TM AND VERIZON SIGN MOU TO DEVELOP LOCAL IP CAPABILITIES
Partnership Supports Malaysian National Agenda to Establish a Local Internet Hub

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) and Verizon Business today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to explore the development of a Malaysian-based Internet Protocol (IP) hub. The MOU supports the Malaysian national agenda to enable advanced IP communications capabilities for companies based in the country.

Dato’ Sri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, Minister of Energy, Water and Telecommunications, Tan Sri Dato' Ir Md Radzi Mansor, Chairman of TM together with His Excellency Mr Christopher J. LaFleur, US Ambassador to Malaysiawitnessed the signing ceremony, which was held at Putrajaya. Dato’ Abdul Wahid Omar, Group Chief Executive Officer of TM, and John Doherty, Vice-President, Strategy and Finance of Verizon Business, represented their respective companies at the event. Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Chief Executive Officer, Malaysia Business, TM and Gene Spinelli, Vice President, International Partner Relations for Verizon Business, Asia-Pacific, were also in attendance.

TM hopes to establish Malaysia as an Internet hub for the Asia-Pacific region, enabling companies within the country to benefit from locally-based IP services. By establishing such a hub in partnership with Verizon Business, Malaysian and foreign-owned companies located in Malaysia would have the opportunity to use cutting edge IP network technology and prepare for future IP communications services.

Dato’ Sri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik said, “I am very pleased with this initiative as it will complement the key objective of the recently launched MyIX (Malaysian Internet Exchange), which was co-founded by TM. MyIX was developed to increase the localization of domestic Internet traffic and turn Malaysia into a regional hub for Internet peering and networking. This will reduce the need for Malaysian service providers to source IP services from neighboring countries while positioning Malaysia as a regional bandwidth provider, which can cater to requirements from other countries in the region.”

This partnership will lead to significant cost savings on international bandwidth connectivity for TM and other ISPs as the Internet queries and traffic are contained within the country. Furthermore, Internet users will also experience lower latency for accessing international websites.

In addition, the collaboration will serve to attract new opportunities for Internet peering by major regional Tier-1 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as those from Korea, Japan, China and India to Malaysia, thus helping to further establish the country as a leading IP hub, with capabilities at par with more established countries in the region.

Dato’ Wahid said the establishment of a Malaysian Internet hub would be a historical milestone for both TM and the nation. “This historic MOU will provide an impetus for Malaysia to become a regional transit hub for global ISPs routing traffic. In fact, our current Internet traffic in and out of Malaysia is already one of the highest in the region, exceeding some of our more established neighbours. Moving forward, our partnership with Verizon means that Malaysia will be even more compelling as a major regional hub. Moreover, this can be seen as an extension of TM’s active commitment and support for the MyIX initiative, which aims to enable local ISPs to operate on more favorable terms with the local routing of domestic Internet traffic, that will reduce the number of transits and encourage the accessibility of local Internet websites.”

The availability of Verizon’s network in Malaysia will attract more international content providers to relocate to the country thus spurring the growth of local content development.

Dato Wahid enthused that this partnership will also open new avenues for both TM and Verizon to explore joint-development initiatives with Verizon Business in efforts to tap into new market opportunities particularly in the13 countries in the region that TM has operations and presence in.

With Verizon’s extensive network being added to TM’s portfolio of international network links, there will be more resilience to TM’s network as it acts as an additional redundancy link in times of calamities or natural disasters.

John Doherty said, “We are pleased that this new phase of our relationship with TM has now been initiated, and look forward to working with them over future months. The Asia-Pacific region is a pivotal market for Verizon Business, given its large presence of companies already operating in, or expanding into the global marketplace. We look forward to working with TM to explore ways of delivering leading-edge IP-based services to our mutual customers in Malaysia, using our collective skills and network capabilities to offer access to reliable, secure and innovative global communications services.”

The Verizon Business IP network is one of the most reliable and largest IP networks in the industry and one of the few universally recognized Tier-1 networks in the world. It comprises 3 major Autonomous System (AS) numbers namely AS701 for North America IP network, AS702 for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) IP Network and AS703 for Asia Pacific (APAC) IP Network.

Verizon Business and TM will explore the establishment of a physical node in Cyberjaya, which could be jointly operated between TM and Verizon. TM will be making further investments in infrastructure, hardware, co-location facilities and upgrading of hosting facilities to support this latest venture.

About TM
Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), a leading regional information and communications group, offers a comprehensive range of communication services and solutions in fixed-line, mobile, data and broadband. As one of the largest listed companies on Bursa Malaysia with an operating revenue of more than RM16 billion, TM is driven to deliver value to its stakeholders in a highly competitive environment.

The Group places emphasis on continuing customer service quality enhancements and innovations. Currently, with investments and operations in 13 countries around Asia and globally, TM is focused on sustainable growth in both the local and international markets.

On the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) front, the Group has always been a major corporate contributor towards responsible activities in the belief that these practices are a fundamental tenet of good corporate governance. The Group promotes 3 major platforms i.e. education, sports development and community/nation-building. Under education, TM has spent some RM800 million to develop Multimedia University with more than 20,000 students. TM has also provided scholarships to over 10,000 graduates pursuing academic programmes locally and overseas. On the sports front, TM is actively contributing towards the upliftment of football at all levels while under the community/nation-building platform, the Group contributes towards causes that bring value to the community and nation at large.

For further information on TM, visit www.tm.com.my.

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