During a special interview with En. Imri Mokhtar, the Executive Vice President of Consumer and SME for Telekom Malaysia, we got a glimpse of the internal workings and future plans for the telecommunication giant. Things are changing and TM is prepared.
Starting from its humble beginnings in the year 1984, Telekom Malaysia Berhad has since grown to become the country’s leading telecommunications company. From starting out as the national telco for fixed landlines, radio and television broadcasting services, TM has since evolved to become the largest broadband service provider, while still offering Internet data, fixed lines, and television and network services.
TM’s focus has since then slowly shifted towards providing an enhanced digital lifestyle, which consists of empowering Malaysian consumers as well as businesses through its innovative offerings. We sat down with Imri Mokhtar, Executive Vice President of Consumer and SME for TM to get his thoughts on TM’s approach towards enhanced digital lifestyle.
TM’s Evolution
From being a broadband champion in the market, TM is now transitioning into becoming a convergence champion, with big changes on the horizon due to the huge impact the digital wave will bring forth. For TM to remain relevant in today’s market, Imri spoke about TM’s vision for the future, which is to not only make the lives of Malaysians easier, but also the businesses for a better Malaysia. “The 4th Industrial Revolution has changed and will constantly change the way we live and the way we work. The speed and the scale of which the 4th Industrial Revolution arrived were 10 times faster with an impact 300 times more than the 1st and 2nd Revolution, according to the McKinsey Global Institute.”
When it comes to staying connected, 68% of the 30 million in Malaysia are currently connected to the Internet, with 74% of that figure being connected through their mobile devices while 65% of the entire population currently consists of millennial. In terms of TM’s relevancy to its customers, Imri spoke about convergence being the key factor. “From a customer’s perspective, convergence is about TM providing a smooth and seamless Internet experience anytime, anywhere. We want our customers to have an easy and enjoyable experience, ensuring that they will stay connected to the Internet at all times.”
Ever-growing
TM has never settled to be second-best or even third-best for that matter when it comes to being the best in providing Internet coverage, mobile coverage, or even convergence. “We are constantly investing into the country’s aspiration, especially when it comes to expanding wider coverage for our consumers, the service, and of course, the capacity. For example, the data usage of the average Unifi customer from Q1 of 2015 to Q1 of 2016 had gone up from 123GB to 173GB a month,” said Imri. When quizzed about broadband penetration in Malaysia and its comparison to other countries like Singapore and Hong Kong, Imri said, “A much fairer comparison would be between Klang Valley and Singapore, rather than Malaysia as a whole. Coverage is definitely a constant issue when we’re talking about broadband penetration so the government as well as service providers are working closely together to bring more coverage to not only the urban and suburban areas but to the rural areas as well. “
With services being a key factor to TM, Imri is a firm believer in collaborations, especially when it comes to its entertainment sector, which mostly consists of OTT content as well as Linear TV from iflix and HyppTV respectively. “For TM, our primary objective is the business side of things where we want to provide better services and content for our customers. Aside from that, we are also focused on giving back to the community in various ways. Aside from investing into start-up companies, we have also recently launched a business accelerator, which will assist them in terms of research and development. We also have a wide talent pool from participating colleges and universities like MMU (Malaysia Multimedia University).”
Customer Experience
As TM rolls out its new subsidiary known as webe, TM will be the only competitor in the market with fixed WiFi and wireless services. “With the market moving so fast, it is important to stay relevant, especially when it comes to the customers,” Imri noted. Although customer experience was affected recently during the Asia Submarine Cable Express (ASE) system off Singapore, Imri had an interesting statistic to share,“Our Q1 profile of all the TM Broadband customers showed that 52% of the traffic from the Internet users were to domestic websites while 48% was to international websites. Of that 48%, 22% was directed to North America while 14% was directed to South Korea and the rest were directed off to Europe.” Safe to say, the problem has already been resolved and TM’s Cahaya Malaysia submarine cable network has been restored. However, if the problem were to ever occur again, TM’s commits to maintaining online businesses to ensure a stable Internet connection while also focusing on residential areas as well.
To end the conversation, Imri spoke about TM’s take on customer experience. “When it comes to customer experience, it can be defined to one word – omnichannel. It’s all about providing a smooth and seamless experience, whether it’s going online, going to the store, or even calling the hotline.”
