Maxis, Sacofa to bring fibre broadband to more Sarawakians

• Sacofa working with telcos to enable them to expand their coverage in Sarawak
• The new consumer and business fibre plans are available in speeds of up to 100Mbps

MAXIS and Sacofa on Dec 4 entered into a partnership by signing a Letter of Understanding (LoU) for Sacofa to offer High Speed Broadband (HSBB) Network Services to Maxis. The partnership will be formalised with the signing of an access agreement in early 2019.

Under the LoU, Maxis will have full access to Sacofa’s HSBB Network Services in Sarawak that will enable Maxis to offer its already available fibre plans to even more homes and businesses.

Ahead of its ongoing Fibrenation campaign, Maxis was the first to introduce the most affordable and worry-free broadband plans in the market following the new regulatory provisions.

The new consumer and business fibre plans are available in speeds of up to 100Mbps. For consumers, the 100Mbps plan comes at RM129 per month, and 30Mbps at RM89 per month.

Business customers meanwhile can take up the 100Mbps plan for just RM139 per month, and 30Mbps for RM99 per month, inclusive of business grade service options of ‘Always On’ and ‘peace of mind’ benefits.

Both the consumer and business plans are priced up to 65% lower than previous similar plans.

The LoU will enable Maxis to further expand its affordable broadband plans in Sarawak via Sacofa’s FTTX platform Sacofa Open Fibre Infra Access (SOFIA), a turnkey solution that enables Internet Service Providers to link-up directly to Sacofa’s fibre-optic network and offer high-speed broadband services to end-users at competitive rates.

Launched on Jan 27, 2018 in Kuching, SOFIA is an enabler that liberalises the market and creates a healthy competitive environment for service providers, which in turn is anticipated to lower broadband prices and increase speeds for their broadband packages.

"As the leading infrastructure provider in Sarawak with an extensive fibre footprint, we are committed to working closely with telcos to enable them to expand their coverage throughout the state.

“Our role as an infrastructure provider is to provide a conducive platform upon which service providers can offer higher broadband speeds at attractive prices. Our FTTX solution SOFIA is the right platform in Sarawak to accomplish this.

“In view of this, we are confident that our partnership with Maxis will be highly beneficial to broadband users in Sarawak, where more communities can look forward to the benefits of digital connectivity no matter where they are, and enjoy exciting value-added plans from Maxis,” said Sacofa managing director Mohamed Zaid Zaini.

 “We are delighted with our partnership with Sacofa, with as it will enable us to extend our fibre broadband plans to even more Sarawakians. Since launching our plans in August this year, we continue to receive overwhelming response from both consumers and businesses.

“It is clear that high speed Internet access is very important to Sarawakians, seeing that their average data usage of more than 12GB per month is amongst the highest in the country. By having access to a wider HSBB network with over 194,000 home passes expected over the next three years from this partnership, more Sarawakians can look forward to a superior Internet experience at home while businesses in this region can reach their full potential with an ‘Always On’ connectivity for complete business continuity,” said Maxis chief operating officer Gokhan Ogut.