Maxis tests 4G LTE & IPTV over Fibre

Maxis is striving to be on the forefront when it comes to innovation. In order to stay ahead of the competition, they have been testing various of new technology and intend to be the first to offer in the country.

Recently they have announced that Maxis has started testing 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology on a trial run basis. This will give the company time to play around with the technology before the government announces the allocation for LTE Spectrum.

Maxis has been running various of trial runs on different technology and platforms such as HSDPA, DVB-H and even WiMAX. Some of which were launched and some didn’t.

As competition heats up particularly on mobile internet, LTE is the obvious progress step for mobile Telcos since the government had already awarded 4 companies to run WiMAX in Malaysia.

Besides 4G LTE, Maxis too is looking at expanding its fibre business and they too are looking at doing IPTV to expand its Fibre business. According to its CEO Sandip Das, Maxis is moving towards having “Integrated Play” which is expanding beyond the norm of “Triple Play” or “Quad Play”.

To reach out to the masses, Maxis is looking at tapping into TM’s existing FTTH infrastructure although no commercial terms or deal are not confirmed yet.

If necessary, Maxis is prepared to fork out RM1.4 billion in capital expenditure to reach out to places without fibre. In the mean time, Maxis is also in the final stages of signing an agreement with TNB to utilise their extensive fibre-optic network and possibily lay fibre optic cables along side TNB’s poles.

Currently Maxis has connected to about 400 buildings in the Klang Valley and they are expected to reach out to Johor Bahru and Penang soon.

[ Source 1 , Source 2 ]