Malaysian mobile network operators Celcom Axiata and DiGi Telecommunications have announced a network sharing agreement which the duo hopes will save them a combined MYR2.2 billion (USD718.7 million) over a ten-year period. According to The Edge Malaysia, the two companies have said that the agreement is subject to further validation once the initial phase has been completed, but in a statement noted: ‘Both parties, however, expect to see incremental savings as early as 2012 and gradually ramping up to an average annual saving of MYR150 million to MYR250 million combined after 2015.’
Under the terms of the agreement, which covers elements including access transmission (microwave links), aggregation transmission, and trunk fibre transmission, the initial collaboration will cover 218 sites from each operator and will last three years; subsequent phases will involve the consolidation and upgrade of more than 4,000 sites by 2015. Both Celcom and DiGi have said that they expect end-users to benefit from an enhanced quality of service.
The agreement follows on from the announcement in June 2010 that DiGi and Celcom had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at considering long-term infrastructure collaboration. As previously reported by CommsUpdate, the MoU focused on three areas: operations and maintenance; transmission and site sharing; and radio access network. The two cellcos did note at that date however that they do not plan to make joint bids for any spectrum that may be made available by the Malaysian authorities.