KUALA LUMPUR (May 24): Celcom Axiata Bhd said it looks forward to cooperating with the new government as the group is "fully committed" to increasing broadband speeds at reasonable prices.

Celcom's chief executive officer Michael Kuehner at a media briefing today indicated that regardless of the change in federal government, the group has been continuously working on increasing broadband speeds and lowering costs over the past 18 months under its technology roadmap.

Kuehner said this in response to an announcement by newly minted communications and multimedia minister Gobind Singh Deo that his ministry is working towards broadband connections that are "double the speed, half the price".

"As we have been doing for the past years, we have demonstrated that we are fully committed to increasing speed, and prices remaining very reasonable. We look forward very much to engaging with the minister to see what we can do at Celcom and as an industry to really support his vision," deputy CEO of business operations Azwan Khan Osman Khan said.

The unit of listed telecommunications company Axiata Group Bhd said it has supported faster broadband speed as seen in its past investments in 3G, 4G, LTE-Advanced services. It also pointed out it was the first carrier in Southeast Asia to successfully conduct a fifth generation cellular network (5G) trial last year.

"But bear in mind, the gentleman (Gobind) has only been in his position for days, so we look forward to meeting him when he has settled down," Azwan Khan quipped.

Meanwhile, Celcom said it expects neutral impact from the zerorisation of the goods and services tax (GST).

"To us, it is actually pretty neutral and there shouldn't be significant impact in terms of financials from the zero-rated GST," said its chief financial officer Jennifer Wong.

Wong went on to explain that with the GST effectively removed, customers will see the full paid amount reloaded to their prepaid accounts instead of being subjected to a 6% deduction, while postpaid users need not pay the additional tax.

The group will await more information to be released on the impending return of the sales and services tax, she added.