Maxis announces 1.3 million active 3G users

Innovation and Mobile Internet Usage drive Maxis’ exceptional Growth
(from left to right) T. Kugan, Maxis Head of Product Development and Infotainment Services, Sandip Das, Maxis CEO, and Dr Nikolai Dobberstein, Maxis’ Head of Strategy & Head of New Businesses.

Kuala Lumpur, 9 April 2008 – Maxis Communications Berhad (“Maxis”) today announced that their active 3G user base has grown to 1.3 million at end March this year, compared to approximately 350,000 in March 2007. The more than three-fold (270 percent) year-on-year growth underlines the growing demand for data services.

“We are happy with the growth in 3G users. It has been a hard grind and has come on the back of a three-fold increase in 3G network coverage and exciting content offerings. Wireless Broadband (HSDPA) has also gained traction for similar reasons. We all know that Malaysia is in the top heap of internet-savvy countries and it is obvious that mobile phones are broadening that usage,” said Maxis Chief Executive Sandip Das.

“Innovation in mobile telecommunications is a fast-moving target – what is innovative today becomes quickly obsolete tomorrow. Maxis has kept pace with mobile innovation and some of its moves have been ‘Global Firsts’. This is what has set us apart as a service provider.”

Sandip Das said this at the company’s headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, while hosting Maxis’ inaugural Discovery Series media event, a quarterly showcase of Maxis mobile data innovation and advanced data services. Also in attendance were Dr Nikolai Dobberstein, Maxis’ Head of Strategy & Head of New Businesses, and T. Kugan, Head of Product Development and Infotainment Services.

“The encouraging growth of our active 3G base was driven mainly by the large catalogue of content-rich data products Maxis offers to our customers as well as the increasingly popular use of handsets to access mobile internet services like search, browsing and social networking,” explained Dobberstein.

The 1.3 million active 3G base makes up almost half of the larger base of 2.8 million subscribers actively using Maxis’ mobile data services over GPRS, EDGE and 3G.

“Our 2.8 million active data users use a wide range of different services, but the most popular service is our own Maxis Wap portal, which records 15 to 20 million hits a month on average now,” said T. Kugan. “This kind of visitor traffic trend puts our mobile portal in the same ranks as top internet sites in Malaysia.”

At the event, Maxis also announced the launch of three new products: Complete Phone Backup, Email Xpress and i-Share by M-money – all firsts in Malaysia. (For more information on these products, please refer to the Product Description below.)

Maxis’ Complete Phone Backup safeguards all information such as phone book contacts, short messages (“SMS”) and multimedia messages (“MMS”), emails, calendar, notes as well as all content downloads like ringtones, video and games. Traditional back-up services in the past were SIM-based and limited to phonebook content and text messages.

The new service will allow customers to create a complete back-up of all their phone data and content. Maxis and Hotlink customers subscribing to the service will no longer have to worry about losing their phone numbers and data if they lose or change their mobile phone.

“Functioning as a rolodex, a diary, a photo album and even as a music and video library, the mobile phone has evolved to become an all-encompassing tool. Safeguarding the data content of this modern day life-organiser is crucial. With this complete back-up service, our customers are reassured that data that is important to them can be saved and restored onto a new device at anytime, should the need arise,” explained Kugan.

Email Xpress is a real-time Push Email solution that simplifies accessing your email on your mobile phone and supports popular email domains like Streamyx, Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo. The service is offered to both postpaid and prepaid subscribers, and uses a Java application that allows mailbox synchronisation, a feature that other available ‘push email’ solutions do not offer.

Hotlink i-Share by M-money is a prepaid service that allows Maxis’ prepaid customers to instantly send airtime value from their phones to family and friends who have prepaid accounts with Indonesia’s leading mobile operators Telkomsel and Indosat. This service is an extension of other Maxis mobile commerce initiatives in the M-money suite of services, including mobile remittance.

“Although the i-Share service launch was just two weeks ago, the response – mainly from our prepaid migrant customers – has been very good,” Dobberstein elaborated. “Our partnership with Telkomsel and Indosat means that our prepaid customers have access to over 75 percent of the Indonesian prepaid user base.”

In addition to new products, Maxis’ Discovery Series event showcased the operator’s other popular mobile data products, within the themes of ‘Internet’, ‘Safety and Security’ and ‘Entertainment’. On show were mobile internet services for search, browsing and social networking, mobile entertainment like mobile TV, music and games, as well as remote surveillance, location-based services like Friend and Family Finder and GPS-based services like Google Maps.

“These are just some of the over 200 mobile data services we offer our customers,” said Das. “Usage of mobile data services among our customers is growing rather well. Traditional non-voice services like SMS are still a big part of mobile data, but we’re also seeing strong take-up for products like MMS, etc. It is more than obvious that in our market, we will see further adoption of ‘non-voice’ services, as content usage gets richer and access to the internet becomes easier by the day.”

I: About Maxis Complete Phone Back-Up:

What it is:
A comprehensive over-the-air (OTA) back-up solution for all data and applications stored on the handset. Backs up phonebook contact details and SMS messages. Also backs up calendars, tasks, notes, ringtones, photos and videos. Works on most Java and Symbian handsets.

How it works:
Users can subscribe and activate the service via the following channels:
§ EasyMenu: Users can access Phone Backup via Maxis’ UMB EasyMenu (*100#)
§ Website: Users register via the website http://phonebackup.maxis.com.my
§ By Phone: Users can call our customer service hotline 123 (postpaid customers) or 1300 820120 (prepaid customers) to register for the service

Applicable charges:
Flat RM5 monthly subscription. No GPRS traffic charges apply.


II: About Hotlink i-Share by M-money:

What it is:
• Value-added service targeted for Foreign Workers: Hotlink subscribers (Malaysia) can send a top up instantly to subscribers on Telkomsel and Indosat (Indonesia)
• First in Malaysia; gives Hotlink customers access to 75% of Indonesian mobile subscribers

How it works:
• Send SMS “PULSA” to 27007
• The Hotlink subscriber keys in the recipient’s Indonesian mobile number and chooses the amount in Indonesian Rupiah (multiple denominations of 10,000-50,000 Rupiah value)
• The Hotlink subscriber’s airtime balance will be deducted with the cost of the i-Share top-up
• The i-Share top-up is instantly credited in Rupiah value to the recipient’s prepaid mobile account within the Telkomsel and Indosat networks

Applicable charges:
• Fixed charges per top-up denomination for i-Share top ups (From RM8 up to RM27)
• No other charges to Sender during transfer transaction
• Recipient will not be charged but airtime will be credited to their Indonesian prepaid airtime balance


III: About Maxis Email Xpress:

What it is:
• Instant delivery of email to your mobile phone giving you real-time access to email whilst on the move.
• First in Malaysia; gives both Maxis & Hotlink customers access to multiple email accounts using a single client on your device.

How it works:
• Send SMS “GET EMAIL” to 26000.
• Click on the URL link in reply SMS & download email Xpress application.
• Launch email Xpress & enter your email address and password.

Applicable charges:
• Sign-up BEFORE 30 April 2008 to enjoy FREE 1 month subscription fee.
• A monthly subscription fee of RM5 applies after promotional period.
• Standard GPRS data charges apply.