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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, 16 May, 2011 — SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM‚ KSE:017670) (“SKT”) of Korea and Green Packet Berhad (KUL:GPacket 0082)‚ the major shareholders of Packet One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (“P1”) are investing a further RM201.6 million in P1 to support the accelerated expansion of its 4G WiMAX ⁄ TD-LTE network expansion.
The investment is made up of RM50.5m from SKT and up to RM151.1 million from Green Packet.
In June 2010‚ SKT invested US$100 million in P1 making it the second largest shareholder in P1 after Green Packet. On completion of this additional investment‚ SKT will hold a 25.97% share in P1 while Green Packet will hold a 59.36% share.
CEO of P1, Michael Lai‚ said‚ “We will invest these funds in three key areas. Firstly‚ to be prepared for the exponential growth in demand for data that we called it “Perpetual Data Tsunami”. Secondly, to cater to our customers desire for more‚ better, faster and value – added 4G broadband services. Last but not least‚ to support the government’ s strategic goal to accelerate the roll out of world class mobile and wireless infrastructure and services to the entire nation.”
Puan Chan Cheong‚ Group Managing Director and CEO of Green Packet‚ said, “We were the first to roll out 4G services in Malaysia and SE Asia and now we are ready to take the next step to help Malaysia stay at the forefront of wireless broadband services development. We have in place the finance‚ the technical partnerships and the management capacity to take our investment to the next stage - a dual 4G WiMAX⁄TD – LTE network – which will match the best available networks anywhere in the world.”
With this investment‚ P1 will be positioned to respond to the trend in data consumption by ramping up its mobile broadband coverage via its dual 4G WiMAX⁄TD – LTE (Time Division – Long Term Evolution) network expansion and offer more affordable packages to consumers. P1’ s expansion from WiMAX to a TD – LTE network requires only a software upgrade as both the WiMAX and TD – LTE standards can be supported on the same platform and can operate on the same 2.3GHz spectrum.
P1 has already invested more than RM1 billion for capex and opex. P1 has‚ to date‚ utilised 50% of its US$150 million of vendor financing facilities from ZTE.
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