Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) via its wholesale domestic and international business arm, TM WHOLESALE has entered into a collaboration with nine (9) tower providers (TowerCos) in Malaysia, enabling access to tower sites facilities.
The nine (9) TowerCos are the members of Persatuan Penyedia Infrastruktur Telekomunikasi (PPIT), namely:
- D’Harmoni Telco Infra Sdn Bhd
- Melaka ICT Holdings Sdn Bhd
- Perlis Comm Sdn Bhd
- Infra Quest Sdn Bhd
- Perak Integrated Network Services Sdn Bhd
- EdgePoint Towers Sdn Bhd
- PDC Telecommunication Services Sdn Bhd
- Desabina Industries Sdn Bhd
- Yiked Bina Sdn Bhd.
Under the collaboration, the nine (9) TowerCos will provide TM with access to their tower sites, including land and rooftop facilities. This will enable TM to connect the towers with its high speed fibre optic network to support high quality network performance and capability.
Commenting on the collaboration, Amar Huzaimi Md Deris, Executive Vice President, TM WHOLESALE said, “TM through TM WHOLESALE, is committed to ensuring our national telecommunication industry is provided with cutting edge connectivity and extensive fibre infrastructure solutions as a catalyst to accelerate the delivery of a high quality digital experience to all Malaysians, true to our role as national digital infrastructure accelerator. This will allow service providers to serve their customers with faster connectivity speed and greater bandwidth capacity for the current 4G and future 5G services nationwide. This partnership further demonstrates our commitment as the enabler of Digital Malaysia in supporting the country’s digital aspirations, which include the Jalinan Digital Negara (JENDELA) and the Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint (MyDIGITAL).”
TM signed a similar agreement with four (4) state-backed companies (SBCs) in 2015: D’Harmoni Telco Infra Sdn Bhd (Johor), Perak Integrated Network Services Sdn Bhd (Perak), Perlis Comm Sdn Bhd (Perlis), and Yiked Bina Sdn Bhd (Kedah). The agreements sealed are renewal to the initial collaborations that were inked back in 2009. Under the 5-year agreement, TM provided backhaul connectivity services, connecting the towers with high-speed fibre optic network to support faster connection and higher network capacity.
Apart from being the largest fixed broadband provider in the country, Telekom Malaysia (TM) is also a 4G service provider, operating under the brand unifi Mobile. Last year it reported over 1 million mobile subscribers on the unifi 4G network. The latest partnership with the TowerCos did not indicate if unifi Mobile will be able to expand its 4G coverage to more areas nationwide. Currently unifi Mobile has a domestic roaming agreement with Celcom, allowing unifi Mobile customers to roam on the Celcom 3G network. However the Malaysian Government has announced that all 3G networks in the country will shut down at the end of this year to improve 4G networks. Meanwhile an existing 4G network agreement would allow unifi Mobile customers to roam on the Celcom 4G network until 2022, but it has not been implemented for all customers.
