PETALING JAYA: This year will undoubtedly be competitive but nonetheless an exciting one for the broadband Internet industry, said Packet One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (P1) CEO Michael Lai in an exclusive interview with Mail Money.

With YTL Communications Sdn Bhd soon to deploy its nationwide 4G WiMAX network service, Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) is expected to deliver its high speed broadband (HSBB) network and other industry players also vying for the market share, broadband competition is going to intensify.

“It is time for licensees to play their part and take up the responsibility to help the nation achieve its broadband
penetration goal. I believe that competition is always good. It is only through competition that we improve and become a better provider,” Lai said, adding that consumers are going to benefit tremendously.

On whether P1 will be tapping on TM’s HSBB infrastructure, Lai said the company is always open to such
value.

“We have to go beyond the mindset of competing with each other. In the IT industry, we always used the word ‘co-opetition’, which means that companies can collaborate, cooperate and compete, depending on what value you bring to one another on the value chain,” Lai said.

Compared to YTL who had announced a nationwide rollout, P1’s strategy is about doing it step by step.

“Our rollout can be seen in three phases. In the first phase, we start by providing good 4G broadband service to homes. As we grow, our coverage will span more and more places. In the second phase, we offer the portable broadband. Once we have more pervasive coverage, we then launch the mobile broadband and personal broadband services in the third phase.”

Last year, the telco spent over RM400 million in its efforts to cover 35 per cent of the population in Peninsular Malaysia. P1 plans to cover 45 per cent of Peninsular Malaysia's population in 2010, and 65 per cent of the country's population by 2012, with an investment allocation of RM1 billion to achieve this target.

P1’s next line-up will be the deployment of WiMAX in East Malaysia by the second half of this year, in line with contributing to the national broadband penetration target of 50 per cent by year-end.

“We see a large geographical area in Sabah and Sarawak in terms of services rollout, as they are the largest States in the country. The demand for broadband is there as for everywhere, if not bigger,” Lai said.

P1 will also extend its services to Singapore, marking its transformation as a regional 4G WiMAX player.

“Singapore is a dense and mature market. We’ll be  starting our operations carefully there as we believe it will take a different strategy compared to what we do here. We are going to leverage on our experiences in  Malaysia,” Lai said, adding that the company is studying the investment plans in a neighbouring country.

This year will also see more devices coming up from P1 to push customer usage and acquisition. P1 is  working with Intel Corp to bring in embedded notebooks and netbooks.

Intel is forecasting 1.5 million of these Intel-powered devices for the country. WiMAX-embedded chipsets will help in terms of lowering subscriber acquisition costs and the ability to market a wider variety of devices.

For 2010, P1 hopes to double its turnover from last year.