YTL Communications Sdn. is seeing 'dramatic' demand for its WiMax service in Malaysia, with pre- registrations for the product exceeding expectations three times, Executive Chairman Tan Sri Francis Yeoh said in an interview.

Yeoh declined to give a specific target for the 'Yes' wireless Internet and voice service, which allows users to pick an identification and number.

The company is the telecommunications unit of YTL Power International Bhd.

'I would expect that the uptake of this service, when people get the hang of it, will be tremendous,' Yeoh said in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

'When people have tasted mobile Internet, they'll never go back to mobile phone; same as when people have tasted color television, they'll never go back to black-and-white.'

YTL's broadband service is as much as five times faster than the already available third-generation, or 3G, network, he said.

This will enable businesses to be more effective and productive, in line with the government's plans to turn Malaysia into a high-income nation, Yeoh said.

The company plans to spend 2.5 billion ringgit (US$798 million) to roll out the service to reach more than 65 per cent of the country's population when it starts November 19, the company said in a statement. It will reach more than 80 per cent by the second quarter of 2011.

YTL Power has advanced 8.2 per cent in the past month, making it Malaysia's best-performing stock, ahead of the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index's 0.9 per cent gain. The stock fell 0.4 per cent to RM2.51 at 12.29 pm today.

The utility's 'shares have recently surged on news that the pre-launch response to its WiMax service has been above management's internal targets,' Alex Goh, an analyst at AmResearch, said in a report today.

'But note that this is not confirmed registration or fee-paying subscribers as the current Internet bookings allow potential customers to choose their own numbers.'

The company is working with partners including Clearwater Corp, Intel Corp, Cisco Systems Inc. and International Business Machines Corp to roll out the service, which will be 'competitively' priced against present broadband access providers, according to Yeoh.

The 'Yes' service charges the consumer what they use, much like electricity, the company said on its website. The rates will be revealed on November 19. - Bloomberg