Maxis expects more growth in data revenue

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007, The Star Online

KUALA LUMPUR: Maxis Communications Bhd expects its data revenue to grow in tandem with the increasing demand from consumers. 

Head of product and new business Dr Nikolai Dobberstein said demand for data content was on the rise and Maxis intended to further grow its data revenue by offering a range of mobile data and infotainment services.  

“Over the past two years, mobile data revenue has increased to RM1.4bil in 2006 while non-voice services accounted for 24% of total revenue,” Dobberstein said after the signing ceremony between Maxis and 18 external content providers (ECP) under the Maxis Elite Partners Programme. 

The group, he said, had been aggressively rolling out its services using its 3G (third generation) network to tap more data users. 

Dobberstein said Maxis was on track to double its 3G users to 600,000 by year-end. 

“As at end-April, Maxis had 456,000 3G subscribers but only 380,000 are active users at the moment,” he said, adding that Maxis would be offering more content. 

“3G has not really taken off in Malaysia but we believe it could be a big thing in the next six to 12 months,” Dobberstein said. 

The Elite Partners were selected based on their good record of promoting high quality or unique content services, strong customer services and consistent track record. 

“While the mobile content market continued to expand rapidly, Maxis wants to ensure that the industry benefits both the content providers and the consumers. 

“We are working towards delivering rich media and content services that consumers want,” Dobberstein said. 

Maxis expects its ECP revenue to chart double-digit growth this year. Currently, there are about 14 million ECP transactions per month. 

Although such partnerships are expected to help drive mobile data revenue, Dobberstein said the right content could help retain customer loyalty, which was vital to grow Maxis' data revenue. 

Maxis would be investing RM1.5mil to guide its Elite Partners in identifying business opportunities, accessing Maxis' facility testing on new products, and organising knowledge-sharing workshops. 

Maxis has also allocated RM3.5mil for the installation of an anti-spamming solution to detect and block unsolicited short message services from abroad from reaching its 8.5 million subscribers. 

Dobberstein said the anti-spamming solution, which would be deployed next month, was expected to reduce spam activities by 80% to 90%. 

He added that Maxis would implement itemised billing for Hotlink subscribers by year-end as its prepaid users currently had no way of telling if they had been charged for unsolicited SMSes. 

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