YTL's YES 4G Introduces ''Double Double'' Savings with New Yes 4G LTE Plans and Yes Altitude 4G LTE Smartphone
Kuala Lumpur, 30 June 2016
Consumers across Malaysia can now experience blazing fast Internet data speeds as Yes commercially launched its 4G LTE services with an impressive 85% nationwide population coverage. The 4G brand under YTL Communications is also the first mobile operator in the country to introduce Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) capability for high-definition, crystal clear calls. At the same time the Yes Altitude, the newest high quality Android device developed by Yes, was unveiled as the most affordable VoLTE smartphone in the Malaysian market, allowing more consumers to access high speed LTE internet.
The Minister of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia YB Datuk Seri Panglima (Dr) Salleh Said Keruak officiated the launch of the all-new Yes 4G LTE network and Yes Altitude smartphone, along with YTL Corporation Berhad Chairman YBhg Tan Sri Dato Seri Panglima Yeoh Tiong Lay. Also present were YTL Corporation Berhad Managing Director YBhg Tan Sri Dato (Dr) Francis Yeoh Sock Ping, YTL Communications Executive Directors YBhg Dato’ Yeoh Seok Hong and YBhg Dato’ Yeoh Soo Keng, as well as Chief Executive Officer Wing K. Lee.
“We believe that our new 4G LTE network will dramatically change the landscape of mobile services throughout the country. Our all-IP, high capacity 4G LTE Internet service supports multi-activities such as downloading or streaming movies, making calls etc. all at the same time,” Tan Sri Dato’ (Dr) Francis Yeoh said.
Tan Sri Dato’ (Dr) Francis Yeoh added, “Over the past year, we have been working with the best of best in the industry such as Samsung, Qualcomm, China Mobile, Google and Elitecore Technologies to develop innovative, high quality and affordable LTE solutions and products, focusing on broadband coverage, speed and affordability. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our business partners for making this day a reality.”
“I am pleased to note that YTL has invested RM4 billion to bring new communications solutions and technologies to Malaysia by building not only one, but two 4G networks, namely the WiMax and LTE networks,” Datuk Seri Panglima (Dr) Salleh Said Keruak said when officiating the launch.
“All this augurs well for the nation’s future and will certainly accelerate the achievement of the Government’s objective to increase national broadband penetration and help reduce the cost of devices and utilization charges to make it more affordable to all consumers. This will also further help close the digital divide between urban and rural communities.”
CEO of YTL Communications Wing K Lee enthused about building the most advanced 4G LTE network on top of the existing Yes 4G Broadband network that has reached a nationwide footprint in Malaysia. “We started the journey with 4G Mobile Broadband and are now excited to complete the journey with the launch of 4G LTE together with the country’s first VoLTE service. We are proud to help Malaysia leapfrog to a high income economy through the provision of these new services,” he said.
Wing K Lee added, “We also proud to launch the country’s first “Double Data” bucket price plan that allows all users access to both 4G LTE and 4G broadband networks with a single service plan. With our amazing RM70 per month hero plan, customers will get 24GB of data (16GB of 4G LTE and 8GB of 4G Broadband) complete with a free Yes Altitude phone. There is simply no comparable offer from any other telco in Malaysia.”
With the “Double Data” feature of Yes 4G plans, whether consumers prefer to have more 4G LTE data for smartphones, or more 4G Broadband data for tablets or laptops, the new Yes LTE plans will cater to the full spectrum of user needs.
Among the Yes LTE plans, consumers can check out the Yes Altitude Bundle with LTE Postpaid 88. Consumers who sign up for this plan will just need to pay RM70 every month to enjoy 24GB of both 4G LTE and 4G Broadband data, unlimited Yes-to-Yes number calls and SMS, and get the Yes Altitude phone for free.
