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MCMC clears air over award of spectrum to Puncak Semangat

11 Dec 2012, The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has cleared the air over the allocation of spectrum to newcomer Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd.

The regulator's chairman Datuk Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi on Tuesday dismissed reports that Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd had received the "lion's share" of the 2.6GHz spectrum.

Describing these reports as inaccurate, he said the bandwidth allocated to it was much smaller than what the big telco players have in total.

Besides intensifying competition for the incumbent telcos, the 40MHz ceded to Puncak Semangat was the minimum amount it needed to start out, he added.

Tier 1 telcos including Celcom, DiGi and Maxis have in their possession more than 100MHz of spectrum each after taking into account the previous frequencies they were given, Sharil told journalists and analysts.

Last week, the MCMC announced eight companies were allowed access to the 2.6GHz spectrum band which would enable them to provide 4G or LTE services with speeds in excess of 100Mbps.

The eight were Celcom Axiata Bhd, DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd, Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd, Puncak Semangat, REDtone Marketing Sdn Bhd, U Mobile Sdn Bhd, and YTL Communications Sdn Bhd.

Save for Puncak Semangat, the rest were accorded 20MHz each as part of the MCMC's strategy to encourage network and infrastructure sharing in order to achieve the 2X20MHz required for optimum operation. 

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