Studio Press

But the fight for supremacy will extend far beyond the soccer fields. It will include one that has begun in earnest among telecommunication companies (telcos) here, some 10,000km away. Maxis Communications Bhd has launched an early raid, powered by a RM60 million right as the main broadcast sponsor of the event here. Rivals Celcom (Malaysia) Bhd and DiGi.Com Bhd didn't want to miss the boat, following suit with their football-related campaigns. Celcom introduced Football Mad Nation Ruled By Celcom, while DiGi launched DiGi Destination Germany 06 campaign. During the past few weeks, the two telcos have flooded the local television channels, billboards and newspapers with their football-related advertisements, which somewhat link them to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, directly or indirectly. The reason: The widely-watched football event represents a golden opportunity for telcos to boost their subscriber base and squeeze more revenue from their users as they offer soccer-related promotions, products and contents. As such, the pre-World Cup campaigns are crucial as they help increase the telcos' subscriber base. However, the big money will start to roll in once the World Cup event kicks off. That is when people will be using their mobile phones more frequently, talking and messaging about matters concerning the football game, analysts said. The traffic volume for both calls and short messaging service (SMS) are expected to increase during the one-month period, which will kick off at 1am on June 10 local time, starting with the game between host Germany and Costa Rica. In a recent interview, Maxis Communications Bhd senior general manager and head of consumer business division, Thomas Schnitker said he expects to see at least 5 per cent growth in traffic volume, a modest estimate compared with most analysts' feedback. "We could likely see double-digit growth in volume usage of voice and data pick-up and ultimately peak closer to the finals," Avenue Securities telecommunications analyst Mohd Izhar Mohd Allaudin said. Unlike the previous World Cup tournament, more opportunities are on the table for the three telco players. Among them are the enlarged SMS community and subscriber base. Back in 2002, there were only 3.61 billion SMSes being sent a year. The number has more than tripled today. As of end of 2005, the industry saw the number increase to over 21 billion. During the first three months of 2006, there were 7.46 million SMSes sent. For telcos, this is an important statistics as SMSes are being offered at a minimal cost with attractive margins. "SMS is a cash-cow for telcos," Mohd Izhar said. Currently, there are more than 20.6 million mobile users in the country, which represent a penetration rate of 77.7 per cent. During the 2002 World Cup, there were only around nine million mobile phone users. "With almost eight out of 10 Malaysians owning a mobile line, telcos will need to focus on retaining existing customers, while going at each other to get new subscribers ... And with an event like the World Cup coming up, the telcos just simple couldn't afford to be left out," an analyst said. This is evident as telcos have been offering football-related promotions, special pre-paid cards that feature football players, football-related downloadable contents and free SMSes for their subscribers. Some are even giving away handphones and trips to Germany to entice football fans. Besides that, the upcoming World Cup provides a chance for the telcos to attract third-generation (3G) subscribers. "World Cup would, to a certain extent, entice avid fans to try 3G if the telcos can make their service offerings attractive and affordable," Mohd Izhar said. However, some analysts believe that Maxis, which has the rights to show the game's highlights to its 3G customers, will have an added advantage to court 3G users. Although the stock market in general is expected to be quieter during the World Cup period, we can rest assured, this will not apply to Maxis, Celcom and DiGi.-Bussiness Times