U Mobile Sdn Bhd, today announced an aggressive expansion strategy to strengthen its network through the roll-out of additional 2,000 new 3G & 4G LTE sites. This major rollout will involve 1,000 3G and 1,000 4G LTE sites, targeted to complete by the end of 2015.
Once the upgrade is complete, the new network rollout will cover key cities and strategic areas within Malaysia, which include Wilayah Persekutuan, Selangor, Seremban, Port Dickson, Nilai, Ipoh, Lumut, Penang, Johor Bahru, Muar, Kluang, Segamat and Batu Pahat.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of U Mobile, Wong Heang Tuck, the upgrade allows the mobile operator to support up to 7 million customers. Currently U Mobile has about 5 million subscribers.
In response to MalaysianWireless, Jasmine Lee, Chief Marketing Officer of U Mobile said that 60% of its users are data users. “That is why when we do network expansion, we focus on data,” she added. Jasmine also revealed that 66% of the 5 million U Mobile users are smartphone users.
U Mobile currently has 4,400 3G sites including some “minority sites” belonging to Maxis via a 3G RAN sharing deal, according to its Chief Technology Officer, Too Tian Jen. He however did not disclose the exact number of sites that belongs to Maxis. As of January 2012, U Mobile uses 1306 Maxis base station for 3G services. With latest announcement, U Mobile is expected to have a total of 6,400 sites by the end of 2015.
“With a total investment of RM1.5 billion, the expansion is aimed at enhancing U Mobile’s quality of service through wider network coverage while delivering the best mobile experience through more innovative products and services.” said Wong. He also added that U Mobile is expecting to aggressively grow to a targeted market share of 10% and revenue increase of 50% by the end of 2015 when the sites are fully completed.
The mobile operator said that the expansion is also aimed at ensuring better network performance that is geared towards a new generation of consumers who are data-hungry and highly connected. Through this move, U Mobile will able to serve greater high-speed internet service to the customers that require faster and stable mobile internet access for work and leisure.
In addition to the above, U Mobile recently completed an upgrade of its Business Support Systems which entailed a migration to a new billing platform that will enable end to end real-time tracking and customer fulfillment. With this, U Mobile is confident and dedicated to delivering more “state-of-the-art products and services” that can cater to customers’ needs.
