Malaysian WiMAX provider Packet One Networks (P1) has reportedly inked a deal with local fixed line incumbent Telekom Malaysia™ under which it will be able to utilise the latter’s high speed broadband (HSBB) network for a product offering it aims to launch in 1Q 2012. According to the Star Online, the agreement between the two companies, which is for the provision of transmission and access services, will see P1 gain access to the 1.3 million homes expected to be covered by TM’s HSBB infrastructure by end-2012. P1 chief executive officer Michael Lai said that the ten-year deal would allow his company to offer its WiMAX-based services coupled with the fibre-optic-based services of the HSBB, making it the first in the region to offer such a combination. Further, the executive noted that IPTV and video-on-demand (VoD) services may be included in the product that will be launched as result of the agreement, while adding that, due to the higher average revenue per user generated by services offered over the HSBB, the deal is expected to bolster P1’s bottom line.
This marks the latest in a string of wholesale agreements inked by TM for the HSBB network, having also made similar arrangements with TM’s mobile voice unit Celcom and alternative telco Maxis Communications last year. Commenting on these developments, TM group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa said: ‘We are keeping our promise of open access to all Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission-licensed service providers, as we said at the beginning of the HSBB project under the public-private partnership agreement (with the government) in 2008’.