TM aims to boost Webe subscriber base by fourfold

KUALA LUMPUR: More than seven months since the launch of its mobile solutions service Webe, Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) is rooting for subscriptions of the service to increase by fourfold or more.
TM deputy CEO Bazlan Osman said the service has already attracted 2% of the 2.7 million households which are already subscribed to TM’s services, since Webe was rolled out in September.
“Since the launch of Webe, we have about 2% coverage of TM’s households, so this year we are looking at about 8-10% TM households to have at least one Webe customer,” he told reporters after the group’s AGM yesterday.
Currently, TM is still in the works of expanding its Webe Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G network, and had enlisted Celcom to provide domestic roaming network coverage to areas which are outside Webe’s coverage, through an agreement inked last year.
Bazlan said with new services such as the recently launched mobile business solutions services, with the likes of Webe mobile business and Webe broadband business, TM is looking forward to seeing the penetration level of Webe in both residential and business space.
As for its UniFi service, 22% of the 640,000 UniFi subscribers have had their services upgraded to double speed at the same price, of their subscription package.
TM is hoping to upgrade all of its subscribers to its VIP 17 plan, which provides doubled internet speed at the same price by the end of this year.
“For VIP 19, we are still engaging with the government and the regulators in terms of what are their expectations on that,” he said on the VIP 19 plan, which offers doubled speed at half the price.
However, Bazlan said TM does not see the move impacting its average revenue per user (ARPU).
Acknowledging the growing customers gravitation towards non-voice services, Bazlan said both TM’s non-voice services (which contributed 75% to its revenue) and voice services will propel its revenue growth to its headline key performance indicator of 4%.
Bazlan said TM is also in the mode of investing and marketing its non-voice services such as LTE, cloud, Internet of Things and others.