Studio Press

KUALA LUMPUR, April 6 (Bernama) -- Maxis Communications Bhd and Celcom (Malaysia) Bhd expect the third generation (3G) service to contribute between three and five percent to their revenues from 2008 onwards. Both companies have forged the next milestone for the mobile communications industry and 3G by announcing 3G interconnection, enabling interconnect video telephony beginning Thursday. As of March 31, 2006 Maxis has 50,000 active 3G subscribers while Celcom has 68,000. In total, Maxis has about eight million customers while Celcom has seven million. Maxis chief executive officer Datuk Jamaludin Ibrahim and Celcom chief executive officer Datuk Shazalli Ramly both agreed that the revenue derived from 3G currently was insignificant. "It is very small. For us (Maxis) between three percent and five percent is considered significant contribution," Jamaludin said after the Maxis-Celcom 3G Interconnection signing ceremony, here today. By opening access between the two major 3G networks, the 3G user community in Malaysia immediately increased two-fold, allowing Maxis' and Celcom's users to make and receive video calls, and send and retrieve video messages freely among themselves. "As a result of the collaboration, we hope to have a significant improvement in the take-up rate for 3G services," said Shazalli. Jamaludin said the ability to communicate as well as reduction prices of 3G devices would also encourage more people to use 3G services. Both Maxis and Celcom are continuously widening their 3G coverage areas. For Maxis, Jamaludin said the 3G coverage is expected to expand substantially in the Klang Valley, Penang and Johor by end of the year. Both CEOs said that there would be further collaborations between both companies for the benefit of the consumers. Jamaludin said among the most significant collaboration between the telcos in Malaysia was the tower sharing, which had saved the industry between RM300-RM500 million during the last two years. "That is very significant. It helped the whole industry to expedite the roll out of our networks. It is a win-win situation," he said. Jamaludin said major telcos in the country, including DiGi.Com Bhd are currently having talks on the best way to register their pre-paid users.