Business

Saturday April 18, 2009

Maxis to grow fixed network services


MAXIS Communications Bhd expects to grow its fixed network services in Malaysia by 10% to 13% this year, thanks to its aggressive expansion plans and smart partnerships. Last year, it had a growth of 8%.

This year, Maxis will spend RM1.6bil in capital expenditure, including RM100mil in fibre-optic network, to increase and upgrade its network in Malaysia.

Group vice-president and head of enterprise and carrier business division Fitri Abdullah says Maxis targets to become the number two fixed-network operator by end-2010, from third place now.

“The increase (in growth) is due to our smart partnerships and aggressive expansion (of the services) to more buildings.

“At the beginning of last year, we had 186 buildings in the Klang Valley, including Cyberjaya, connected with our fixed network services. Now we have over 266 buildings,” he says after the official announcement of its service partnership with Setia Haruman Technology Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Cyberjaya master developer Setia Haruman Sdn Bhd, to provide comprehensive fixed-network services to businesses in Cyberjaya.

Fitri says the global financial crisis has resulted in more companies resorting to tele-conferencing, instead of travelling, which helps boost demand for fixed lines.

“We see a lot of customers updating their data link, from Maxis and other operators,” he says.

Maxis currently provides fixed network services to about 30,000 companies, comprising large corporations and small and medium enterprises.

Telekom Malaysia Bhd is the leading operator in this segment with a 79% share, followed by Time dotCom Bhd, he says.

With this partnership, which started in February, Maxis has access to over 87% of the commercial buildings in Cyberjaya. Fitri is confident that Maxis will easily double its fixed network from 20 companies now, and is eyeing a yearly growth of 25% to 30% in Cyberjaya.

Setia Haruman chief operating officer Lao Chok Keang says the Cyberjaya office space has grown from 2.7 million sq ft three years ago, to 4.7 million sq ft now. By June, there will be 5 million sq ft of office space and all will be fully taken up.

Multimedia Development Corp Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Badlisham Ghazali describes the partnership as a “win-win-win-win” situation because Cyberjaya businesses will benefit from an additional operator, while Maxis can expand its fixed network services more freely in this intelligent city.

He sees the global recession as an opportunity because some multinational corporations (MNCs) are relocating to Cyberjaya as a cheaper avenue of doing business.

Badlisham expects 7,000 new jobs to be created this year from new and existing companies. There are currently 500 companies, including 35 MNCs, in Cyberjaya. The rest are SMEs.

 
MAXIS :  [Stock Watch]  [News]

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