Media & Events

YTL Comms open to tie-ups for 4G services

03 May 2012, The Star
PETALING JAYA: YTL Communications Sdn Bhd, a unit of conglomerate YTL Corp Bhd, is willing to consider collaborating with other players operating in the industry to roll out Long Term Evolution (LTE) or 4G services in the future. “When we talk about communication, it is common sense for us to cooperate to provide users with better services and faster speed,” YTL Corp group managing director Tan Sri Francis Yeoh, who is also executive chairman of YTL Communications, told reporters after the launch of YTL Communications' first smartphone, the Eclipse. He said the company was open to discussions and was definitely looking for like-minded people. “Of course, you can't expect us to tell you in detail who we are talking to. Serious players in the mobile Internet space are talking to us, and they know we are serious as well,” he added. YTL Communications is a subsidiary of YTL Power International Bhd. Recently, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) named nine companies as recipients of the 2.6GHz spectrum, to be used for the roll-out of LTE or 4G services. Among them is YTL Communications, which provides mobile Internet and voice service under the YES brand. Speaking on the expansion plans for YES, Yeoh said the company would be increasing its base stations to 5,000 by the year-end in a bid to expand its network coverage. Currently, the company has about 2,200 base stations that give it a coverage of about 70% of the country's population. YTL Communications deputy chief executive officer Jacob Yeoh was previously quoted as saying that the company plans to spend around RM2.5bil in capital expenditure to increase its coverage to 80% of the country's population. YES is also aiming to grow its postpaid subscriber base to half a million by end-2012. Meanwhile, Eclipse is a purpose-built smartphone to run on the YES converged 4G network. The company touted the phone as the only phone in the world that delivers advanced 4G telephony while supporting GSM services at the same time, and also able to facilitate four-way videoconferencing. “The Eclipse was designed to provide users with a seamless connectivity. We are in an age where mobile Internet is becoming more and more pervasive. With the fast mobile Internet performance of the Eclipse, our customers will have a full-fidelity mobile Internet experience in their hands,” said YTL Communications chief executive officer Wing K Lee at the launch. Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, who launched the device, described it as a “game changer” in the industry. “I am very pleased to hear that YTL's 4G coverage is now available to more than 70% of Malaysians. This means more people can now enjoy true mobile broadband services and this will spur innovation as we move towards cloud-based applications and online services,” he said. He congratulated YTL for its success in providing high-speed Internet to most parts of the country, and said it was a great contribution to the Government's plans to transform Malaysia into a high-income nation by 2015. Manufactured by Foxconn and developed jointly with GCT Semiconductor and D2 Technologies, the Eclipse is priced without a data plan at RM1,688. Postpaid plans are available for as low as RM88 per month, for a data allocation of 3GB.
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