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Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) today announced that it has joined Asia Mobility Initiative (AMI), a regional mobile operator alliance, hence strengthening its network within the region. TM’s participation is forged through its subsidiaries TM International Sdn Bhd and Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad (Celcom).

By joining AMI, TM will be strengthening its regional presence across Asia. In addition, it will be able to protect and increase its market share in the respective home markets as well as improve profitability.

The signing of the membership agreement took place today between TM International, Celcom and AMI members. The signatories were :- CEO, Yusof Annuar Yaacob signed for TM International; CEO, Dato’ Ramli Abbas signed for Celcom; CEO, Neil Montefiore signed for MobileOne Singapore; President and CEO, Napoleon Nazareno signed for SMART Philippines; CEO, David Kay signed for CTM Macau; and Co-CEO, Sigve Brekke signed for DTAC Thailand.

The signing was witnessed by YB Dato’ Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, the Minister of Energy, Water and Communications; Dato’ Abdul Wahid Omar, Group Chief Executive Officer, TM; and John Murray, Executive Director, AMI.

Speaking at the event, Dato’ Abdul Wahid Omar explained, “Today is a very significant day for both TM Group and AMI. By joining the Alliance, TM Group will bring some 12.9 million subscribers (and growing) to the Alliance. This will increase AMI’s total subscribers by 35% from 37 million as at 31 March 2005 to 49.8 million, a sizeable number indeed.”

“We have to take advantage whilst opportunities present themselves, and joining alliances such as the Asia Mobility Initiative ensures the best way forward. Through synergy, cooperation and leverage, we at TM are confident to reap the full benefit from the AMI. At the same time we are eager to contribute and play our role in the development of this partnership,” he added.

TM’s membership of AMI offers AMI members access to a potential cellular subscriber base of some 7.1 million in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Cambodia where TM International has mobile operations in, as well as Celcom’s subscriber base of 5.8 million domestically. TM International’s participation in AMI will initially be spearheaded by its Indonesian associate, PT Excelcomindo Pratama (XL). Other TM International subsidiaries in the running to join AMI include Dialog Telekom Limited (Dialog, TM International (Bangladesh) Limited (TMIB), and Cambodia Samart Communication Co. Ltd (Casacom).

Simultaneously, TM also has access to AMI’s customer base of some 37 million as at 31 March 2005 through its members in Telstra (Australia), MobileOne (Singapore), DTAC (Thailand), Smart (the Philippines) and CTM (Macau).

“This partnership facilitates a united strategy that benefits both member operators and customers alike, in a variety of positive moves. For the member operator, it helps combine resources and to work on new product development collectively, improve members’ competitive position, reap even better returns through increased revenue and market share.”

“For TM, Celcom and TM International customers, they stand to enjoy innovative service packaging products and services such as roaming, coming at a time when there is so much increased outbound travel amongst countries within the Asia-Pacific region,” added Dato’ Wahid.

Welcoming the new members to the AMI alliance, John Murray, said: “The enlarged membership of AMI will enhance our critical mass to grow and explore new undertakings. It has been a very challenging formative period for the alliance but we have also very quickly and successfully launched several marketing and technical initiatives. These initiatives have resulted in very tangible benefits for member operators and their customers.”

“Some of these initiatives include AsiaConnect which is a flat rate roaming service, full interconnect for VHE services, agreement on a set of customer-focused KPIs and benchmarking of key vendors in the procurement area. We are also planning to move on to other areas such as roaming and top-up for prepaid cards and products and services for the business traveller,” informed Mr Murray.

Formed in 2003, AMI was recognised as the first Asian alliance to be set up to collaborate and work towards various business initiatives for member countries, and service deliverables for mobile subscribers, within and across countries of member operators. AMI is aimed at creating economies of scale by collaborating in purchasing (handsets, SIM cards etc), content procurement, content sharing unique to each member, technology know-how consultation, and to create marketing packages which develop or enhance services to differentiate members from competition. Members also aim to initiate preferred roaming between their networks.

As one of the largest listed companies on Bursa Malaysia with an operating revenue of more than RM13 billion, TM is driven to deliver value to its stakeholders in a highly competitive environment.

The Group places emphasis on continuing customer service quality enhancements and innovations. Currently, with investments and operations in 12 countries around Asia and globally, TM is focused on sustainable growth in both the local and international markets.

For further information on TM, visit www.tm.com.my.

About TM International Sdn Bhd

TM International Sdn Bhd (TM International) is the vehicle overseeing and managing the overseas ventures of Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), Malaysia’s largest and leading telecommunications group. Operating as an investment holding company, TM International was activated in 2001 as a wholly owned subsidiary of TM.

Having had its origins in the international ventures division, TM International has today made the successful transition from an operating division to wholly owned subsidiary. It has operations and financial interests in eight countries, namely Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Malawi and Guinea.

About Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad

Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad is now the country's most experienced and premier mobile cellular telecommunications company with 5.8 million customers. It is also the first mobile operator to offer 3G services in Malaysia. It currently has the most comprehensive network coverage covering 96% of the populated areas in the country. Celcom offers international roaming service in more than 90 countries over almost 200 networks worldwide. It currently offers mobile telephony services in Malaysia for postpaid and prepaid products under the 019 and 013 access codes.

For more information on Celcom, log on to www.celcom.com.my