Japanese cellco NTT DoCoMo has placed an offer for a 30% stake in GSM operator Telecom Malaysia International Bangladesh (AKTEL) currently owned by Bangladeshi conglomerate AK Khan & Co, reports local newspaper the Daily Star. The stake, valued at around USD300 million, has also been targeted by UK-based Vodafone Group, which has previously sent representatives to negotiate with AK Khan & Co. ‘It is true that we have tendered a bid for the AKTEL stake,’ an official of NTT DoCoMo confirmed to the Star, whilst an AKTEL official told the paper, ‘We are still in the dark about our new partner. But something is going on. NTT DoCoMo is on the priority list.’ AKTEL is 70%-owned by Telekom Malaysia, and is currently in third place in Bangladesh’s mobile market. According to regulator the BTRC, the Malaysian-owned firm’s subscriber base rose by 90,000 in the first three months of 2008 to 7.45 million users, but it fell behind Orascom Telecom subsidiary Banglalink’s customer base, which grew by 430,000 to 8.31 million in the same period.
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The Telekom Malaysia Group ™ has announced the demerger of its cellular unit, Celcom, from the group’s fixed voice and broadband business. TM says this is to permit greater transparency, accountability and management focus.
Celcom will be absorbed into Telekom Malaysia International’s (TMI) umbrella of mobile assets in ten countries across the region, which is to be headed by current TM Group CEO, Dato’ Abdul Wahid Omar.
The regional and mobile-focused holding company – RegionCo – will comprise TMI and Celcom and will then be spun-off from Telekom Malaysia Berhad and be listed separately during the first half of 2008, possibly with a strategic foreign partner from the US, Europe or the Middle East.
TMI has made various acquisitions in recent years and it now owns stakes in several mobile operators across the region including PT XL (Indonesia), Dialog Telekom (Sri Lanka), Aktel
(Bangladesh), M1 (Singapore), Spice (India), TMI (Cambodia) and MTCE (Iran). The listing of TMI will allow the company greater flexibility in obtaining financial resources for expanding its regional mobile business.
TM or FixedCo is to be headed by Zamzamzairani Isa and has been identified as a participator in the Public-Private Partnership project to roll-out high speed broadband infrastructure over the next ten years. The ecost of the xercise is believed to amount up to RM15.2 billion, with 33 per cent being contributed by the Malaysian government.
Besides touting FixedCo as focusing on domestic broadband growth, TM released a statement saying that FixedCo remains focused in enhancing international connectivity within the region. This , it says, will help establish Malaysia as a regional Internet Protocol hub, serving as a digital gateway for Southeast Asia. FixedCo is described as the second largest ISP in south east Asia.
TM is also leading the Asia-America Gateway consortium and it is building an IP hub in collaboration with Verizon, both are due to be operational before the end of the year. With these two facilities in place, Malaysia will be able to peer with Tier 1 ISPs in the region, besides as well as encouraging content hosting in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
However, an anonymous source comments, “It would appear the AAG will fall under RegionCo (and Wahid) given the separations of the Lines of Businesses.” Other observers note that the separation of fixed and mobile businesses seems to be bucking the trend of fixed and mobile convergence seen so often elsewhere in the world.
TM says, “All FMC benefits can still be realised through arms-length agreements post-demerger.” However, splitting Celcom from TM may inevitably pose challenges for TM in attempting effectively to bundle fixed, broadband and mobile services, particularly via integrated sales, branding and customer support.
Further details such as group debt allocation between the two new entities, capital management strategies and expected capital expenditure have yet to be made public but are expected by the first quarter of 2008. When reached for comment, Dato’ Shazalli Ramly stated, “I am the status quo… still CEO of Celcom…so it’s business as usual.”
Both RegionCo and FixedCo remain state-owned with stakes of 40 per cent held by Khazanah Nasional, the Malaysian government’s investment holding arm.
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Telekom Malaysia International Bangladesh (TMIB, operating under the AKTEL brand) has awarded Swedish technology provider Ericsson a frame agreement to upgrade and expand its EDGE-enabled GSM/GPRS network. Under the contract, Ericsson will install new base stations and mobile softswitch equipment that will enable TMIB to minimise network costs while evolving towards an all-IP network. The vendor will also supply software upgrades to increase capacity and network performance. The upgrade project encompasses more than 1,000 sites in and between Dhaka and Chittagong. AKTEL launched a trial EDGE network in March 2007.
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Bangladesh’s mobile subscriber base reached 27.72 million at the end of June 2007, reports the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), giving the country a cellular penetration of 19.8%, according to the regulator’s figures. The watchdog went on to report market shares of the mobile network operators at the end of the month: Grameenphone 50.4%, 13.97 million users, up from 13.24 million at end-May; Telekom Malaysia International Bangladesh (AKTEL) 18.2%, 5.05 million users, down from 5.55 million a month earlier; Sheba Telecom (Banglalink) 21.8%, 6.04 million (5.53 million); Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited (CityCell) 4.7%, 1.3 million (1.27 million); Teletalk 3.2%, 890,000 (870,000); and new entrant Warid Telecom reached 1.7% and 470,000 subscribers, up from 200,000 the previous month.
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Bangladesh’s mobile subscriber base over 7 percent month-on-month to 27.72 million at the end of June, according to statistics released by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). Bangladesh’s mobile phone teledensity increased to 19.83 percent. Bangladesh’s leading mobile phone company, Grameenphone, majority owned by Telenor, showed the number of subscribers up at 13.97 million from 13.24 million in May. Telecom Malaysia’s Aktel posted subscribers down at 5.05 million from 5.55 million in May. Orascom-owned Sheba Telecom’s subscriber numbers rose to 6.04 million from 5.53 million in May. SingTel’s joint venture CDMA operator Pacific Bangladesh Telecom (PBTL) saw its subscribers rise to 1.30 million from 1.27 million in May, and state-owned TeleTalk subscribers numbers rose to 0.89 million from 0.87 million. New entrant Warid Telecom reached the 0.47 million mark, versus 0.20 million in the previous month.
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Telegeography writes…Alcatel-Lucent has conducted live field trials of EDGE technology on the GSM-900/1800 network of Telecom Malaysia International Bangladesh (AKTEL), and reported that data speeds of more than 230kbps were achieved. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, AKTEL launched GPRS data services in July 2005, and had 5.762 million GSM subscribers at end-2006. Its larger rival GrameenPhone conducted EDGE trials in 2005.
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Telegeography writes…The number of mobile subscribers in Bangladesh grew by more than twelve million, or 120%, in 2006, to stand at 22 million at the end of the year, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission. The regulator reported that the country’s five cellcos signed up 2.56 million new subscribers in December alone. Market leader GrameenPhone ended the year with 10.76 million GSM customers after adding nearly 5.22 million in 2006, Aktel acquired 3.93 million new subscribers to take its total to six million, Banglalink’s user base grew by 2.61 million to 3.64 million, and the sole CDMA operator CityCell reached nearly one million customers from 440,000 at end-2005. State-run Teletalk acquired nearly 400,000 customers in 2006, whilst the sixth mobile licensee, Warid Telecom, is expected to launch commercial GSM services by April.
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NTT DoCoMo to fight Vodafone for AKTEL stake?
