Fight for cellular subscribers for home services will get tough

PETALING JAYA: The fight among cellular companies for subscribers in home services segment will only get tough when Maxis Bhd and Celcom Axiata Bhd are able to offer a complete products and that may take some time, experts said.
Till then, they said Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) would continue to dominate the market.
However,
Maxis recently tested the ground by slashing its rates to RM118 a month
for its 10Mbps offering (part of the home services package) and is said
to have got “encouraging response.''
The number of new adds is
something Maxis is not willing to share but those in the know claim
that Maxis' move to slash rates to below what TM is offering certainly
had irked the incumbent, more so since Maxis is riding on TM's
high-speed broadband (HSBB) network to offer the services.
TM charges RM199 a month for 10Mbps.
But
that is to be expected since the celcos are entering new turfs to grow
revenues as those from short message services and voice traffic is
gradually stagnating.
Video offers the highest average revenue
per user and hence that seems to be the reason why celcos are adopting
new generation equipment to deliver services not just for handheld
devices but also moving into consumers' living rooms by bundling
services so that they are able to offer packages for the entire family.
To
provide voice, video and data in a single channel required more
bandwidth and to achieve that, celcos were shifting towards
fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technologies which could support voice, data
and videos over a single channel, said a report.
Besides rolling
out their own FTTH, Maxis and Celcom will ride on TM's HSBB to offer
home services, thereby giving competition to TM, which also offers its
own home services known as UniFi.
TM
has rolled out HSBB to 1.22 million premises and by end-2012, this
would growh to 1.3 million. TM now has 384,000 UniFi subscribers.
“Those
loyal to TM remain with them but in a market where there are choices,
users will move networks to get the best deal. We have seen that in the
mobility world and now that will happen in FTTH area. People will move
to where the value is,'' said an observer.
But TM is unperturbed by the impending competition from players like Maxis and Celcom.
“We
welcome FTTH roll-out by other services providers. Competition is
always going to be fierce and cannot be avoided with more mobile and
wireless providers introducing their products and services to the
market,'' TM said in response to queries from StarBiz.
To TM, this is “healthy competition'' as there will be a variety of broadband offerings and choices for consumers.
“What
is important for us is to step up efforts and continue to challenge
ourselves to be more innovative and creative in designing new products
and service offerings for our customers, in line with our aim of
delivering an enhanced integrated digital lifestyle to Malaysian
homes,'' TM said.
Today, Maxis will sign agreements with 15
content providers in the hope that it can build a chest of content that
will be offered to consumers via its home services.
The content providers include Radio Televisyen Malaysia, Media Prima, Travel Channel International Ltd, Vision Plus Entertainment and All Asia Multimedia Network, which is the content aggregation arm of pay-TV group Astro All Asia Networks plc.
Maxis
has 41,000 home services customers, including 5,180 on the home fibre
Internet. It has also wired up 400 to 500 commercial buildings and
multi-dwelling units and recently appointed Abru Dorman as its head of
home services after Harold Quek left.
Rival Celcom Axiata Bhd
also chose today to unveil its communications plan as to how it intends
to get into the home services business in a bid to remain very much in
the competition.
The celco has taken billboards space in
Peninsular Malaysia to inform that it is not a mere cellular company
but one that offers mobile, home, WiFi and data services.
“We
plan to roll out our home services in the last quarter. It will
comprise various services to meet customers' needs such as high-speed
Internet, voice-over Internet protocol as well as content services,''
Celcom said in reply to queries from StarBiz.
It added
that “unlike our competitors who only concentrate on TM's HSBB coverage
area, Celcom will engage and integrate with multiple networks.''

thinking to change the lousy unifi to maxis fiber, much cheaper but contract 2 years with TM