Attributing to the volatility of the mobile prepaid segment with price slashing, Maxis has yet again see losing a huge batch of customers totaling to about 300,000 or 6% from previous year.
The telco reported its 2018 financial with revenue sliding from RM9.4 billion to RM9.19 billion, however positive sign in postpaid uptake helped offset both revenue reduction and total subscriber base loss. Postpaid subscription now stands at 3,135,000 while Prepaid is at 6,610,000, blended ARPU remains healthy at RM59 closing higher than before enjoying the highest in the industry. Its clear Maxis still has the loyal support from its Postpaid users with little to no erosion, in fact the continued service performance and wide 4G coverage is giving confidence to consumers to the extent the network operator won top accolades in the country based on MCMC’s Consumer Satisfaction Survey report.
Despite the feel good factor, the telco will not be sitting on its laurels and is committing RM1 billion for capital expenditure for the next three years. The funds will be used for network improvement and its internal strategy to become a converged communications and digital services company. As for prepaid, Hotlink is suffering from identity crisis and misses the loyalty element the Maxis brand enjoys. Plan offerings are behind competition and propositions fail to attract new customers. The new Hotlink Postpaid Flex and MaxisOne aims to convert these users to Postpaid with low entry point plans, but Xpax and U Mobile have already started rolling similar strategy with packages from RM50 or below.
2019 will be extremely competitive for the incumbents, late entrants like U Mobile, Unifi Mobile look to hack away at existing bases with whatever means they can. U Mobile’s planned IPO will give gusto to the team to push more innovative packages while TM is betting big on its wireless product.
