internet usage country.
It is particularly satisfying for us that our investment in high speed networks, considered the best in the country, supported by our strong range of content offerings, are enriching our customers’ lives. They are also underlying our thrust on data revenues which are beginning to compensate for voice sluggishness.
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, January 3, 2012.
