Altel to invest RM1b in 5 years to roll out LTE network

Altel, a subsidiary under Puncak Semangat will be investing RM1 billion over the next 5 years to roll out high speed 4G LTE mobile broadband services. Puncak Semangat is among the 9 companies that have been awarded the 2.6GHz Spectrum for 4G LTE.

At the moment, they are running as a prepaid MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) which utilises Celcom’s 2G/3G network. You can check out their current offering here.

While being an MVNO gives Altel an instant start to offer commercial mobile services, the operator aspires to be a full fledged telco with its own 4G network. Furthermore, both Altel and Celcom have also tied up to share their 2.6GHz LTE spectrum. Spectrum wise, Altel has a greater advantage with a huge 40MHz chunk while the other 8 companies are getting just 20MHz. REDtone and Maxis have earlier collaborated to combine their spectrum for 4G LTE services.

To build their network, Altel will working with Huawei as their technology and consultancy partner. Since building a new network is taking time, Altel will be leveraging on Celcom’s network to roll out their service. The aspiring 4G player aims to set up 500 LTE base stations in the first year and another 2,100 base stations in the following 2 years.

According to the report, Altel will be launching their LTE prepaid service soon, followed by postpaid services by end of this year. They currently have 20,000 subscribers nationwide with 10 stores in Klang Valley, Johor, Penang and Kedah.

Just last month, TM had acquired P1 to roll out 4G LTE services. With Altel coming into the picture, this will definitely add more competition to the current 4G players – Maxis, Celcom, DiGi and U Mobile.

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