Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) sprang a surprise yesterday when it announced plans to buy up to 30% stake in Singapore’s MobileOne Ltd (M1) in a partnership with Khazanah Nasional Bhd – a move that sees TM entering a saturated market in contrast with its aspirations to invest in high growth low penetration markets nearer home.
But the deal promises a lot of synergies for the TM group and the potential of tapping into M1’s resources in terms of operational experience and product innovation as Singapore's telecoms industry is more technologically developed. Besides that, the qualitative benefit is the cross-border traffic between Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in terms of roaming, IDD calls or even data traffic.