Hmmm! This is interesting and kind of right up my alley.
Malaysia-based, international telecommunications giant Axiata Group Berhad (formerly known as Telekom Malaysia International) is in talks with Norway's telecommunications giant Telenor ASA about a possible merger of the two giants' ASEAN and South Asia operations. Both giants have telecommunications operations in several countries in ASEAN and South Asia, including Malaysia, thus creating an even bigger Malaysian-Norwegian combined telecommunications entity across the region.
You can read the full article on The Malay Mail over here:-
In Malaysia, Axiata owns the Celcom-Axiata cellular communications operator more commonly referred to as just "Celcom", whilst Telenor ASA owns 49% in DiGi.com Berhad through its 100% ownership in Telenor Mobile Holdings AS which in turn owns 100% in Telenor Mobile Communications AS which in turn owns 100% in Telenor Asia Pte Ltd which directly owns the 49% in DiGi.com Berhad. Other substantial shareholders are Malaysian entities Employees Provident Fund (13.45%) and Amanah Saham Bumiputra (7.61%) and others.
You can view their shareholdings on Page 24 of DiGi.com Berhad's 2018 annual report.
The Axiata Group is majority Malaysian owned, with government-linked investment companies (GLICs) Khazanah Nasional Berhad owning 37.15%, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (18.42%), Employees Provident Fund (16.16%), others and the public (17.71%) and foreign shareholdings (10.55%)
You can view its shareholdings on Page 3 of the Axiata Group's 2018 annual report.
Now those of you who know me may think that I am a Maxis subscriber by the "012" prefix of my mobile number. Yes, I was a Maxis subscriber from 1996 till around 2009 or 2010 when I took advantage of mobile number portability (MNP) which had recently been approved by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and ported my number to Celcom, so I'm a Celcom subscriber now. Unlike replacing the SIM card in your phone with one of a different service provider or even of the same service provider where your number changes, mobile number portability allows you to switch service provider whilst keeping the same number.
Well, now that Celcom and DiGi could possibly be merged into Malaysia's largest cellular telecommunications company, the thought crossed my mind as to what it will be called and the following possibilities came to mind - namely, "CDEILGCIOM", "CEDLCIOMGI" OR perhaps something else.
Industry consolidation
This is not the first time Malaysia's cellular telecommunications landscape has gone through a process of consolidation.
Telekom Malaysia launched Malaysia's first cellular communications service called ATUR 450 in 1985 with the iconic "011" prefix and briefcase sized phones like the Ericsson HotLine model below which I saw in Amcorp Mall.
Fancy carrying one of these around today.
No you can't do WhatsApp, access Facebook, surf the net, send or receive SMS with one of these, since ATUR 450 was a first generation, analogue cellular communications service which operated at 450MHz, so youcould only use it for calls. Competing first generation, analogue services soon followed in 1989 with Celcom which launched its ART 900 analogue service which operated at 900MHz with the prefix "010, and Mobikom followed in 1993/1994 with its Mobifon analogue service which operated at 800MHz with the prefix "018". Mobikom also provided a digital version of the service.
They all operated using different technologies. ATUR 450 used the Nordic NMT450 technology, Mobikom used the American AMPS analogue technology and the American IS-136 TDMA digital technology, whilst Celcom used the ETACS technology. None of them used a SIM card and since they all used incompatible technologies, you would have to buy a new phone if you switched operator.
The digital era
Analogue cellular communication technologies were very much fragmented, even across European Union countries which used different technologies.
It was not until the second generation (2G) of cellular communication technologies, which were digital, that the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), defined as common European 2G technology and standards called Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), that 2G subscribers could switch between cellular service provider by swapping the SIM (subscriber identity module) in their 2G phone, with that of their new chosen operator.
The GSM standard introduced text messaging, which became very popular at the time, until free-of-charge, over-the-top messaging services such as Twitter, WhatsApp and social media became available later, especially on smartphones.
GSM also introduced international roaming, which allowed subscribers of a GSM network in one country to use their phone on the GSM network of another country in which they were travelling, provided that service provider had a roaming agreement with their service provider in their country.
