YTL Communications expects to break even before 3 years

KUALA LUMPUR: YTL Communications Sdn Bhd, a unit of YTL Power International Bhd, is confident of breaking even in less than three years by increasing its network coverage in the country.

Chief executive officer Wing K. Lee said the company had been investing intensely over the last three years to build the infrastructure for the “Yes” 4G mobile Internet service.

“Sure, no problem, better than that. We are confident, very confident,” he said after a signing ceremony between YTL Communications and Intel Malaysia yesterday.

According to YTL Power’s notes accompanying the first quarter results for the period ended Sept 30, 2013, the company said continuous growth in its subscriber base had resulted in an increase in revenue and lower losses for the mobile broadband business.

“For the last three quarters of this (calendar) year, we have been the leader in the mobile broadband market in Malaysia. We’re about to wrap up the fourth quarter and we expect it to be a gangbuster quarter for us,” said Wing, adding that YTL Communications had over 700,000 subscribers.

“When we make large-scale investments, we will require a lot of capital upfront. But if you think big, you invest big and ahead of time. That’s what we’ve done.”

He said the company’s network currently covered over 85% of the population, adding that plans were under way to expand to Sabah and Sarawak.

“We have over 4,000 base stations currently and have plans for a few hundred more. We will be launching in east Malaysia very soon.

“It’s just that setting up infrastructure in east Malaysia is more challenging, so we need to overcome those challenges first.”

YTL Communications and Intel Malaysia formalised an agreement towards introducing Intel-based integrated 4G laptop and tablet solutions supporting Chrome and Android devices for the education sector in Malaysia.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the two parties to accelerate progress in the 1BestariNet program.

The program seeks to deliver a cloud-based virtual learning platform and high-speed connectivity to 10,000 schools nationwide.