Malaysia’s TIME dotCom has been officially issued with the third generation (3G) spectrum assignment by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). The UMTS frequency is valid until 1 April 2018 and was handed to its wholly owned subsidiary TT dotCom.
According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, TIME won its UMTS operating concession and spectrum via an auction in March 2006. It does not plan to use its 3G frequency to launch cellular services, however, and instead intends to use the spectrum to augment its residential and corporate broadband internet offerings. TIME plans to invest MYR800 million (USD220 million) in the launch of UMTS-based broadband internet services and it began a four-month trial using HSDPA technology in May, in conjunction with China’s Huawei Technologies and Alcatel of France. The pilot of the so-called 3.5G technology was used to assess how the network behaved under different patterns of demand ahead of a planned commercial launch in the second quarter of 2007. TIME holds a full suite of telecoms licences via its subsidiaries — TT dotCom, TIME dotNet and TIME Reach — enabling it to offer a full portfolio of services to both domestic and international markets.