Mobile
Network investment to drive IPTV growth in Malaysia
Rebecca Hawkes ©RapidTVNews | 09-09-2010
Malaysia's aggressive capital expenditure plans in broadband are set to propel Malaysia as one of the fastest-growing markets in the Asia-Pacific , according to a new report by Pyramid Research.
This positive forecast comes after Malaysia dropped two places in the World Economic Forum's latest global competitive rankings, published today.
Pyramid Research predicts Malaysia's communications services market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7 between 2010 and 2015; with the highest growth being attributed to both mobile and fixed broadband expansion.
"The opportunities will reside not only in the provision of connectivity services, but the higher speeds that these connections [provide] will enable operators to push applications - the first of which will be pay-TV entertainment services, enabled by IPTV," says Tae-Hyung Kim, Senior Analyst at Pyramid Research and co-author of the report. "Fixed broadband will experience an even higher rate of growth [than mobile data], a 23% CAGR, enabling fixed broadband revenues to almost triple during the forecast period."
The Malaysian Government's ambitious National Broadband Plan, announced in 2004, aims to provide the entire population with high speed broadband services, such as digital multimedia broadcasting, mobile TV and other 3G services . The government currently hopes to achieve 50% household broadband penetration by the end of 2010.
Investment from both state and private telcos is now being ploughed into providing Malaysians with broadband infrastructure and competitive application services. For example, one 3G mobile operator , the U Television and Singapore Technologies Telemedia -owned U Mobile, is running a promotion in Klang Valley this September and October – offering new customers its U Broadband service at RM20 per month, without them having to commit to a long term contract.
"We believe our broadband package is attractive to consumers and will eventually help boost the broadband take-up rate," said Dr Kaizad Heerjee, CEO U Mobile Sdn Bhd.
Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011 today cites higher education, institutions and labour market efficiency among the concerns Malaysia faces. While acknowledging room for improvement, a statement from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry points out that Malaysia scored very highly on its well developed financial market and the strength of investor protection, and that among Asia-Pacific countries, Malaysia ranked eighth - ahead of China, Thailand, India, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Switzerland, Sweden, Singapore topped the World Economic Forum's competitiveness league, beating the US which fell to fourth place from last year's position of second. A total of 139 countries were surveyed for this year's report from the Geneva-based non-profit organisation.
