Business

Saturday March 5, 2011

YTL Comms keen to launch 4G network in Sabah, Sarawak


KUALA LUMPUR: YTL Communications Sdn Bhd has expressed interest in rolling out its fourth-generation (4G) network to Sabah and Sarawak.

Its executive director Datuk Yeoh Seok Hong told reporters yesterday that the company would like to roll out its 4G services there, pending spectrum license approval from the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

He was speaking at the company's launch of new 4G mobile Internet service packages and devices. YTL Communications' 4G service is known as Yes and was launched last November in Peninsular Malaysia.

Since the launch, Yes had achieved one million voice minutes, 670,000 text messages and more than 104 terabytes of data traffic, said YTL Communications chief executive officer Wing K. Lee.

He said YTL Communications' 4G service was three to five times faster than any network and had had some 100,000 active users sign on since the launch last year.

“The coverage now spans the length of the North-South Expressway. We also launched our sales network in Penang last week, the first major market outside the Klang Valley,” he added.

Penang will have its first Yes Store in the Northern region, opening in April this year.

YTL Communications had invested RM2.5bil into its Yes 4G infrastructure and had 1,800 base stations built in Peninsular Malaysia with 65% of the population covered, said Yeoh. The aim is to have 80% coverage by year-end.

The company also launched two new Yes Valuepacks, which are effective next month, priced at RM68 and RM150 for 3.5GB and 10GB of data respectively. These plans are also inclusive of a set number of talktime and text messages.

It currently offers a pay-as-you-go rate of nine sen for 3MB (megabit) data, one-minute call or one short-messaging service but decided to come up with unbinding plans for consumers after listening to users suggestions.

Along with the new plans, YTL Communications also launched two new devices Yes Buzz, which is a 4G mobile phone and Yes Zoom, an all-in-one communications solution with built-in WiFi.

YTL Communications executive chairman Tan Sri Francis Yeoh said YTL's 4G network allowed for real facetime.

He said that given the rising trend in mobile data demand, the effectiveness of applications like mobile video conferencing relied on bandwidth.

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