Celcom gung-ho on prospects of postpaid and prepaid services

KUALA LUMPUR: Celcom (M) Bhd’s recent aggression in launches of its postpaid and prepaid services may be seen by some as being excessive, particularly the media blitz, but its chief says it’s a strategy to create the buzz.

Its chief executive officer Datuk Seri Mohammed Shazalli Ramly believes that its slew of products launched so far and those slated for the rest of the year would not crowd the market and confuse customers as the offerings catered to all the different segments.

He said there was a distinct difference in all its products and the benefits that customers derived from them, adding that Celcom had always had competitive products.

“In the past, we did not make it a practice to call for press conferences for most of our launches, which led to a perception that we lacked products.

“We are now changing our strategy to make our presence more felt,” he told The Edge Financial Daily.

“There are many of the products and additional offerings that we have introduced into the market since early this year for the prepaid segment.

“The second half of 2007 will see more postpaid product launches,” he said.

Shazalli said Celcom had timed the launches before the Merdeka celebrations so as to avoid a clash, and it was aiming for all its new products to be introduced before festive seasons for the rest of the year.

“Once the products are in the market before the festivals, we can then focus on creating market awareness during the festivities and offer better value to customers as part of the celebrations,” he said.

He said Celcom had been working on enhancing its postpaid billing platform to move beyond voice calls and to go into data services.

“The network and billing platforms must be ready as our product range caters to all the different segments,” he said.

Celcom’s recent moves saw the launch of the 1+3 plan that offers free voice calls, short messaging service and video calls within a family group.

The telco has also signed a deal with mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd to roll out mobile services targeted at the foreign workers’ market.

“I am quite comfortable that the nagging fundamental issues we faced last year have been fixed. The significant improvement leads to greater confidence for us to go out with more innovative yet simple products,” said Shazalli.

Telecommunication analysts are, however, not too convinced with Celcom’s numbers so far, as they want to see concrete evidence of the improvement in the telco’s postpaid subscriber base.

Kenanga Research said Celcom’s three consecutive losses in postpaid subscribers was a worry.

Celcom’s parent Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) has given a reassurance that the worst was over and that Celcom had registered more than 4,000 postpaid net adds in June.

“With improved customer service and better value packages and solutions, management is confident that Celcom’s fortune is on the mend,” TM said.

Kenanga Research said: “We are however less sanguine about it and would want to see more concrete evidence.”

It said the introduction of new packages with lower tariffs was expected to create a more difficult market environment, going forward.

It said with market saturation looming and mobile number portability around the corner, all key operators would become more aggressive in terms of customer retention and acquisition.