Maxis pumping RM1.4 billion into network improvements

Maxis just announced that it will pump in an impressive RM1.4 biliion to expand its 3G coverage by 20% this year.

The expansion will extend the telco’s 3G network coverage to 80% of the population by year end. As it stands, the it’s 3G network have about 60% of the population covered.

Mark Dioguardi, the Executive Vice President and Head of Network and Technology at Maxis said that the telco has a measurably bettter network in terms of call quality, coverage and the browsing performance.

Maxis indicated that there is now a significant shift in the way its subscribers are using its network, where about 70% its traffic is purely data. Maxis expects this number to grow to 80% by the end of the year. Speculation: Is Maxis making way for more data hungry devices like the iPad?

Maxis claims that all it’s 3G sites utilise HSPA technology and as far as future technologies go, it has recieved the license from the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) to begin testing LTE or Long-Term Evolution networks, a competing technology to WiMAX. LTE trials will commence over the next two months but there’s no timeline set on when Maxis plans to deploy LTE in the country.

In addition, Maxis is also looking at making IPTV services available and fibre optics based high speed broadband to homes. The telco’s Next Generation Broadband team is currently testing Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) technology – to exploit the 10,000km of optic fibre already in place.

Again, no specific timeline is drawn but when it comes to TV services, content is king and with Astro as its stablemate, Maxis has a serious leg-up over TM’s UniFi IPTV offering.

Maxis is also looking at making it’s network green with reductions in CO2 emissions. The telco plans to reduce up to 16,000 tonnes of CO2 simply by making network sites more efficient. As a start Maxis is already planting one tree for each base station. Currently it 7,000 base stations.

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