Telekom Malaysia Picks IP Unity

SINGAPORE -- Telekom Malaysia, the incumbent fixed line carrier in Malaysia, has now deployed Mereon Media Servers from IP Unity, a leader in carrier-grade media servers, application servers and real-time multimedia applications for IP and TDM networks. Mereon Media Servers are powering Telekom Malaysia’s nationwide rollout of IP-based ‘Home Prepaid Services” to residential account-based subscribers, targeted to serve a majority of the carrier’s four million fixed line users.

Publicly-held Telekom Malaysia Bhd.(TLMM.KL) is Malaysia’s leading telecommunications service provider, providing access services and innovative features to both residential and commercial subscribers. The carrier undertook an aggressive goal to migrate from its TDM-based network to an IP service delivery network during 2005, so that it could deliver more prepaid connectivity and enhanced services to more users, as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Prepaid services are very popular among mobile consumers and temporary users. Telekom Malaysia wished to expand this service delivery option to its fixed-line, residential customers as well.

Telekom Malaysia specified a highly-scalable, carrier-class media server to handle the one million busy hour call attempts (BHCA) volumes anticipated during its migration. The carrier also required the media server to eventually interoperate with four different vendors’ already-deployed network elements and the new prepaid platform being implemented. Furthermore, Telekom Malaysia’s business objectives and competitive goals called for the introduction of numerous additional IP services and feature sets in the coming months, therefore, the carrier needed to build a multiservice infrastructure to support as many applications as possible.

“We selected IP Unity’s Mereon Media Server solution because it is highly renowned in the industry and is the platform that meets our stringent requirements,” stated Mr. Shahruddin Salehuddin, Vice President, Product Marketing for Telekom Malaysia. “The Mereon Media Server functions are robust and highly scalable to meet our very high projected call volumes, and they interoperate with our existing vendors “

The carrier has developed numerous new offerings for its diverse and demanding subscriber base, including a prepaid service which allows up to ten users to share a single access line. This offering has proven useful and popular among tens of thousands of temporary and immigrant workers within Malaysia, who need the messaging features but cannot afford an individual access line on a permanent basis. Such new features are helping Telekom Malaysia build its fixed line subscriber base, grow ARPU, manage credit risk and avoid losing subscribers to prepaid mobile competitors. The carrier plans to expand its prepaid packages and to add many prepaid features such as messaging and conferencing.

“It is impressive to see Telekom Malaysia rapidly develop creative and customized service offerings for its diverse subscribers,” said IP Unity CEO and Chair Dr. Arun Sobti. “The Fixed Line Services Division has carefully assessed user needs like service convenience, individual feature appeal and adoption trends. They have engineered new enhanced services that are competitively superior, and paid close attention to scaling them for millions of users. These are critical success factors for any incumbent and Telekom Malaysia is prepared to deliver on them at a high level of excellence.”

Telekom Malaysia Bhd.