TM faces ‘mammoth task’ of upgrading broadband speed; offers RM79 unifi package

• Began improving broadband prices even before announcement by MCMC
• Existing unifi customers will enjoy up to 10x improvement in speed

IN A press conference on July 12, Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) announced its new broadband and mobile plans, about a week after revising the company’s headline Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

TM acting group CEO Bazlan Osman said, “In moving towards a digital economy, it is important that Malaysia scale up its broadband speeds to enable the endless possibilities of digital technology.”

He added that the new plans, which will be rolled out Aug 15, are in line with TM’s and the government’s aspiration to increase Malaysia’s global competitiveness. During his speech, Bazlan emphasised that TM was already rolling out improvements even prior to the required price revision by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

“As part TM’s Performance Improvement Programme (PIP), we started improving the price, speed and coverage of our broadband way back in 2016 and we will continue to do so,” he said.

Targeting the B40 group with a monthly household income of below RM4,500, the new ‘unifi basic’ entry-level plan is priced at RM79 per month for 30Mbps of internet speed and 60GB of monthly usage quota. Compared to TM’s current offering of RM179 per month for a similar package, this new plan is 56% lower in price and will be open for pre-orders on July 15.

TM also announced upgrade plans for existing unifi Home customers with up to ten times the current broadband speed for the same monthly subscription fee. With this upgrade, current users of the 30Mbps package will be upgraded up to 300Mbps while 100Mbps home customer can potentially enjoy up to 800Mbps.

The executive vice president of unifi, Imri Mokhtar said, “It’s quite a mammoth task to be upgrading our customers, so I hope they can be patient with us.”

As for Streamyx customers, TM said that upgrades to unifi will also be rolled out for more than 340,000 Streamyx customers located in unifi coverage areas.

Meanwhile, TM will double the Streamyx speed for the 350,000 users located outside of unifi coverage areas.

Imri also said, “We are committed to continuously investing in the infrastructure of fixed and wireless technologies to bring these Streamyx users to high speed broadband.”

Other than the new broadband plans, TM also announced the return of its unlimited unifi mobile postpaid plan at a promotional price of RM99 monthly. On broadband plans for SME customers, Imri said “We will be announcing plans for our SME customers in the next few months.”

Addressing competition within the market, Bazlan said “In high-rise areas where other telcos have fibre connectivity, TM will become an access seeker.”

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