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发表于 28-10-2009 02:15 PM
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MCMC fines 3 WiMAX players
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission(MCMC) has fined three of the four WiMAX licensees in the country atotal of RM3.8 million for failing to cover 25% of the population inthe areas given to them by end-March this year, sources said.
However, it is understood that the regulator’s decision is being disputed by at least one player.
It is learnt that among the three penalised, YTL E-SOLUTIONS BHD [
](YTLe), the only 2.3GHz WiMAX licence holder that has yet to offercommercial services, was slapped with the largest penalty of RM1.9million.
Asiaspace Sdn Bhd, which launched its “Amax”-brandedWiMAX in Taman Tun Dr Ismail in August last year to kick off itsservice in selected townships in the Klang Valley, was fined RM1.7million while REDTONE INTERNATIONAL BHD [
] was hit with a RM210,000 penalty. These figures could not be officially confirmed at press time.
“They(the trio) had been given until end-March 2010 to fulfil their Year 1and Year 2 coverage obligations, as per their respective detailedbusiness plans,” a source told The Edge Financial Daily.
It isunderstood that letters containing the result of MCMC’s coverage auditon the four WiMAX licensees were sent to the 2.3GHz spectrum holdersthree weeks ago. It is also understood that the regulator hadinstructed a drawdown of the performance bond or bank guarantee parkedas a surety to compel compliance. This could not be immediatelyconfirmed.
In retrospect, GREEN PACKET BHD [
]’sPacket One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (P1), the only licensee nothauled up by the regulator, had on Oct 13 said it had been given thego-ahead by the MCMC to expand its coverage into East Malaysia – whichwas hitherto the exclusive designated operating area for REDtone.
P1was granted the additional coverage scope after having fulfilled itsobligation to cover at least 25% population in Peninsular Malaysia, TheEdge Financial Daily reported on Oct 14.
P1,YTLe and Asiaspace’s “area of operation” was limited to PeninsularMalaysia while REDtone’s was limited to Sabah and Sarawak, according toMCMC’s media statement in March 2007. In April this year, YTLe said itplanned to build a nationwide WiMAX coverage before taking on its firstpaying customer.
When contacted, REDtone group CEO ZainalAmanshah acknowledged that the company had been fined by MCMC, but hadsubmitted an appeal and asked to be spared the cash penalty.
“Wehave made a strong appeal because we know we have done everything inour power to fulfil our commitments. We are discussing this issue withMCMC and we believe MCMC will consider the merits of our appeal and dothe right thing by retracting the fine. We are confident because ourfacts are clear,” Zainal said, without confirming the amount thecompany has been asked to pay other than saying it was “enough to buyone small base station”.
REDtone believes it had covered about20% of Sarawak’s population and 13% of Sabah’s population by the MCMC’send-March deadline, based on population data obtained from theStatistics Department.
As such, the company was disputing theregulator’s assessment that REDtone had managed to only cover 4.4% ofthe population in its operating area, Zainal said.
“MCMC’sassessment is based on projected population coverage by parliament andstate legislative assembly areas. We were only told that this was themeasure they’re using two weeks before the March 31 (2009) deadline;there was not enough time for us to study and change our rollout plans.We have highlighted our disagreement on the assessment map used in ourmeetings with the regulator and indications were that the findings willbe reviewed,” Zainal said.
He also believes REDtone has groundsfor appeal to be spared the cash penalty, despite having fallen shortof the 25% benchmark coverage using its own measurement method.
“Therewere several factors beyond our control that hindered our rollout...(technical) limitations of the block of spectrum allocated to us didnot allow efficient utilisation, so our rollout cost goes up and it isalready relatively more expensive to roll out a network in EastMalaysia than the Peninsula. We’ve put in an appeal since April 2007 toalso get a 30Mhz spectrum block (versus 25Mhz) and in a different slotbecause we could only use 15Mhz of our spectrum as we need to set aside10Mhz to be used as ‘guard band’ against interference with the 2.4GhzWiFi band.
“We are thankful that the MCMC has recently grantedus a new 30Mhz spectrum block, but we hope we will be spared the cashpenalty,” Zainal said.
He hoped that the regulator wouldconsider REDtone’s commitment to helping the country achieve thetargeted 50% broadband penetration target while balancing its need todeliver shareholder value.
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, October 28, 2009. |
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