These are trying times for mobile operators with voice near to non-existent the struggle continues for the CEO’s at these organisations in finding steady revenue growth, even with data usage going up year on year the price keeps coming down. Don’t get me wrong these are welcome news for consumers but to sustain the heavy capital investment for an effective nationwide network the corporations need to see the viability in the business. One company that has managed to balance that mix has to be Maxis, both in keeping its customers happy with its service and maintaining its revenue to keep board members smiling.
In its latest quarter 2 report, the pioneer operator recorded a healthy profit on the back of a managed Prepaid performance and a better than expected Postpaid growth. The quarter also saw consistent growth in its fibre subscribers a third revenue source for the telco.
The Postpaid segment grew the most by 300,000 this year to 3.1 million a 10% jump from January 2019, Maxis has always been consistent with its Postpaid product like the MaxisOne offering which resulted in high ARPU for the company. This contributed significantly to the overall performance, off-setting the decline from its prepaid product, Hotlink saw a decrease in 330,000 subscribers this year mainly attributed to SIM consolidation and prepaid to postpaid migration. Maxis prepaid customers currently stand at 6.4 million, making the telco hold the number 2 position behind Digi for another year.
No doubt Digi has more subscribers, but its Maxis that reigns supreme when it comes to ARPU (average revenue per unit) sweeping the rest aside in revenue and profits. All its products have become undisputed champions with Postpaid at RM91, Prepaid RM41 and Wireless Broadband RM99, a premium position and an envy of many. Its revival of Fibre broadband this year is showing significant results, the telco managed to add 30,000 new subscribers in just this 3 months totaling 310, 000. Maxis is clearly benefiting from Telekom Malaysia’s recent melee and MCMC’s MSAP initiative requiring operators to halve the price and double internet speeds, the breaking of monopoly gives customers more options and encourage other telco’s to seriously compete in the segment.
Maxis CEO, Gokhan Ogut navigates the telco into new territory when 5G kicks in next year, his consolidation efforts and the performance shown for the last 2 quarters has been clinical. He has set his focus on the upcoming technology “this quarter saw us making headway in our converged ambitions with the launch of new fibre speeds, delivering smart solutions for enterprises and championing Industry 4.0 initiatives in line with the government’s digital economy agenda”.
2020 will be all about 5G, and to this end Maxis 5G live trials has been progressing well, Gokhan will be focusing on offering customised solutions and services for individuals, homes and businesses and deliver that special Maxis touch to its customers.
