At a time when other telco’s especially those in the mobile space saw drop in revenue, government linked Telekom Malaysia Berhad however reported a 2.9% growth to RM12.06 billion, an increase from 2015. Having placed sets of KPI’s to achieve for 2016 and meeting them, TM saw its performance grow mainly driven by its non-voice services, which collectively represented 72% of Group revenue.

Speaking at the press conference after announcing the Company’s 2016 full-year financial results, Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Group Chief Executive Officer of TM said: “2016 was both exciting and challenging for TM. Over the year, we saw an aggressive rollout of LTE and launched webe. As expected we saw increased expenditure in the last quarter as we kicked off the Year of Convergence.”

The group recorded an increase uptake of its UniFi service, with total broadband customer base growing to more than 2.37 million customers and 949,000 just in the last quarter. Moving forward, the company will continue to leverage on its strategic investments to realise its Convergence and Go Digital aspirations. Key proposition will be on the 5 pillars of Smarter Living, Smarter Businesses, Smarter Cities, Smarter Communities and a Smarter Nation. TM is already working on smart city pilot projects in Iskandar.

All eyes will also be on Webe which offers the operator mobile play, seen as he missing link in its portfolio, now complete, comprising fixed (telephony and broadband), mobility, content, WiFi and smart services all under one roof. 2017 will be time for the investment fully take-off and will also see the roll out of High Speed Broadband Phase 2 (HSBB 2) and Sub-Urban Broadband (SUBB) projects.

Moving forward, TM foresees 2017 to be a promising year, riding on the countries economy growth, Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) forecasts Malaysia’s real GDP growth for 2017 to improve to 4.5% from 4.2% in 2016, with domestic demand continuing to be the main growth for this year.