TM aims to reach 500,000 SME customers

Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) aims to achieve more than 500,000 in its small and medium enterprise (SME) customers by the end of the year.

SME constitutes about 80 per cent of TM's 498,000 customers currently.

"SME is important to us as it supports the economic growth in Malaysia, with a total of 20 per cent contribution to TM's revenue annually and the number is increasing everyday," said TM SME executive vice-president Azizi A Hadi.

He said this in a press conference after launching of the higher speed broadband and IPTV yesterday.

The company announced its latest version of UniFi BIZ30 and BIZ50 with higher bandwidth to enable SMEs to maximise the use of online applications and services for better productivity.

He said some 70,000 SMEs had subscribed to the UniFi service and the number is increasing by 3,000 to 4,000 a month.

Azizi said the higher speed broadband connections would enable SMEs to have better experience doing business activities over the Internet.

TM has also introduced lower call rates and its IPTV service, Hypp TV, as part of the packages.

The call charge is at a flat rate of three sen per minute to all fixed lines nationwide and 12 sen/minute to all mobiles and other fixed lines.

The IPTV service will feature free weather forecast, horoscope, traffic information, Dictionary.com and news headlines.

TM said this will allow SMEs' customers to be entertained while waiting for their turn to be served.

Asked on the expansion of UniFi, Azizi said: "The current UniFi deployment is based on supply driven.

"I think in the future we're identifying demand driven deployment nationwide and we're in the midst of doing the business plan," he said.

Azizi said it would be where the SMEs market are oriented namely in towns and industrial areas.

UniFi is available in 94 areas covering more than 1.32 million premises including key economic and industrial zones in the Klang Valley, Cyberjaya, Putrajaya, Kulim Hi-Tech Park and Iskandar Malaysia.