Maxis aiming to increase broadband revenues

Malaysia’s largest mobile network operator by subscribers, Maxis, has announced that it aims to more than triple the revenue it generates from broadband services within the next two to three years. According to the Business Times, Maxis still expects its mobile voice operation to remain the company’s ‘bread and butter’, but it is looking to data access over both fixed line and wireless to increase turnover. In order to bolster its presence in the fixed line broadband sector the company has said it will use incumbent Telekom Malaysia’s in-deployment High Speed Broadband Network (HSBB), which is expected to offer services to some 750,000 households by the end of 2010. Sandip Das, Maxis CEO, commenting on the operator’s future expectations, noted: ‘When you look at Malaysia, where more than 50% of the population is under the age of 25, these are people who have grown on a diet of gadgets … In the future, mobile broadband is going to struggle to cater to the data demand of these people. We expect non-voice business for us to be in the region of a about 50% by 2012. We expect broadband business to start becoming double digit percentages towards 2012/13.’ At present, Maxis’ non-voice services account for around 36% of revenue generated by its mobile arm.