Celcom

1.0 Company Background CELCOM now is known as a CELCOM AXIATA BERHAD which is currently in the mobile telecommunication services industry, is the oldest telecommunication company in Malaysia. CELCOM started its operation as STM Cellular Communications in 1988 with Fleet Group and Telekom Malaysia as shareholders. CELCOM is the Malaysian partner of the Vodafone mobile community. CELCOM current CEO, Dato’ Seri Mohammed Shazalli Ramly, has been with CELCOM since 2005. His contract expired in 2007 and has been renewed for another 3 more years. TM International has been renamed as AXIATA as part of a telecom consortium in the South – East Asia. Its Stock Exchange code is AXIATA. Being very few companies in Malaysia, to originally obtain a cellular phone license, it successfully introduced mobile telephony in Malaysia through ART-900 (Automatic Radio Telephone) services. The ETACS ART-900 was started using the prefix “010” and now uses dialing prefix identifier of “013” and “019” and offer digital GSM (Group Special Mobile), an originally European standard, now largely a world standard for mobile communications. Since then CELCOM quickly grew to become the largest mobile phone company in Malaysia. Competition soon sets in and several digital mobile telcos compete for market dominance. It was the age of the phenomenal growth of mobile services. The original frequency band for GSM is 900MHz, and later has extended to 1800MHz to cater for much wider bandwidth requirements. 2.0 Products or Services Through the Mobile Numbering Portability by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, CELCOM aprovides Virtual Mobile Operator services and rural communications services using CDMA Technology and Satellite Phone. CELCOM is one of the 3G service providers currently operating in Malaysia other than by Maxis Communications and DiGi Telecommunications. It is also has the widest 3G & HSDPA coverage in the country of 25 million people. CELCOM's 3G services was launched on May 17, 2005, in conjunction with the World Telecommunications Day and has covered major towns such as Klang Valley, Penang, Melaka, Johor Bahru, Genting Highlands and Kulim Hi-Tech Industrial Park at initial roll out. Its 3G service continued to expand to various parts of the country in 2006. As of April 1, 2006, CELCOM already has 3G network in areas such as Kuching, Seremban, Alor Star, Sungai Petani, Tanjung Malim, Ipoh, Bukit Merah, Taiping, Kota Bharu, Kuantan, Perlis and Kota Kinabalu. The deployment of HSDPA by CELCOM allows download speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps (roughly 440KB/s). CELCOM claims to have the widest and most extensive coverage nationwide, compared other cellular services in Malaysia. CELCOM claims its dual-band GSM (900/1800MHz) coverage has reached over 97% of Malaysia’s populated area in 2006, and 100% through satellite coverage. In 2006, CELCOM is offering both 2.5G and 3G services on its postpaid and XPAX prepaid brands. In 2009, the 3G coverage covers most major towns where there is a telephone exchange and either HSDPA or EDGE services within 15 mile radius with GPRS as basic data coverage. CELCOM has cheapest postpaid plan where this plan is most suitable for users who are only allocated with minimum budget for the monthly phone bill. Moreover, CELVOM offers you the lowest postpaid plan in Malaysia with commitment fee as low as RM20 per month. It also offers free voice calls, SMS, MMS and video calls among family members. CELCOM offers cheap rates not only in postpaid plans, it offers in prepaid plans where customers can have best low rates to 15 friends from all networks. CELCOM also provides broadband services where customers can connect to the Internet with cheap rates and very easy accessible in 3G network coverage areas. Image 2.1 – CELCOM Family Postpaid Plan Comparison Image 2.2 – CELCOM XPAX Prepaid Plan Comparison Image 2.3 – CELCOM Broadband Plan without Modem Image 2.4 – CELCOM Broadband Plan with Modem 3.0 Competitors The most popular competitors of CELCOM are DiGi and Maxis. Whenever CELCOM come out with any idea the will try to come out with the same ideas as with CELCOM. As for the example, when CELCOM come out with the idea of SOX plan and UOX plan to which later DiGi come out with DiGi Campus for the students and now with DiGi easy prepaid, which we can set three numbers of friends that we can stay connected with them and messaging without any charges as well as for DiGi Campus, students can call to any DiGi number for free after usage of RM2 daily to the DiGi network only and students can send free SMS to 11 friends and family members. With the same concept, Maxis introduced Youth Club plan which is similar to the UOX and SOX plan. 3.1 Maxis Maxis provides a variety of mobile communication products and services. They offer prepaid call plans, monthly subscription plans, International Roaming, MMS, WAP (over both GSM and GPRS), Residential Fixed Line services, Broadband Internet plans, and as of early 2005, 3G services to both prepaid and postpaid subscription customers. For business customers, Maxis offer VSAT services (satellite based communications) and BlackBerry based mobile services besides regular services. Maxis also provides an online Music store for its customers to download multimedia content. Maxis most popular service is its prepaid brand Hotlink, which currently serves over 8 million customers in Malaysia. They are currently heavily promoting a new IDD 132 service, which offers discounted calls to landlines in selected countries, at a rate of 20 cent (roughly 6 US cents) per minute which is, at certain times for many subscribers, even cheaper than a local call. Maxis is currently involved in a price war with its competitors (particularly DiGi) in the prepaid SIM market which has driven its Hotlink starter pack prices down to RM6 (about USD$1.2). There are several high profile celebrities who have signed on as spokespersons for Maxis, including big names such as Siti Nurhaliza, all the Akademi Fantasia's stars, along with many other local celebrities. 3.2 DiGi DiGi Telecommunications Sdn. Bhd. provides a variety of mobile communication services. These services include voice under their prepaid plans & postpaid plans, SMS, data plans and services, international roaming, international calling card and WAP services. DiGi Telecommunications Sdn. Bhd. started a project called 'Happy'. A group of DiGi Telecommunications Sdn. Bhd. staff handle this special project and provide a new brand of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) called Happy Prepaid. DiGi is also the second operator in Malaysia to offer the iPhone on April 1, 2010. Although its plans are cheaper than Maxis's iValue plans, the price of the iPhones sold are higher than Maxis. DiGi is the first Telco in Malaysia to introduce Mobile Number Selection service which was implemented in 2008. This service enable the subscriber to choose their own number instead of following the traditional way of purchasing a new SIM that has been pre-assign with fix mobile number. 4.0 Strategies CELCOM strategies to remain competitive in the industry are: • Double its mobile broadband customer base to one million by end- 2010. They will focus on pushing its mobile broadband service to sustain its quarterly growth streak. Its primary target now is to double its mobile broadband customer base to one million by end-2010 from 475,000 in the third quarter ended September 30 2009. In the third-generation (3G) mobile broadband space, CELCOM currently leads other mobile operators in terms of subscriber base. Maxis Bhd has fewer than 200,000 subscribers as of the third quarter of this year. Its third quarter net profit of RM404 million is the highest quarterly net profit in its history. They will be implementing new synergies focusing on customer touch points, human capital and strengthening position with renewed zest and commitment. This will be done concurrently with an accelerated broadband push and continued 'smart spending' cost management. • Opportunities of the new telcoscape The integration of CELCOM and TM Cellular has expanded and enhanced our network, in terms of geographical coverage and network quality. In line with the strategy to provide the best network quality to the customers, they have allocated a substantial portion of the annual capital expenditure to improve the capacity and quality. Their long-term strategy is to expand the business beyond mobile voice communications and into new market segments to access new revenue streams. To meet the ever-changing and sophisticated needs of the customers, they will continue to introduce more mobile data services and solutions to keep people connected anywhere, anytime. 5.0 References 1. http://www.sun2surf.com/articlePrint.cfm'id=35676