Telekom Malaysia, Packet One Networks (P1) and Celcom Axiata are set to announce partnership today. 3 major deals will be signed and one of it involves a domestic roaming network agreement between Celcom and TM-P1.
According to reliable sources close to MalaysianWireless, the domestic roaming agreement with Celcom would allow TM-P1 4G LTE customers to roam on Celcom’s 3G network. The new TM-P1 4G LTE network is yet to be given a brand name.
Over the past year, P1 and TM have been working together to launch its new 4G LTE network which operates at the frequency of 850Mhz and 2.6Ghz. Part of the new 4G LTE network is already up and running and it is being offered as TMgo (850Mhz). The 2.6Ghz network is currently being configured and tested by P1. In the future, P1 would migrate all its WiMAX customers to its new 4G LTE network.
The new TM-P1 4G LTE network is expected to be officially launched in July 2016 while trials are expected within the next few months. It is believed that P1 would push its wireless broadband service using the 2.6Ghz 4G LTE network (broadband modem/Mifi) while for the 850Mhz 4G LTE network, it would be used for smartphones.
For the 850Mhz network, some of the supported smartphones include Apple’s iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Asus Zenfone, among the few. While for P1’s 2.6Ghz 4G LTE network which is based on TD-LTE standard, have very limited phone support such as the BlackBerry Priv.
The source also indicated that Celcom would further extend its partnership for TM’s Next-Gen Backhaul (NGBH) services. TM NGBH is a fiberised point-to-point backhaul connectivity network that is specifically optimised to support 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) rollout. The fibre mobile backhaul connectivity via its TM Next-Gen Backhaul Services (NGBH) offers of up to 1Gbps per site that covers Central, Southern, Eastern and Northern regions of the country. Celcom already have an existing agreement for TM’s NGBH which was signed in April last year. TM also signed a similar agreement with U Mobile.
The third part of the partnership allows Celcom to ride on TM’s HSBB (High Speed Broadband) platform to offer Celcom fibre service to consumer and business, similar to Unifi.
TM own about 55.3% of P1; and the remaining 44.7% is shared between Green Packet Berhad (31.1%) and SK Telecom Co., Ltd (13.6%). Celcom Axiata is a subsidiary of the Axiata Group.
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