Its been reported that Time dotCom Bhd is actively in talks with the government over the latter’s aspiration to double broadband speed and halve its price for Malaysians.
Chief executive officer Afzal Abdul Rahim said the government should be assertive on what it wanted to do with all telco companies and agreements towards achieving the aspiration, reported NST.
“We are more than happy to continue investing and expanding our coverage. But, it’s still very early to finalise and it requires time for related parties to digest it,” he said.
He said an open-dialogue culture had re-emerged between the regulators and telcos, acknowledging it is important for the sector to grow.
Afzal claimed that Time dotCom has the lowest price point per Mbps of any provider.
“We kind of buck the trend despite challenging market. However, we are cautiously optimistic. We are just small market share with relatively high margins,” he told reporters after Time dotCom’s annual general meeting today.
Afzal said it would invest on expanding the connection coverage but certain areas might not be viable due to the absence in infrastructure.
“We are unable to go (expand) to landed property because we don’t have access to poles. We are also unable to plug new poles.
“Without access to poles or being able to rent or plant poles, we can’t reach landed properties,” he explained.
On whether it would consider renting other telcos’ fibre or services infrastructure, he said Time dotCom preferred to have a full control of its quality service to ensure smoother operation.
Afzal said its target market is mainly for the multi-dwelling units, making up over a quarter (5.5 million units) of the country’s purpose built-home.
“We can either serve the multi-dwelling units by digging the road and wiring up the spine of those blocks. Or we can use poles to get to landed properties,” he said.
For the time being, Time’s 100Mbps cost RM149/month, 300Mbps at RM189/month and 500Mbps at RM299/month.
