Celcom與MiTV簽約國內漫遊

CELCOM AND MiTV signS Malaysia’s first nationwide domestic roaming agreement

Kuala Lumpur, Tuesday, 26 June, 2007 – Malaysia’s widest mobile network operator Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad and MiTV Corporation Sdn Bhd today signed the country’s first ever interoperator nationwide domestic roaming agreement allowing MiTV’s 018 mobile customers to enjoy coverage throughout Malaysia via Celcom’s extensive mobile network.

This move demonstrates, through Celcom and MiTV, the industry’s ability to arrive at a commercial agreement that meets the objective of the regulatory (or government) to benefit the consumers by providing the best nationwide network coverage. This is seen as a major step forward in industry self-regulation and a win-win commercial decision.

The signing ceremony held at Menara Celcom in Kuala Lumpur was signed by Celcom’s CEO Dato’ Sri Shazalli Ramly on behalf of Celcom while Chairman of MiTV Corporation, Dato’ Ir. Hj. Rosman Ridzwan did the honours for MiTV.

The agreement comes just two months after the two parties first inked a landmark memorandum of understanding to go into a nationwide domestic roaming agreement in early April. Since then, engineers from both parties have already conducted tests enabling mobile phones equipped with MiTV’s 018 USIMs to roam in Celcom’s network successfully making and receiving calls and SMS.

Dato’ Sri Shazalli Ramly, CEO, Celcom said: “By joining forces with MiTV, Celcom supports the government’s objective to foster healthy competition and consumer choice. We hope this groundbreaking move will inspire all operators in the country to strive in providing the best services and practices to its users.

“Through this collaboration, Celcom stands to empower MiTV’s 018 customers at launch by extending their services wider and further throughout the country. We are also extremely pleased to offer MiTV’s customers the benefit of the country’s widest and best mobile coverage at no additional cost. They will be able to enjoy the same quality of service as Celcom customers, even in the most remote areas of the country,” he concluded.

In addition, this domestic roaming arrangement goes far beyond the limited sites the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is proposing. This is also a landmark initiative in terms of representing mutual collaboration beyond regulatory requirements and proving a further maturity of operators like Celcom and MiTV in being able to self-regulate and self-govern on a mutually agreed commercial basis.

Dato' IR Hj. Rosman bin Ridzwan, Chairman, MiTV Corporation said: “The significance in concluding today’s agreement between MiTV and Celcom transcends ink and paper. It’s the result of months of hard work and dedication by both teams in locking down the commercial negotiation as well as integrating the back-end for the necessary system handshake. We are all very excited and eager to push this partnership forward.

“Making such an important collaboration a possibility represents a coming of age for both MiTV and Celcom, a level of maturity that marks a positive change for the local industry as a whole that can only benefit consumers tremendously. The agreement also opens the door to us pursuing other areas for collaboration, working together as strategic partners,” he added.

With domestic roaming, MiTV will be able to extend its existing 018 high-speed 3G network to virtually the whole country giving its customers true Malaysia-wide connectivity at no additional cost. MiTV’s 018 service is also on target to commercially launch its very own high-speed network along with a host of revolutionary products and services within the second half of this year.

In addition to this, the agreement also marks both parties’ commitment and support towards the government’s initiative to foster healthy competition and increase the level of customer choice within the mobile communications industry in the country.

Currently, Celcom mobile communication networks covers 97 per cent of the populated areas in Malaysia, effectively making it the widest mobile network operator in the country for both 2G and 3G coverage. Its voice, 3G and HSDPA network coverage includes Sabah, Sarawak and Mount Kinabalu.

Celcom’s 3G network coverage even extends to the peak of Mount Kinabalu, giving Celcom the distinction of providers of the highest 3G network coverage in the world. With the recent installation of its network service in Maliau Basin located in south central Sabah, Celcom also offers the most remote coverage in Malaysia.