Astro expands its broadband services with Allo partnership

Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad’s (“Astro”) and Allo Technology Sdn. Bhd. (Allo) today announced a strategic partnership where Astro will offer its unique bundled broadband and content offering to new and existing residential areas connected by Allo.

The offering, which will provide residents with high speed broadband connections as well as Astro’s best-in-class content, is part of Astro’s support of the Government’s National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (“NFCP”).

The agreement was signed by the CEOs of the respective companies, Henry Tan for Astro and Rodzi Ahmad for Allo.

Henry Tan, Group CEO of Astro said, “Despite observing the MCO, business continues for us. To this end we are excited to announce our partnership with Allo for bundled broadband with content services. Allo has an aggressive roll out plan nationwide and we believe it will open up significant new headroom for growth for us in line with our broadband strategy.

The Allo partnership will expand the current broadband home-passes from TM, Maxis and TIME by over 150,000 new households and businesses over the next 18 months. This will help us expand Astro Broadband’s reach beyond urban areas into areas not fully covered by our existing partnerships including Alor Gajah, Cyberjaya, Bangsar South and many more suburban areas.”

Rodzi Ahmad, CEO of Allo said, “Allo will continue to expand its fibre footprint nationwide under the NFCP initiative, starting with Melaka, Perak, Johor, Kedah, Selangor and Pulau Pinang. We welcome this partnership with Astro to grow together with the expansion plan.

Allo is focusing on bringing fibre connection to unpenetrated areas that are commercially viable. This partnership allows us to extend the high-speed broadband and content services into these areas so that currently underserved consumers can enjoy the services.

With the provision of a wholesale open-access infrastructure concept that allows multiple services from Retail Service Providers (RSPs), Allo expects the bundled broadband and content price to be very competitive and equally accessible by the customers.”

As part of this partnerships, Astro will be able to resell all of Allo’s broadband products, including broadband speeds up to 1 Gbps. At launch, Astro will offer cost efficient high-speed broadband services of 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps, at a special price of RM 99, and RM 129 respectively. This fee will include Astro’s Family Pack content which has more than 60 channels, including Astro Ria, Astro Prima, Astro Arena, Astro Awani, Astro AEC, Astro Xiao Tai Yang, NatGeo WILD, and FOXlife and HD content among others.

Besides bridging the digital divide between the rural and the urban, Tan said the offering will increase customer engagement as the bundled proposition will allow them to enjoy their favourite TV shows and thousands of titles on demand via set top boxes as well as through connected devices such as mobile phones and tablets.

Astro’s broadband bundle is unique as it not only caters to the connected lifestyle of a modern family, but also individuals’ needs for information, entertainment and staying connected. All customers will also have free access to Astro GO which allows them to stream videos at their convenience. Customers are encouraged to connect their set top box to unlock more than 15, 000 On Demand titles as part of their pack entitlement.