Seeking to expand its base from within the country will be a tough challenge for TIME, the other fiber service provider in the country apart from Telekom Malaysia, even with offerings up to 500Mbps at lower price and having the best Mb per ringgit, taking on juggernout TM that has over 90% coverage and having access to most urban homes,  will take some time.

Unperturbed by the challenges, TIME dotCom the paret company is seeking outside Malaysia for its revenue growth, already having inversted in Singapore and Vietnam, it is now looking to venture in Thailand via strategic investment of 49% shareholding into Symphony Communications a public listed fixed-line telecommunications service provider.

Afzal Abdul Rahim, TIME’s Commander-in-Chief, commented that “TIME has long been an admirer of Symphony’s success and we are delighted to now be able to cement our partnership by proposing this strategic investment. We are very encouraged by the potential of the Thai market, especially given the launch of the Digital Economy Masterplan and the development of the ASEAN Economic Community, and look forward to working with the team at Symphony to grow the company to the next level.”

Separately, the Malaysia-Cambodia-Thailand submarine cable system (“MCT”), of which Symphony is a founding consortium member, is expected to enter service within the coming months. Chris Wilson, TIME’s ASEAN CEO, commented that “Symphony’s terrestrial and subsea network assets will integrate seamlessly with our own network and help to realise TIME’s vision of building a strong, unified, pan-ASEAN network to support the needs of customers across the region.”

TIME’s investment in Symphony is part of its regionalisation strategy that will see it invest in telecom and data centre businesses across ASEAN. “We have always maintained that ASEAN has huge potential,” commented Afzal, “and we expect the investments that we are making in the region to enhance the Group’s future growth and performance.”