The Yes Altitude is a full-fledged 4G VoLTE smartphone for seamless mobile LTE connectivity. The phone sports a 5” HD IPS on-cell display and supports VoLTE for High Definition voice and video calls which are up to 3 times and 6 times better quality than calls made on 3G/2G networks. Its dual-sim functionality allows users the convenience and flexibility in managing their SIM cards for the best data and best voice call rates in the market. With a recommended retail price of RM399 (inclusive of 6% GST); it is the lowest priced VoLTE phone in Malaysia. The Yes Altitude comes in three colour variants – gold, white and silver.
For LTE plan sign-ups, consumers can visit any Yes Store, Yes Exclusive Retail Partner or authorized Yes dealer across Malaysia. Alternatively, they can visit the Yes Online Store at www.yes.my/store to for more information.
SPEECH BY TAN SRI (DR.) FRANCIS YEOH
MANAGING DIRECTOR, YTL CORPORATION BHD &
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF YTL COMMUNICATIONS SDN BHD
AT THE LAUNCH EVENT OF YES 4G LTE
On THURSDAY, 30 JUNE 2016
At THE MAJESTIC HOTEL, KUALA LUMPUR
Y.B. SENATOR DATUK SERI PANGLIMA DR. MOHD SALLEH TUN SAID KERUAK
MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MULTIMEDIA, MALAYSIA
YANG BERBAHAGIA Tan Sri Dato Seri (Dr) YEOH TIONG LAY
Executive Chairman, YTL Corporation Berhad
DR YK Kim
President, Samsung Network
Dr Gyehyun Kwon
EVP, Samsung Mobile
MR Mantosh Malhotra
Managing Director, Southeast Asia & Pacific, Qualcomm
MR John Vamvakitis
Director of International, Google for Education, Google
MR Shen Weizhong
Director, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, China Mobile International
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen
It is a great honour and privilege to have Y.B. Senator Datuk Seri at this celebratory event to officiate the launch of our Yes 4G LTE service. As you may recall, YTL’s journey into telecommunications began 5 and a half years ago when YTL launched its WiMAX network at the end of 2010.
Household broadband penetration in Malaysia at that time was just over 30%, whereas voice had achieved over 100% penetration. Till today, many of the telcos in Malaysia are still relying on legacy 2G and 3G networks to provide services to the rural areas. Whilst household broadband penetration rate in Malaysia has been steadily increasing over the past 5 years, the average Internet speed in Malaysia is still one of the slowest in the world. According to a report by Ericsson, 87% of Malaysian Internet users stream videos on a regular basis but at an average speed of 4.9Mbps (megabits per second) with a peak speed of 38.3Mbps – that makes Malaysia almost 2x slower than Thailand, which has an average of 8.2Mbps with a peak speed of 58.3Mbps.
YTL has invested close to RM4 billion to-date in infrastructure and I am pleased to announce that we have successfully deployed our WiMAX network for broadband services, as well as our new 4G LTE network with over 4,200 base stations nationwide, and a population coverage of more than 85%. We believe that our new 4G LTE network will dramatically change the landscape of mobile services throughout the country with our all-IP, high capacity 4G Internet service, which supports multi-activities at the same time such as downloading or streaming movies, making calls etc. while connected to our 4G LTE network. This ability to carry out concurrent activities, however, is not possible for telcos who are relying on their legacy 2G / 3G networks to provide telephony services and their 4G network to provide data-only services.
As we all know, information, communications and technology are vital to the development of any community and country. I have said many times that the World Bank estimates that a 10% increase in high-speed broadband penetration will lead to a 1.3% increase in GDP. The benefits to the economy of having high speed Internet widely available are real and tangible. Whether businesses are driving international expansion, improving interaction with their customers or enhancing efficiency, the Internet provides the most effective and lowest cost means of doing so. Hence, from the start, it has always been our commitment to provide equal Internet access to all Malaysians in order:
- bridge the digital divide between the urban and rural communities, and
- improve the quality of life for all Malaysian.
Over the past year, whilst building our LTE network, we have been working with the best of best in the industries such as Samsung, Qualcomm, China Mobile, Google and Elitecore Technologies to develop innovative, high quality and affordable LTE solutions and products, in line with the Government’s focus on broadband coverage, speed and affordability.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our business partners for making this day a reality.
