Maxis Communications Berhad has spelt out its long term growth strategies of developing its overseas operations, and accelerating the rollout of a range of mobile data and infotainment offerings.
Announcing this today at a press conference after Maxis’ 19th Annual General Meeting, Chairman, Tan Sri Dato’ Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohd Nor said subsidiaries, Aircel Limited (“Aircel”) of India and PT Natrindo Telepon Seluler (“NTS”) of Indonesia afford Maxis the opportunity to build strong footholds in two of the world’s most attractive high growth, low mobile penetration markets while diversifying its market base.
“We intend to be a regional communications leader of choice, and are on track to realize our vision. We now have close to 11 million customers across the region, with Aircel contributing 2.6 million subscribers to the Group. To capitalize on the growth opportunities, we will, this year, invest some RM4.1 billion in capital expenditure in all three countries,” he also said.
Chief Executive Officer, Dato’ Jamaludin Ibrahim added, “India’s subscriber growth potential is tremendous, with the number of customers expected to grow from over 75 million in 2005 to at least 175 million by 2008. This robust growth is reflected in Aircel’s financial results and saw thecompany contributing a pre-tax profit of RM16 million to the Group in Q1 2006 when we included Aircel’s results for the first time.”
He added, “Given the strong subscriber growth in the circles in the past few months, we are planning to invest about RM1.7 billion in capital expenditure this year to support the existing and additional circles targeted.” The capital for these investments will be raised at Aircel’s level.
At the same time, Indonesia’s market potential continued to be revised upwards, with the number of new subscribers expected to increase from over 52 million in 2005 to at least 107 million by 2008.
“NTS is deploying its network in Jakarta and other key regions on the Jawa island, and expects to launch its commercial mobile services by year end,” he said.
On the domestic front, Jamaludin said that one of Maxis’ main growth drivers is mobile data including infotainment services enabled by 2G and 3G.
In 2005, mobile data revenue passed the RM1 billion mark to RM1.04 billion, up 32% from the previous year and accounted for 17.2% of the total mobile revenue. The trend continued in Q1 2006 where mobile data revenue was up 31% to RM314 million, representing 19.4% of total mobile revenue compared to 15.8% in the preceding year.
3G is one of the key components which is expected to boost the growth of mobile data. He said, “We now have more than 85,000 active 3G users, and expect 3G adoption to reach an inflexion point by 2008. So far, the indications are positive, signalling that 3G is likely to hit critical mass then, driven by the declining prices of 3G phones, the rising consumer awareness and the increasingly compelling content”.
Maxis’ extensive offerings comprised more than 50,000 full songs and caller ringtones on an intelligent music portal, 8 live TV channels, 24 video-on-demand and video-alert channels, more than 1,200 games, exclusive sports services provided by ESPN STAR Sports and exclusive World Cup content, including video clips of all the 64 games.
“To further boost customer adoption of 3G, we will be accelerating the deployment of our 3G network in Klang Valley, Penang and Johor Bahru especially in high data usage areas,” he elaborated.
“Our growth initiatives are very timely in view of the maturing local market which is expected to reach a mobile penetration rate beyond 80% by year end. The contributions from our overseas operations and mobile data will continue to drive our growth and enable us to continuously add value to our shareholders,” he added.
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