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

Saturday March 5, 2011

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.

Robust Yes subscriber growth seen

By June Ramlee

YTL group's Yes 4G has garnered more than 100,000 subscribers since the mobile Internet service with voice was launched 105 days ago.

The group is confident that a robust subscriber growth is imminent by the year-end.

YTL Corp Bhd managing director Tan Sri Francis Yeoh said it was looking at investing some of the RM2.5 billion it had set aside for Yes 4G to educate the public on the benefits of using a seamless technology such as Yes 4G.

"The reason is simple. Not many people know that the Yes 4G network is better than the 3G networks that most telecommunication companies are on.

"We are the first company in the world that can activate the facetime application on the iPhone 4, something that the 3G networks cannot do," said Yeoh, who is also executive chairman for YTL Communications Bhd at the launch of the Yes Buzz 4G mobile phone and Yes Zoom WiFi yesterday.

"With Yes 4G mobile Internet, it will give facetime (an Iphone application) speed, clarity and mobility. You could facetime while sitting in a car driving up the North-South Expressway. We will also power the new Ipad 2, three to five times faster than any 3G network and will also be cheaper per megabyte of data usage."

Yes 4G also allows one to catch live streaming of a YouTube video without much buffering, be able to download radio stations from other parts of the world and listen to them while driving, he explained.

"Do you know that Malaysia is the only place in the world with 4G coverage? They don't even have this in Japan. They are still on 3G and I get frustrated using their network when I am there," he exclaimed.

Yeoh said Singapore was the next Asean country to roll out the 4G network next year.

"We hope that with more countries in Asean on the 4G network, there will be more inter-connectivity between all other regions," he said.

Yeoh also said the group plans to apply for spectrum licence to provide Yes 4G in Sabah and Sarawak.

Yes Buzz, the group claimed, is the most affordable 4G mobile phone priced at RM488. The Yes Zoom built-in WiFi, meanwhile, is priced at RM399.

The latter enables one to connect up to 20 WiFi devices simultaneously and comes with a standard phone which allows users to make and receive phone calls while using their Yes 018 number.

 http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/jrbuxx/Article/