Unfortunately, service providers tended to charge very much higher charges for international roaming calls, than they charged their home subscribers, so subscribers from other countries tended to get around this by purchasing a prepaid SIM card in the country to use, whilst there, or today, users of smartphones make Internet telephony calls using over-the-top services such Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat and others.
Back in Malaysia, five cellular operators launched their respective GSM services in Malaysia in 1995, including three which launched service based upon the PCN (Personal Cellular Network) standard, which is based upon GSM, which was subsequently renamed "GSM 1800".
So there were Celcom with its Celcom GSM service with the "019"prefix, Binariang with its Maxis service and "012" prefix. Mutiara Telecommunications' subsidiary Mutiara Swisscom with its DiGi service and the "016" prefix, Sapura with its ADAM service with the "017" prefix and MRCB Telecommunications with its Emartel service and the "013" prefix.
Maxis and Celcom GSM operated at 900MHz, whilst DiGi, Adam and Emartel operated at 1,800MHz. Back then, DiGi, Adam and Emartel employed the PCN standard.
Subsequently, Binariang renamed itself as Maxis and Mutiara Swisscom became DiGi Swisscom and finally DiGi.com in 2000.
Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, Adam's "017" prefix ended up with Maxis, whilst Emartel's "013" prefix ended up with Celcom and together with DiGi, there were three GSM cellular operators left standing.
However, there was no mobile number portability at the time, so if a subscriber switched service provider, they would get a new number relevant to that new service provider, so this deterred especially business people from switching service provider, since they would have to inform all their customers and friends of their new number.
This changed after the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission launched mobile number portability in September 2008, which allowed subscribers to switch service provider whilst retaining their original number.
GSM handsets in the 1990s, such as my first cellular phone, a Nokia 2110i, were about the size of a DECT cordless phone, though they still wouldn't fit in your shirt or back pocket.
Horror of horrors, I dropped my Nokia 2110i on the road, whilst crossing Jalan Sultan Ismail in Kuala Lumpur and a taxi ran over it smashing its screen but tough as a tank, it still worked to make and receive calls even though I could not see anything on the screen. I took it to the distributor O'Connor's and had it fixed for about RM300, which was quite a bomb back then but it was worth it.
Until today, I'm still a Nokia fan and use an 2012 vintage, used Nokia Asha 302, which a friend gave me, for my voice calls and SMS, whilst I have a newer Samsung Android phone which I mostly use for WhatsApp and for photography as and when needed.
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| The Nokia Asha 302 |
I'm not one of those who goes around everywhere with my face buried in my smartphone screen and I keep my Android phone offline most of the time (greatly saves battery life), so as not to be disturbed by incessant WhatsApp messages. I'll do my social networking on my terms, not others'.
Call me a reverse snob if you may, but neither do I believe in running like a hamster on a treadmill after the "latest" and "greatest" gadget which had just hit the market and make others richer whilst I get poorer.
Maxis and Celcom launched their respective third generation ((3G) cellular services around 2004 and in 2006, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission awarded additional 3G licenses to MiTV and TTdotcom, a subsidiary of Time dotCom and DiGi was stuck with providing 2G service, though at the time it considered providing 3G service as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) by leasing capacity over leased capacity on existing 3G operators' networks.
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| Siemens' second 3G phone - the Siemens U 15 launched in Vienna, Austria in October 2003 |
MiTV launched its 3G service in 2007 and later renamed itself U-Mobile and it continues to provde 3G service until today, whilst TTdocom decided to not launch 3G service and instead leased its 3G licence to DiGi to use to provide 3G service. so there were four.
"Rebel" technology?
Then in March 2007, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission awarded licenses to four companies - namely Bizsurf (M) Sdn Bhd (a YTL eSolutions and in turn a YTL Corp subsidiary), MIB Comm Sdn Bhd (later renamed Packet One Networks or "P1" (a Greenpacket subsidiary), Asiaspace Dotcom Sdn Bhd and Redtone-CNX Broadband Sdn Bhd , to operate WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) networks.
