TM announces PIP 2018, to roll out new broadband plans
KUALA LUMPUR: In line with the government’s call for more affordable broadband packages, Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) yesterday announced the revision of its headline key performance indicators (KPI) as well as the implementation of Performance Improvement Programme 2018 (PIP 2018) and the introduction of new broadband plans.
In an announcement on Bursa Malaysia, TM noted that the revision of its headline KPI was in line with the evolving market dynamics and a challenging operational environment. The roll out of PIP 2018 is a continuation of its transformation journey, now in its fourth wave.
“As Malaysia’s Convergence Champion, we believe that internet access is a critical enabler to grow our digital and creative economy towards making life and business easier for all. Today, we serve nearly two million broadband homes, more than eight million individuals and connect more than 10 million devices nationwide.
“We hear what Malaysians want – faster internet connection at affordable prices, which has been our aspiration since the launch of unifi in 2010.
“In October 2016, we announced our Broadband Improvement Plan (BIP), with speed increase upgrades of up to 100Mbps at the same price and completed the exercise in 2017 to benefit close to one million broadband customers nationwide, including 323,000 pre-unifi customers.
“Currently, we have started contacting our pre-unifi customers in unifi areas for an upgrade to unifi plans. For others not in unifi areas, we will continuously invest in our network to provide at least our 30Mbps entry level unifi package through the latest fixed and wireless broadband technologies.
“Collectively, these new Broadband plans will catapult Malaysia beyond a majority of our regional peers into a competitive set of countries globally with high-speed broadband,” said Datuk Bazlan Osman, TM’s acting group chief executive officer. TM’s new Broadband and mobile plans include a new affordable entry level unifi package at 30Mbps for targeted B40 segment.
Lower income groups can access high-speed broadband through this package at a price point below RM100 (more than 40 per cent lower price from the existing 30Mbps package). Registration for pre-booking starts July 15, 2018 via unifi.com.my.
TM will also be introducing the unifi ‘turbo’ plans, offering more than double the current broadband speed. TM will gradually upgrade the speed for all its existing unifi customers at more than double the speed at no extra cost starting August 15, 2018, while new customers subscribing to existing unifi plans before December 31, 2018 will also be upgraded accordingly in 2019.
For current pre-unifi (formerly Streamyx) users, a special package upgrade will be introduced in unifi areas nationwide. Eligibility status check will be available via unifi.com.my from July 15, 2018.
TM also announced a re-launch of its ‘unlimited’ unifi Mobile postpaid plan, which gives customers unlimited data, calls and messaging. This serves as a convergence offering exclusive to existing broadband customers and will be available at all unifi outlets and unifi.com.my from July 15, 2018.
All new plans are subjected to TM’s terms and condition.
On the announcement, Bazlan commented on the announcement: “We are currently facing numerous challenges to the business namely intensifying competition; increasing business and operating costs; cautious enterprise spending as well as increasing regulatory pressures. Given these headwinds, we are revising our Headline KPIs for 2018 – to an expected revenue growth of negative 1.0 per cent to flat in 2018, Group Operating Profit (Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)) at approximately RM1.0 billion and Customer Satisfaction Measure of 72.”
At the same time, TM is also revising its capex guidance for this year between 20 to 22 per cent of revenue, from the high 20s per cent guided earlier this year. This entails reprioritising its network spending and sweating of existing assets. With regard to expanding its coverage, TM will do so in the most efficient manner.