PETALING JAYA: Celcom Axiata Bhd will invest RM100 million in the next five years for the development of its Internet of Things (IoT) Centre of Excellence and IoT related infrastructure in Malaysia.
CEO Idham Nawawi said the group’s IoT Centre of Excellence marks Celcom’s commitment in underlying steps towards Industrial Revolution 4.0.
“The centre will enable us to take this initiative forward, with allocation of RM100 million for the initial development of the IoT Centre of Excellence, which includes network, content, research and ecosystem developments in Malaysia,“ he said at the launch of Celcom’s new corporate headquarters today.
Named @celcom (pronounced At Celcom), the new corporate office will house the Axiata group’s IoT Centre of Excellence, which includes the new “TheAcademy@celcom” and Celcom’s new virtual academy.
@Celcom is a 450,000 sq ft and 31-storey tower, will house over 1,700 employees under one roof, out of its 2,700 employees nationwide. It was launched by Com-munications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo.
Idham said as the telecommunications market becomes increasingly saturated, hyper-competition and over-the-top disruption have led to the flattening of industry revenue and declining profitability.
He said Celcom will be expanding its fixed wireless and home fibre business segment this year. Its fixed wireless solution is able to provide average speeds of 30Mbps and a capacity of 1 terabyte, which can serve as an alternative to existing copper technology and unmet demands.
“Our fibre rollout in Sabah has reached around 40,000 home passed, achieving over 13% household coverage, and we will be doubling the number for this year.”
