Business as usual for Celcom as mega merger off

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 -- It is business as usual for Celcom Axiata Bhd despite the recent fallout of proposed merger between its parent company Axiata Group Bhd and Norway's Telenor ASA.

Chief executive officer Idham Nawawi said the company would continue its investments amid increasing competition in the telecommunication industry.

"We, in Celcom, are always focusing on business as usual even during all the talks and negotiations during the merger.

"We always focus on the market, on the roll-out, getting more customers and bringing more revenue," he said during a media briefing on Celcom Business Performance for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2019, here today.

To-date, Celcom has over 13 million users on its 2G, 3G and 4G LTE+ networks, covering over 90 per cent of the population.  

Asked on the global consolidation exercise due to intense competition within the industry, Idham said the trend had been happening worldwide with three to four players in each market.

"The speed of new technology forces this to happen. In Malaysia, we have a population of 30 million with (mobile) penetration of 130 per cent.

"If you ask ourselves if there a need of consolidation, it is likely yes but whether the market will be able to sustain the number of players we have today," he said.

Meanwhile, Celcom chief financial officer Jennifer Wong said the telco operator has allocated about RM1 billion of capital expenditure for the current financial year, of which, RM394 million has been utilised mainly for network

Moving forward, Idham said Celcom had begun to explore collaborations with multiple technology partners and platform providers in preparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

"Celcom will further intensify focus towards profitability and operational excellence with smart investments, which includes our continuous pace on enhancing our network infrastructure at lower operational costs," he added.

Celcom has recorded a 34 per cent increase year-on-year of data traffic with 265 million GB in the second quarter this year, with video services made up more than 50 per cent of Celcom's total customer data usage.

-- BERNAMA