Astro and TM have signed a deal that will allow the satellite TV company to utilize the telco’s broadband infrastructure. Not only that, the CEO of Astro, Henry Tan has also noted in a joint media release that this new partnership will open the path for Astro towards becoming the next Internet service provider (ISP) in the market.
According to the documents that both companies have filed to Bursa Malaysia, there are five main elements within the new partnership between Astro and TM:
- Layer 3 High-Speed Broadband (HSBB) Network Service provision for last-mile connectivity that will enable Astro to provide broadband services to its end customers.
- Optical Bandwidth (OBW) for backhaul connectivity for High-Speed Broadband Access (HSBA) service between TM’s network and Astro’s network.
- IP Transit (IPT) for internet access connectivity for Astro to provide Internet services to its end customers
- Wholesale Ethernet (WSE) for connectivity to Astro’s testbed for the purpose of testing its broadband service.
- Content Delivery Network (CDN) as a platform to deliver Astro’s content to its end customers.
This is not the first time that both companies have signed a major deal with each other. Back in 2013, Astro has agreed to supply some of its contents to TM’s IPTV service including English Premier League matches and selected in-house channels although the partnership only lasted until 2016.
Of course, the deal that they have just signed today is a different ballgame altogether.
While Astro has been offering broadband and satellite/IPTV bundles to customers for so many years through partnerships with TIME Internet, Maxis, and Allo/TNB, they are technically a combination of Astro’s content packages and the respective telco’s broadband service.
Judging from the five main elements that we mentioned above, the deal that it has just signed with TM allows Astro to offer everything under its own name and strength even though this is being done using TM’s infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Astro and TM do not reveal the exact value of this deal although they did note that the charges for each of the five main elements in this deal vary from one another, based on their respective technical requirements, service design, capacity, and usage volume. In addition to that, they also have different contract periods which ranges from two to five years.
The announcement also did not reveal any in-depth details regarding Astro’s broadband testbed and user trials. However, we believe it will take place very soon given how the joint media release has highlighted Astro and TM’s commitments towards Jalinan Digital Negara (JENDELA).
(Source: Astro, TM / Bursa Malaysia.)
