This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 11, 2019 - January 17, 2019

PETALING JAYA: Celcom Axiata Bhd is to invest RM100 million over the next five years for the development of its Internet of Things (IoT) Centre of Excellence and IoT-related infrastructure.

“For everything we want to spend on IoT we are committing around RM100 million for five years,” said the group’s chief executive officer Idham Nawawi (pic).

“We have been working on the IOT forums, in tandem with Malaysia’s development, for more than five years” he said at Celcom Axiata’s new office launch by Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo yesterday.

Idham said the centre of excellence, which includes Malaysian network, content, research and ecosystem developments, marks the group’s movement towards the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0)

The benefits of the centre would be enjoyed by the country, he said.

Of the RM100 million invested, RM70 million will go towards network purposes, RM20 million will go to research and development, while RM10 million will go towards platforms.

The group said it was working on initiatives such as smart metering with electricity provider Tenaga Nasional Bhd, as well as working with national carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd (Proton) in terms of providing network connectivity to their vehicles.

“The recently launched Proton X-70, unveiled by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamd, is proudly powered by our Celcom network,” Idham said.

Within the organisation, Idham said that the group is implementing more than 20 different uses of IoT, robotics and artificial intelligence, in order to improve and automate its daily work processes, inclusive of customer service, marketing and human capital.

He added that the telecommunications company had spent some RM10.68 billion in capital expenditure from 2008 to 2018. Out of this, RM2.3 billion was spent on its 4G LTE capabilities.

Idham said that Celcom’s networks served over 14 million users, with 9.2 million customers being served directly by the group, while domestic roaming customers and its mobile network virtual network operators served the balance.

“Over the par decade alone from 2008, Celcom has invested an approximate total capital expenditure of RM10.68 billion, out of which RM 2.3 billion was in 4G LTE.

Today, the Celcom networks serve a total of 14 million users, with over 9.2 million customers directly,” Idham said.

Earlier, Gobind said Malaysia has succeeded to meet its target of cutting broadband prices by 25% last year.

“The target was successful as we have seen most of the telcos (telecommunication companies) including Celcom Axiata Bhd, Maxis Bhd and TIME dotCom Bhd dropping their broadband prices by 30% to 65%.