Syed Mokhtar’s Altel signs Huawei as tech partner for LTE rollout

by **Cals** Tue 22 Apr 2014, 19:48

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Kamarul Anwar of theedgemalaysia.com

Tuesday, 22 April 2014 10:46

KUALA LUMPUR: Altel Communications Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd, which is owned by tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, has picked China’s Huawei Technologies as its technology partner for the installation and commissioning of the company’s high-speed mobile Internet infrastructure in the country.

Altel chief executive officer (CEO) Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Yaacob said Huawei was chosen as the technology partner for the delivery of the platform to roll out its fourth-generation long-term evolution (4G LTE) services alongside its existing partner, Celcom Axiata Bhd.

“We understand that rolling out 4G network is not an overnight task. As such, we will be building our own radio network and leverage Celcom’s widest and fastest network in Malaysia as well as continuously investing over the next period of five years,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Under the partnership, Huawei will provide wireless, core transport as well as billing services to Altel. The former will also provide business consultation services to support Altel in developing new mobile services, including mobile virtual network.

Mike Wang, CEO of Huawei’s Malaysian operations, said Huawei had launched 118 commercial LTE networks and signed more than 280 LTE contracts globally.

“The 4G network comes along with huge business opportunities. Huawei and Altel are committed to bringing more innovative services to the market,” he said.

In a previous interview with The Edge weekly, Nik Abdul Aziz revealed his mission to catapult Altel to rank among the top three telecommunications players by 2019. By the end of this year, Altel is expected to have 200,000 subscribers, 10 times its current registered subscriber base of 20,000.

Altel is one of eight companies awarded a telecommunications licence by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.

With the allocated LTE 2600MHz spectrum granted by the government, Altel launched its maiden product, Altel Prepaid, in September last year.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 22, 2014.