Celcom today has revealed that the telco is currently in the midst of improving its network capability through upgrades and optimisations for its network sites. With a budget of RM 256 million, the effort is primarily driven by the significant increase in demand from its customers for the past few months.
In a media statement today, Celcom has said that it has already recorded a 40% increase of data traffic within the Q3 of 2020 as opposed to Q4 of 2019. The telco is now aiming to upgrade and optimise 4,700 network sites all over Malaysia by February 2021 which will also include installation of new 4G equipment.
Interesting enough, Celcom has also pointed out that 51% of the sites involved in this upgrade and optimisation process is actually located in rural areas. Furthermore, the exercise will also involve almost 1,000 4G sites within Sabah and Sarawak which will improve 4G coverage in rural areas in both states according to the telco.
In addition to that, around 3,600 more sites nationwide will go through a cluster optimisation program which is expected to be completed by August 2021. The telco will also implement new technologies along the way including 4×4 MIMO, carrier aggregation, 256 QAM, and others as part of its commitment to the national-level Jalinan Digital Negara initiative.
Meanwhile, the telco said that among the improvements that this network upgrade and optimisation exercise is expected to deliver include better indoor 4G coverage to rural areas. Other than that, Celcom is also looking to provide HD video experience to more users as well as delivering better voice quality via VoLTE.
Not to forget, the telco also said that there will also be some improvements in terms of download speed although no in-depth details were provided in its statement today.
All in all, the plan that has been laid down by the telco looks rather promising but of course, what really matters is the end result which means that we have to check back in a few months time to see whether this upgrade and optimisation exercise managed to meet its objectives or otherwise. Especially given the fact that the telco has faced major disruptions several times within the past few months.
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