Based upon the IEEE 802.16 standard for metropolitan area networks defined by working groups within the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), WiMAX is a wireless broadband technology, defined by the industry group, the WiMAX Forum, which at the time, competed with 3G and the upcoming 4G and BizSurf's, MIB Comm's and Asiaspace's licences allowed them to operate WiMAX networks in Peninsular Malaysia, whilst Redtone's allowed it to operate a WiMAX network in Sabah and Sarawak.
GSM, 3G, 4G, 4G LTE, LTE Advanced and the upcoming 5G standards are international standards defined by the Europe-based 3G partnership project (3Gpp) and proponents of WiMAX regarded it as challenging the 3Gpp's standards, hence WiMAX was regarded as a "rebel" standard in a technology war with the 3Gpp at the time.
Such technology wars are common in the information and communications technology landscape, either due to scientists' and engineers' passion for their pet technology for personal, professional or even ideological reasons, whilst for communications industry players, a new technology provides them with business opportunities to challenge the incumbents using established technologies.
For instance, a telecommunications engineer argued that the various patents of technologies used by WiMAX are more evenly distributed amongst patent owners who contributed them to the standard, whilst patents of technologies used in 3Gpp technologies are mostly owned by a relative handful of big players, whilst the patents in WiMAX are more democratically distributed, thus limiting the adverse affect upon WiMAX if technology partner decides to pull the rights they granted to WiMAX to use their patented technology.
In the consumer ICT space, such technology wars include the the ongoing battle between users of Apple iOS and Android, between Apple iPhones and iPads versus Android smartphones and tablets, between Mac OS and Windows, earlier between Symbian and Windows Phone and even earlier between PalmOS and Windows CE.
Such user passions on either side of these technology wars have got pretty heated at times, such as at a medical technology conference in Kuala Lumpur in 2004, where at a session which discussed the merits in the use of PalmOS and Windows CE based PDAs for bedside medical applications, doctors ended up arguing over the superiority of PalmOS versus Windows CE and the session turned out to be unproductive.
WiMAX launches in Malaysia
Packet One was first to launch commercial WiMAX service in August 2008, followed by the other two, with YTL being the last to launch its WiMAX service in 2010.
However two WiMAX operators had since dropped out, leaving YTL with its Yes 4G WiMAX service and in March 2014, Telekom Malaysia acquired a 57% stake in Packet One Networks.
Telekom Malaysia relaunched Packet One as WeBe Digital in April 2016 and began full commercial service in September that year and has since rebranded WeBe service as as Unifi Mobile, both services offer voice calls and broadband data.
Meanwhile, a sort of "rebel" wireless technology, often described as "WiFi on steroids", WiMAX did not succeed in ousting 3G and 4G from their perch, and the two remaining WiMAX networks were progressively migrated to 4G LTE, so there are six cellular network operators in Malaysia today plus several MVNOs, including TuneTalk, Merchantrade, XoX, RedOne and others which provide service over one or more of these six operators' networks.
In fact, some of the six licensed cellular network operators also lease capacity on their rivals' networks to deliver their service, especially in areas beyond their network's coverage or where it would not be cost-effective to deploy their network in those areas.
For instance, when U-Mobile launched its 3G network, it only covered Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, and it required time and much investment to extend the coverage of its wide enough and fast enough to be an attractive enough choice for most users who want nationwide coverage. This is a problem which faces new entrants into the cellular communications business, whereby they have to compete with established incumbents who have had years of headstart and made the investments over the years to deploy their network sufficiently widely nationwide, and trying to catch up with them fast enough is prohibitively expensive.
So, U-Mobile found a solution by leasing capacity over Celcom's existing 2G network, so U-Mobile subscribers would still have voice and SMS connectivity when beyond coverage of U-Mobile's 3G network, whch gave it time to extend the coverage of its own network nationwide more gradually. After all, our cellular phones can automatically fall back to older cellular technologies such as 3.5G, 3G or 2G where 4G is not available.
And, if this proposed deal for a merger between Axiata and Telenor ASA goes through, we'll be left with five cellular network operators to choose from in Malaysia, and who knows whether the weaker players amongst the other four may merge or be acquired and we'll have fewer - like three perhaps.
Well, let's see what happens next.
Yours trully
IT.Scheiss
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