Best Regional Mobile Carrier | Axiata (Malaysia) |
| Last year's winner: | New category in 2010 |
| Name: | Axiata |
| Business segments: | Mobile operations in eight countries, non-mobile activities in Thailand and Pakistan |
| Chairman: | Tan Sri Dato' Azman Hj. Mokhtar |
| Key shareholders: | Khazanah Nasional Berhad (44.5%), Employees Provident Fund Board (16.5%) |
| Key stats (2009): | EBIDTA $1.6b (RM5.2b), up 18% year-on-year, revenue $4.07b (RM13.1b), up 15% from 2008, margin 39.3%, up 1%; 120m subs, up 34% |
The scale of its regional network, Jamaludin said, brings synergies that are key to its organic development and enabled it to cut costs, particularly in procurement and technology, by $218 million last year.
"We have centers of excellence and have set up best practices in key areas such as network optimization, HR, pricing and cost management."
Its wide coverage also has allows it to launch strategic, group-wide marketing initiatives, such as data roaming and group-wide IDD offers.
Looking at how telcos will evolve over the next few years, Jamaludin said all signs point to the explosion of wireless data and the impact on operators' networks and bottom-lines.
"Today smartphones are much more than phones... These feature-rich devices provide amazing new subscriber capabilities, but they also challenge carriers to question how to monetize these capabilities as carrier revenue does not necessarily benefit from some of these advanced features," he said.