RM2bil capex for digital TV infrastructure

Publish date: Mon, 02 Jun 2014, 09:45 PM
KUALA LUMPUR: Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd, which was awarded by the government in April to build the country's digital television broadcasting infrastructure, has earmarked a capital expenditure (capex) of RM2 billion over project's 15-year concession period.
The company was expected to use the bulk of the capex within the next two years to pave the way for the country's switch to digital television from analogue transmission by 2016, said Project Director Nik Abdul Aziz Yaacob.
The capex would be funded internally but the company does not rule out possibilities of other means, such as an initial public offering, to raise funds in the future, he told a press conference here today.
"We aim to recover our return on investment in seven years (from now)," Nik Abdul Aziz said.
About 30 per cent of the capex would be allocated to the distribution of set-top boxes, a must-have equipment for televisions to receive digital signals, he said.
The company is offering two million set-top boxes for free to selected rural households, as stipulated in its tender document to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
Puncak Semangat is targeting to roll out digital coverage to 85 per cent of the population by April next year, with 98 per cent coverage scheduled by April 2016.
Asked if the target was ambitious, the company said it was working towards the goal as it had kicked off negotiations with various partners and was in the midst of tendering out various parts of the project to third parties.
Puncak Semangat beat i-Media Broadcasting Solutions Sdn Bhd and REDtone Network Sdn Bhd, emerging as the successful bidder of the milestone project in January.
It was officially awarded the concession contract by the MCMC on April 16, 2014.
The firm is wholly-owned by Al Bukhary Group, which is controlled by tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary. - Bernama
Discussions
Be the first to like this. Showing 3 of 3 comments

fortunebullz

They will use the tv spetrum for data transmission! TV bandwidth is the best spetrum for data transmissions! By 2016 we will enjoy super high gigabit 4G data megahighway at much cheaper cost! But i guess the cost to consumers wont go down! We still paying bomb for everything!

2014-06-02 23:17

n00bpelabur

Yeah as long it under BUKHARY. he is a disgrace to MALAY. He even not even a MALAY!!

2014-06-03 08:50

mannyg

In case you're into day exchanging I need to tell you that in 2006 I found an exceptionally significant truth about the whole money related markets, that they were really under the control of a machine program and didn't generally "Trade". Need to all the more about it? Google Traders Superstore.

2014-06-03 11:04

Post a Comment