In particular, we would like to thank Samsung for their continuous support and cooperation. Today, YTL is the FIRST telco to launch VoLTE in Malaysia.
VoLTE stands for Voice-over-LTE – it is the most advanced form of telephony technology as it is a pure digital technology, rather than circuit switched or analog technology used in other networks in Malaysia. In a short while, our CEO, Mr. Wing K. Lee, will briefly explain the superiority of VoLTE over the 2G and 3G networks.
Samsung has also helped us to develop a 4G LTE network that coexists with our WiMAX network. This has enabled us to provide the best of both technologies by giving consumers the media experiences that they want, while delivering the lowest cost per bit. We were also able to optimize our network resources, which allowed us to deploy our 4G LTE network within a much shorter time and at lower cost.
We would also like to thank Qualcomm. As global leader of LTE, Qualcomm has 80% global market share in chipset supply to LTE smartphones and devices. Qualcomm has designated YTL’s LTE network as a showcase LTE network for the region and has given our team considerable engineering support to help us fully unleash the power of our nationwide 4G LTE network and to bring the most innovative LTE services to all Malaysians. They have our network support across all their chipsets and worked hand-in-hand with us to enable many mass market devices to operate on our network. What this means is that we are able to ride on the global economy of scale of LTE to reduce the cost of devices, and this will further lower the barrier of entry costs for consumers in general. This is also in line with the initiatives announced by our Prime Minister Yang Amat Berhormat Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak to extend the benefits of the “digital economy” to all Malaysians.
Our special thanks also go to China Mobile who has the world’s largest LTE network. Their network technology happens to be same as YTL’s. We want to thank China Mobile for technology transfer and collaboration with our team in network and device development. We are pleased to collaborate with them to promote the introduction of affordable LTE devices so to enable more consumers to be enriched by 4G LTE experience.
We would also like to thank Google who helped enable all Android phones with location data for our brand new network. Our relationship with Google goes back many years when we visited Goolge’s office in early 2013 and was introduced to Sundar Pichai. When we explained the 1BestariNet education programme to Sundar, he was so amazed by it as such feat – connecting 10,000 schools on one single 4G platform has never been achieved in the United States or anywhere else in the world. Since then, Google has worked alongside with YTL on the 1BestariNet education programme and the Chromebook Mobile Lab project in Malaysia. We look forward to using our LTE network to help extend what we have done for Malaysia and to partner with Google to provide a level education experience for all.
Last, but not least, we would also like to thank Elitecore Technologies. Elitecore Technologies is a global provider of OSS/BSS solutions, and was awarded the “most innovative BSS solutions company” at the 7th NTA ICT World Communication Award Ceremony, 2013 for its next-generation BSS transformation suite.
Finally, in summary, let me conclude by saying that, with the support and cooperation from all our business partners, we are able to bring the latest 4G technology in the form of VoLTE to all Malaysians at very affordable prices. Wing will share with you later this morning the details of our service plans, but suffice to say that we will bring down the cost of entry and utilisation rates to be the lowest in Malaysia, as well as in the Asia Pacific region, if not the world!
I am also pleased to announce that we will also launch our very own Yes LTE phone, which is known by its market name “Altitude”. The Altitude handset will have VoLTE and other 4G functionalities. The performance of the Altitude handset is, if I may say, quite impressive, and in some instances, it is, even better than some of the branded phones that are currently available in Malaysian market. With the launch of both our new 4G LTE network and the Altitude handset at a very affordable price, we hope that more Malaysians will be able to enjoy faster and cheaper data and voice, and in turn, contribute to the realization of the Government’s goal to increase broadband penetration in Malaysia.
With that I would like to once again express our sincere gratitude to our Y.B. Senator Datuk Seri.
Finally, a special thank you to our partners, our staff and our shareholders for believing in Yes!
This morning heralds in an entirely new 4G LTE Chapter. Welcome to the Yes 4G LTE Chapter.
Thank you and God bless!
