Celcom upgrades 4G LTE coverage across rural Sabah, Sarawak, Pahang

PETALING JAYA: Celcom Axiata Bhd (Celcom) says it has improved 4G LTE population coverage within rural areas in Sabah, Sarawak, and Pahang, with a total of over 4,400 sites upgraded with new capacities, coverage enhancements, and optimisation.

“Supporting over 14 million users, Celcom widest 4G and 4G LTE-A population coverage stands at 96.35 per cent and 90.29 per cent respectively.

“To date, Celcom’s network investments have resulted in increased 4G LTE population coverage nationwide, with over 10 states and three Federal Territories having over 97 per cent 4G LTE pop coverage.

“Celcom has also improved 4G LTE coverage within rural areas in Sabah, Sarawak, and Pahang, with a total of over 4,400 sites upgraded with new capacities, coverage enhancements, and optimisation.”

“Addressing surging Data Traffic growth remains our top priority. We aim to be a reliable service provider that delivers consistent network performance to our customers.

“Our national network improvements include upgrading more 7,000 sites, expanding more than 2,000km of fibre nationwide, upgrading our network core capacity to 3.3Tbps from 0.8Tbps, including our core networks in Sabah and Sarawak.

“We also implemented a range of network optimisation activities across the country,” said Celcom’s chief executive officer Datuk Idham Nawawi in a press statement in conjunction with the announcement of its latest financial performance.

On its third quarter of 2022 (3Q22) results, Celcom said its transformation journey that began in January 2020 has delivered on its aspiration, with a strong performance across all key metrics, consistent quarterly earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin growth and substantial network service improvements.

Significant improvements in distribution, product, and GoTo-Market (GTM) processes over the last 36 months have resulted in improved competitiveness and strong subscriber growth. The telco’s GTM revamp combined with a strong focus on operational excellence and cost discipline has resulted in consistent improvements in revenue, profit, and market share growth.

It explained that its growth momentum continues with positive q-o-q, y-o-y and YTD in both top and bottom-line Celcom’s strong performance continued in the third quarter of 2022 (3Q22), with the company continuing its upward momentum as revenue ex-device rose by 3.9 per cent YTD to RM4,578 million, driven by prepaid revenue and contribution from new Enterprise subsidiaries.

EBITDA increased 12.4 per cent to RM2,288 million, underpinned by on-going cost management resulting in lower opex and higher debt recovery, while PATAMI rose by 65.3 per cent to RM856 million, despite being offset by higher taxes from Cukai Makmur. In a very competitive market, both prepaid and postpaid ARPU remained stable at RM30 and RM80 respectively.