KUALA LUMPUR: Celcom Axiata Bhd is accelerating RM256 million investments to upgrade its network capacity and deploy more 4G base station towers nationwide.
The group said the accelerated network investments from 2020 into early 2021 would be further supported by the allocated capital expenditures in the financial year 2021 (FY2021).
By February 2021, Celcom targets a total of 4,700 network sites, 49 per cent in urban areas and 51 per cent in rural areas, to be upgraded and optimised with capacity upgrades, installation of new 4G equipment and core network optimisation programs.
"This also includes upgrading and optimising almost 1,000 4G network sites in Sabah and Sarawak, improving Celcom's 4G coverage in rural areas.
"Celcom will also continue with a nationwide cluster optimisation program for an additional 3,600 network sites, upgrading to better capacities to address buffering issues and deliver better voice and video quality for consumers, targeted to be completed by August 2021," it said
Chief executive officer Idham Nawawi said Celcom would be relentless in optimising its network coverage, capacity and resiliency, by accelerating investments at the most needed areas with the latest radio access network technology.
Idham said by accelerating its network investments now for crucial areas that need connectivity, Celcom hoped to gain significant improvements in quality and experience.
"These improvements also focus on delivering better in-building coverage from 4G LTE base station towers, a wider 4G coverage in rural areas, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, and improved download speeds.
"This will enable the delivery of high definition (HD) 720p video experience for more customers and an improved voice quality with Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE)" Idham said.
Celcom is also aligned with the government's Jalinan Digital Negara initiative to achieve nationwide 4G coverage and continues to invest in deploying the latest end-to-end technology such as 4T4R multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO), Carrier Aggregation, 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) and many more, he said.
"To date, Celcom's network remains the nation's widest network with over 11,500 sites nationwide, serving over 13 million users," Idham said.
Celcom continues its pursuit of "Operational Excellence" through the delivery of a positive growth for the third quarter (Q3) of FY2020.
Coming out of the Movement Control Order (MCO), Celcom recorded a significant increase of 372,000 prepaid and postpaid subscribers, together with growing revenue and profitability.
Idham said that Celcom would remain committed to drive multiple initiatives on all levels to sustain the growth forward.
"Our Q3 performance has been the result of our continued efforts and initiatives throughout the quarter, and we will work tirelessly to raise the quality of our 4G network coverage and experience by speeding up our network investments.
"Part of our strategy remains to continue our focus on 'Operational Excellence' and to innovate our products, services and offerings to achieve sustainable growth.
"We look forward to maintaining our industry leadership position as Malaysia's widest network provider and delivering the best experience and value to our customers," he added.