By TMR 

THE communications and multimedia (C&M) industry generated total revenue of RM43.37 billion in 2019, according to government data.

This marked a 16% drop from the RM51.64 billion in aggregate revenue recorded by the industry in 2018.

For 2019, the telecommunications sector was the biggest contributor at 80.2% or RM34.8 billion, followed by the broadcasting sector at 13.6% (RM5.88 billion) and the postal and courier sector at 6.2% (RM2.69 billion).

Total market capitalisation value of the domestic C&M sector reached RM144.01 billion or 8.4% of the total market capitalisation of Bursa Malaysia last year, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement on Saturday.

Of the total, RM134.01 billion was contributed by the telecommunications sector, RM7.29 billion came from the broadcasting sector and RM2.71 billion from the postal and courier sector.

“According to statistics from the MCMC, the value is an increase of RM6.28 billion or 4.56% compared to the previous year, which recorded RM137.73 billion in 2018,” MCMC said.

Capital expenditure (capex) for the telecommunications sector amounted to RM4.6 billion last year with RM2.97 billion used for mobile services while RM1.63 billion went to fixed services.

Most of the capex was used to upgrade mobile and fibre optic networks to increase network capacity and quality.

Fixed broadband subscriptions jumped 10.9% to 2.95 million last year from 2.66 million in 2018, while mobile broadband subscriptions rose 9.9% to 40.43 million from 36.79 million in 2018.

Total broadband subscriptions stood at 43.38 million in 2019.

3G coverage in populated areas stood at 95.5% in 2019 versus 94.7% the year prior, while 4G LTE coverage was at 82.2% in 2019 against 79.7% in 2018.

Malaysia also saw an increasing trend in mobile cellular subscriptions in 2019, which climbed 5.2% to 44.6 million from 42.41 million the year before.

“This increase was driven by various factors such as quality coverage expansion, increased capability, better service quality and increase in data and smartphone usage,” MCMC stated.

Broadband usage was also high during the Movement Control Order period which leads to the government providing a special package of 1GB free Internet quota daily under the Prihatin Rakyat Economic Stimulus Package unveiled on March 27