money

Mobile operators, broadband service providers and pay-TV operators will now know how much it will cost them to ride on TM's fibre optics network

Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) (4863), the country's dominant fixed-line operator, has finally revealed the pricing for its High Speed Broadband (HSBB) access to industry players, more than one year after the project was first announced.

This means that service providers, including mobile operators, broadband service providers and pay-TV operators will now know how much it will cost them to ride on TM's fibre optics network to offer services like video-on-demand, Internet protocol television (IPTV), voice call and Internet surfing.

TM met with some 100 industry players in Kuala Lumpur yesterday evening, which lasted over two hours. Besides revealing the prices, TM also made its indicative terms and conditions (ITC) documents available to the players.

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It is believed that most of the industry players came away feeling that the pricing offered by TM was "good" and "reasonable", but remained concerned on how the prices will affect them in the long run.
"I am concerned over the prices five years down the road. (That's because) the HSBB access pricing is not in the official access list under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). This means that TM may increase the pricing significantly in the future (if it wants to).

"If it was in the access list, then there's a little bit more control," said an industry player who declined to be named.

Meanwhile, TM executive vice-president Rafaai Samsi gave an assurance that the company would not abuse its "power".

"From our understanding, the government/regulator will only step in when there's a market failure. So it is in our best interest to keep the pricing reasonable to all, to avoid a market failure," Rafaai told Business Times in an interview yesterday.

Still, some industry players feel that the HSBB access pricing was complicated.

The pricing comes in two forms: a one-time charge and a monthly recurring charge.

It charges service providers one-time fees of between RM100 and RM200 for activation of each Internet port. On a monthly basis, it charges the service providers between RM50 and RM550 per megabit per second (Mbps) for bandwidth subscription. Different monthly charges are catered for different type of usage.

"The pricing we got was too broad. We will need another discussion with them (TM) personally to get more clarity on the pricing, the timeline as well as the roll-out locations," said an official from Packet One Networks Sdn Bhd.

Still, Rafaai believes that customers will see value in its pricing after studying it in detail.

TM held its first briefing with the industry players March last year to reveal the ITC of the HSBB Transmission service. However, it did not reveal its pricing then.

The launch of the HSBB consumer retail service is on schedule: in March this year in Bangsar, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Shah Alam and Subang Jaya.

The ringgit is expected to rise against US dollar next week with Asian currencies lending support on positive economic signs in the region, dealers said.

"The ringgit will be well supported at the 3.40 level next week," said one of the dealers, who added that the ringgit may break the resistance level of 3.38 next week.

However, the dealer said that the fundamentals were still weak in the absence of strong leads.

"Any unfavourable news in the United States will downgrade the greenback's value in overseas markets, hence the ringgit is likely to ride on this weakness," he said.

Another dealer said the US Commerce Department will release its fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) data on Friday and negative numbers will encourage investors to take positions on the US dollar.

He did not rule out the possibility of strong buying of US dollars if the data comes in much weaker than expected as most investors preferred to keep the greenback as a "safe haven" during economic crisis.

The local market will be closed on Monday for the Federal Territory Day public holiday.

On a week-to-week basis, the ringgit depreciated against the US dollar to 3.4060/4110 from 3.3940/3990 recorded last Friday.

The local currency declined against the Singapore dollar at 2.4256/4319 from 2.4203/4260 last Friday and was also weaker against the Japanese yen at 3.7748/7820 from 3.7586/7658 previously.

The ringgit, however, strengthened against the euro at 4.7602/7679 from 4.7978/8055 last Friday and also against the British pound at 5.5078/5173 from 5.5183/5281 previously. -- BERNAMA

The Prime Minister said the move by the government to offer several subsidiaries of the Ministry of Finance Inc to private companies is in line with its role as a business facilitator and not as a business entity.

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is the Finance Minister, said the government was now identifying the subsidiaries involved which would be offered through open bidding.

He was speaking to reporters after opening the "Digital Pekan 1Malaysia" today.

Also present were Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob and Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

Najib was asked to comment on the statement by Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah yesterday that the government planned to transfer some of the MOF Inc-owned companies to private companies to boost private sector investment.

Najib said: "It's not because the government has no money. Most of these companies are handled by the government, which, in principle, is a business facilitator and not directly involved in the activity." -- Bernama

PARIS (AP): Hermes stepped back from the fashion fray on Saturday by delivering a collection of timeless pieces that willfully snubbed trendiness.