TELECOMMUNICATION & BROADBAND News

[szehoong]

Cellular sector rivalry heats up

Source ~ The Star

Aug 29, ALL three cellular companies in the country held separate events on Wednesday.

DiGi Telecommunications Bhd launched its multimedia messaging services (MMS); Maxis Communications Bhd announced its results; and Celcom (M) Bhd launched its general packet radio services (GPRS), offering MMS.

Whether by chance or design, this just goes to show the level of competition in the sector. No player wants to be left out. For consumers, the stiffer the competition, the better bargains and product quality.

But the fight in the future is not so much about getting new customers, but about what more can you sell to your existing customers.

As a telecom analyst puts it, the market is almost saturated and how companies control costs for better margins is the key. He discounts a fierce price war ahead, although that is already happening. The level of data business that can be generated would have a bearing on future earnings.

As it is, cellular firms have seen SMS grow by leaps and bounds, and billable transactions passed the one billion mark in just six months. Globally, SMS growth has exploded, and in the case of the Nordic operators, contribute about 10%-15% of total revenue.

All three Malaysian celcos now offer MMS, which enables mobile users to send colour pictures, animated images and text through their handsets.

That, industry experts say, is really the beginning of transportation of real data stuff. Essentially, operators are moving from being voice centric to data centric organisations.

As a gauge, if Maxis' data business revenue can rise by 135% in the first half to RM226mil, imagine what it can achieve when more user-friendly applications become available.

Maxis chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Jamaludin Ibrahim had said that the challenge was for players to migrate to data this year. By end-2004, substantial inroads would have been made.

Celcom CEO Datuk Ramli Abbas agreed that adding value was the way forward.

He told StarBiz that “moving up the value chain is what we would be concentrating on. We want to grow the low-end users into high-end users.’’

DiGi's MMS for prepaid was something new in the market place, although Maxis was first to offer MMS – to post paid users in July.

DiGi CEO Tore Johnsen said the company was working with content providers to expand to MMS service offerings that would have the ability to send audio clips with pictures as well as graphs.

In the mobile business, experts say, up to 40% of the value will be in content creation, aggregation and presentation.’’ They suggest that the operators move into this area.

Mobile data would represent the “greatest opportunity for telcos to reverse the trend in decreasing average revenue per user (arpu)’’, they added.

As at end-June, Maxis' arpu for the first half of this year was RM167 for postpaid and RM64 for prepaid; Celcom's RM100 and RM55;and DiGi’s RM181 and RM54, respectively.

Subscriber growth rates have fallen from the robust 40% to 60% experienced a few years ago to the teens these days. So while it is important to acquire new customers, keeping existing ones is crucial, and content will ensure expansion of revenue streams.

But costs must be kept low as well, cautioned an industry expert.

[ethan]

wah....battle had just begun!!!!

[szehoong]

Originally posted by ethan

wah....battle had just begun!!!!

yea....hehe...which service provider you're using?

[ethan]

Originally posted by szehoong
yea....hehe...which service provider you're using?

Timecel which is now part of Maxis

[TYW]

i wonder who will win??

[szehoong]

Originally posted by TYW

i wonder who will win??

Consumers are always the winner....

[TYW]

Originally posted by szehoong

Consumers are always the winner....

ha ha..... i should get one i think. but not too soon

[szehoong]

Originally posted by TYW

ha ha..... i should get one i think. but not too soon

Get a pre-paid lar.....quite cheap mar! You can always get your parents to buy new phones then use their old ones lor

BTW Pablo uses Nokia 2100 izzit? I din notice what phone he is using....hehe

[TYW]

Originally posted by szehoong

Get a pre-paid lar.....quite cheap mar! You can always get your parents to buy new phones then use their old ones lor

BTW Pablo uses Nokia 2100 izzit? I din notice what phone he is using....hehe

Pablo use everything 2100 one. including his phone, digicam even batteries

Pablo always call me buy phone. i no money liao coz jus buy digicam. maybe a few years later lah

[szehoong]

Originally posted by TYW

Pablo use everything 2100 one. including his phone, digicam even batteries

Pablo always call me buy phone. i no money liao coz jus buy digicam. maybe a few years later lah

A phone (like Nokia 2100 for example) is just a fraction of your digital camera cost lar!

Maybe 2100 is Pablo's 'ong' (lucky) number.....

[SEED]

hehe!!! im wit Vodafone
if i go to Malaysia... can i still send massage(chat,multimedia etc) and GPRS???

[TYW]

Originally posted by szehoong

A phone (like Nokia 2100 for example) is just a fraction of your digital camera cost lar!

Maybe 2100 is Pablo's 'ong' (lucky) number.....

haiyah, later lah. i no money, mother sure say no, blah blah blah. so better just wait later. even by bro want asso dun let. if i got he sure cemburu ha ha.....

