Ookla Speedtest report recognises Celcom for Best Mobile Coverage in Malaysia

• Malaysia’s most trusted telco, Celcom delivers reliable network services
• Govt agencies rely on Ookla for timely&immediate info on state of networks

Celcom Axiata Bhd recently bagged the Ookla^® Speedtest Awards^TM for Best Mobile Coverage in Malaysia, exemplifying its continuous investments to provide reliable network services to its users, with the widest coverage and consistent performance.

Based on Ookla’s Speedtest® report for Q3-Q4 2021 in Malaysia, Celcom’s Mobile Coverage and Malaysians’ mobile experience was analysed through Ookla’s Coverage Metrics. The report’s Coverage Score captured each telco’s footprint and quality of service in the country during the period to determine the awards winners.

The analysis showed that Celcom successfully garnered an average score of 787 in Malaysia, topping the Best Mobile Coverage category. Celcom recorded the highest scan count of more than 142 million scans and covered 356,606 locations from the total locations observed nationwide. Based on the report, Celcom also achieved and led with a winning score of 93.2% for 4G coverage and 99.7 % for general coverage nationwide.

The award is also a recognition of the impact from Celcom’s capex of RM825 million for network improvements in 2021, which resulted in an additional 900 LTE sites and over 9,500 sites optimised with improved 4G coverage and capacity across the nation. Celcom’s 4G network investments have also achieved an estimated 99% 4G LTE pop coverage or higher in 7 states, while also increasing 4G LTE pop coverage especially in Sabah, Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan Sarawak, Negeri Sembilan and Kedah.

By end 2021, Celcom achieved 94.5% LTE population coverage nationwide, which is measured through a signal strength of -98dBm in urban and sub-urban areas to provide an average 3-4 bars outdoor signal on the mobile device. Celcom’s LTE Advanced (LTE-A) population coverage stood at 90%, which will give customers with new devices that support LTE-A will get a better experience for video streaming, gaming and many more, with higher download speeds across the whole of Malaysia.

Celcom’s latest network achievement was announced during the recent Ookla^® Speedtest Awards^TM ceremony at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022 held in Barcelona, Spain from 28 February 2022 to 3 March 2022.

Commenting on the recognition, Idham Nawawi, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom said the company is proud to be acknowledged as Malaysia’s Best Mobile Coverage by Ookla. “We are strongly committed to deliver the best digital experiences for our customers, be it for work, gaming, video streaming and learning. We will continue to invest in modernizing our network and address the rapid data traffic growth and demand with accelerated network investments.”

Celcom’s investments include deploying end-to-end network technology such as the world’s first large-scale commercial FDD Smart 8T8R, 4T4R multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO), Carrier Aggregation, 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) and many more, improving digital experiences.

“We will also ensure that we continue to invest and make our network services available to all societies, including the most remote areas in Sabah and Sarawak. We want to strengthen the trust of our customers as well as other stakeholders, by staying focused to improve digital connectivity and experiences for Malaysians from all walks of life, driving digital inclusion nationwide,” Idham added.

Ookla is the global leader in mobile and broadband network intelligence, testing applications and related technologies. Speedtest, Ookla's flagship network testing platform, collects hundreds of millions of measurements about the performance and quality of networks around the world each day. Operators, businesses, and government agencies alike rely on Ookla for unparalleled and immediate information on the state of networks and online services.

In January 2022, Celcom was also named as the nation’s most trusted telecommunications company in a survey conducted by market research firm, Ipsos.  The Ipsos Trust Track: The Most Trusted Corporations and Institutions in Malaysia (2021) survey engaged over 3,000 face-to-face interviews conducted throughout 2021, which involved a nationally representative sample profile.