Celcom Berhad
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Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad is the largest and oldest mobile telecommunications company in Malaysia. Being one of the very few companies in Malaysia to originally obtain a cellular phone license, it successfully introduced mobile telephony in Malaysia through its ART-900 service, using first generation NMT-900 technology.
When the cellular phone market was opened up in 1995, Celcom upgraded to the GSM900 service and quickly grew to become the largest mobile phone company in Malaysia until it was overtaken by Maxis.
During the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Celcom's owner, Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli suffered a debt crunch, and his shareholding in Celcom was seized by Danaharta, the national asset restructuring company. Failure to resolve his debts resulted in the controlling stake in Celcom being sold to Telekom Malaysia, the government-owned incumbent fixed line operator in 2003. Telekom Malaysia proceeded to merge Celcom with its own mobile-operator subsidiary TMTouch through a reverse takeover of TMTouch.
Celcom is one of two 3G service providers currently operating in Malaysia (The other being Maxis). As of 2006 Celcom is offering both 2.5G and 3G services on its Minutes postpaid and Xpax prepaid brands. Current customer base stood at 7 million as of early 2006. Celcom claimed a 95% nationwide mobile service coverage with 3G availability in most of Klang Valley, Johor Bahru, Melaka, Kulim and Penang.
Celcom was originally listed on the Bursa Malaysia, but its listing has been suspended, pending the takeover of Celcom by Telekom Malaysia Berhad and its subsequent merger with TMTouch.
Celcom is a member of the TM group of companies
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