[Pablo]

Originally posted by TYW

haiyah, later lah. i no money, mother sure say no, blah blah blah. so better just wait later. even by bro want asso dun let. if i got he sure cemburu ha ha.....

oopss i don't know yr brother hope to get a handphone....

actually i use my own pocket money to buy h/p

eh...i still belum buy my lucky no. hehehe

[TYW]

Originally posted by Pablo

oopss i don't know yr brother hope to get a handphone....

actually i use my own pocket money to buy h/p

eh...i still belum buy my lucky no. hehehe

better quickly buy. i think two days ago, i saw another thing 2100 but cannot remember what

[Pablo]

Originally posted by TYW

better quickly buy. i think two days ago, i saw another thing 2100 but cannot remember what

barang saya ?? belum buy lagi kok...but i still can't c any 2100 keluar in toto and others

[szehoong]

Originally posted by SEED

hehe!!! im wit Vodafone
if i go to Malaysia... can i still send massage(chat,multimedia etc) and GPRS???

You can call Vodafone's customer service to ask if they support these services while roaming. I am sure that you could use your SMS service but GPRS I afraid not (not too sure but most probably can't). So I recommend you better check with Vodafone on this.

If you are coming back for more than a week and gonna make a lot of calls in Malaysia, I would suggest you to get a pre-paid card.....much cheaper than roaming calls.

[SEED]

szehoong> mine is pre paid ones~ and got that java thingz in it~ i already ask Vodafone~ they say is 'k~ but i think i gotta do a few thingz first before can use it over seas~ wat bout maxis??
anyway~ Vodafone customer service sux.... gotta wait so long.... wat bout Maxis??? but vodafone got cool girl to talk to hehe they all sound sexi yo~ hoho.. im bad...

[TYW]

Originally posted by Pablo

barang saya ?? belum buy lagi kok...but i still can't c any 2100 keluar in toto and others

i dun remember what thing so, not sure u got or not maybe u so lond didn't buy already open liao asso u dunno

[szehoong]

Competition among mobile phone operators hots up


Source ~ Business Times

Oct 13, COMPETITION is hotting up among mobile phone operators. All three players are now trying to outdo each other by offering extra features and lower call rates to increase usage and woo more subscribers.

A head-on battle between DiGi and Celcom turned into a three-way contest when Maxis Communications Bhd last week announced its improvised “mplans”, taking up full-page advertisements in major newspapers to unveil the new packages.

The revised “m-plans” include lower Maxis-to-Maxis local call rates, and a new entry level post-paid plan with RM30 access fee for three years.

Three weeks ago, Celcom (M) Bhd announced four new post-paid plans, including the entry level Ezy package with RM25 access fee.

This followed DiGi.com Bhd’s new “Beyond” prepaid packages introduced a day earlier, offering call rates that are automatically adjusted downwards with more usage.

Market watchers were anticipating such a response from Maxis, as the new offerings from both its rivals were seen as attempts to unseat the market leader.

A common thread in all these new offerings is that each operator has not directly lowered their per minute tariffs, analysts say.

Discounts are either offered when users commit to a certain level of usage, or are given to calls made within the same network to encourage conversion of friends and family members to use the same operator.

They also note additional efforts on brand building and packaging, as seen in DiGi’s Beyond prepaid. Previously, only Maxis marketed its prepaid service under an independent brand — Hotlink — allowing it to better target-brand its Maxis premium post-paid service for higher-usage customers.

Local call rates (peak) for post-paid plans have been cut to 20 sen per minute from the normal average of 30 sen per minute before. For prepaid mobile, local call rates can now be as low as 40 sen per minute (peak), from the normal average of 60 sen per minute before, with the right package and usage pattern.

With the market moving closer to saturation, analysts expect more such offerings, as all mobile operators give their best to win more customers and reduce customer dropout.

This intense rivalry, which has already led to lower cost of owning a mobile phone, will only intensify as some 10 million people or every two out of five Malaysians already own a cellular phone.

DiGi now has just over 2 million customers, from 1.8 million in January. It has about 20 per cent market share, while Maxis has 38 per cent and Celcom 42 per cent.

The cost of prepaid starter packs, for instance, has fallen to as low as RM38 since the launch of DiGi’s Beyond prepaid, complete with RM20 preloaded talktime.

This is comparable to Celcom’s entry-level Xplore starter pack sold at RM48 each with RM30 pre-loaded talktime and 100 bonus text messages (worth RM15).

Maxis’ Hotlink starter pack is retailed at RM88 each, with RM50 pre-loaded talktime and RM10 additional talktime is given when customers return a welcome card with their details.

It is currently being sold at RM55 to woo customers in Sabah and Sarawak. Celcom’s mid-level Xceed prepaid pack retails at RM128, while high-end Xcel pre-paid packs are sold at RM168 each.

This is a far cry from when prepaid mobile was first introduced in Malaysia on the midnight of January 2 1998 by DiGi, known then as Mutiara Swisscom or DiGi 1800. Two years ago, Maxis Hotlink starter packs were sold at RM238 each.

ING Financial Markets regional telecommunications analyst Syed Razif Al-Idid expects mobile operators to offer even more diverse pricing plans to cater to all types of customers. This is already happening in more mature markets like UK.

“Innovative services and call plans would help operators to improve average revenue per user and promote greater mobile data usage.

“The ultimate beneficiaries would be mobile customers, as operators focus on ensuring better quality and wider network coverage in order to retain the customer base,” he said.

[szehoong]