When Loyalty Isn't Enough

A Case Study on Maxis

By Christine Pamela

Executive Summary

Maxis is one of Malaysia's most iconic telcos. Built by Usaha Tegas in the 1990s, it became the standard for mobile coverage and customer experience through the 2000s. It led early in 4G, expanded aggressively into fibre and enterprise solutions in the 2010s, and now participates in national 5G rollout and cloud/IoT ecosystems.

The Question

Yet the market has shifted. The Celcom–Digi merger created a larger rival. ARPU pressure keeps pushing telcos into defensive pricing. Capital requirements for 5G remain heavy while monetization is still uncertain. And for many loyal users, the Maxis experience feels less like service and more like enforcement.

What happens when a dominant business forgets to care?

Business at a Glance

FY2024 Performance

RM8.87B
Service Revenue

+3.5% YoY

9.7M
Mobile Subscribers
4
Business Segments

✓ Strengths

  • Brand heritage and market mindshare
  • Network and fibre asset scale
  • Diversifying B2B enterprise growth
  • Balance sheet strength for continued capex

⚠ Challenges

  • Consolidation (CelcomDigi) pressure
  • ARPU erosion compressing margins
  • 5G heavy capex vs slow monetization
  • Regulatory volatility on policy
  • Customer service friction eroding loyalty

Strategic Evolution

Three Decades of Growth

1993–1999

Founding & Early Footprint

Created under Ananda Krishnan / Usaha Tegas. Established Maxis mobile network and market position.

1999

Hotlink Launch

Prepaid became a mass-market powerhouse, still core to Maxis identity today.

2000s

Market Consolidation

Acquired TimeCel; corporate restructuring; privatisation and relisting cycles.

2010s

Fibre Expansion

Home and business fibre rollout via TM wholesale access + own deployments.

2013 →

Technology Leadership

First to commercialize 4G LTE in Malaysia.

2019 →

5G Initiatives

Early 5G trials and later 5G-Advanced demos with Huawei. Strategic participation in DNB.

A Moment That Reveals the Culture

When systems become bullies

I was a Maxis customer for more than twenty years. Same number. Nearly perfect payment history.

One difficult month, I missed a bill and my line was terminated.

When I tried to reconnect, I was told my number was now a "special number." To keep it, I had to commit to a RM199 plan for two years.

RM4,800 to keep a number I had used for two decades.

I wasn't asking for credit. I wasn't asking for a device. I was asking for a little grace.

What I got instead were scripts and policy walls. A human problem turned into a compliance exercise.

"When GoDaddy made a mistake on my domain, their CEO office apologized and made it right. Maxis made me feel like a liability."

Malaysia's Telco Innovation Gap

What global leaders do differently

Country Telco Breakthrough Innovation
India Jio Data near-free, digital ecosystem built around users
Kenya Safaricom (M-Pesa) Financial access to millions
South Korea SK Telecom AI-powered everyday digital services

They didn't just build infrastructure. They reimagined the relationship with customers.

Malaysia's operators compete intensely — yet behave like an oligopoly: Price-led differentiation, vendor-led innovation, scripts over service.

Innovation Portfolio Analysis

Using the Theta Framework

70–80%

🔹 Core Innovation

Heavy investment, defensive posture

  • 4G/5G network densification
  • Fibre speed upgrades
  • Hotlink plan refreshes
  • Self-serve app + eKYC
  • Enterprise managed services
~15%

🔸 Edge Innovation

Underweight vs global peers

  • FWA / hybrid broadband
  • 5G slicing pilots
  • IoT verticals
  • Cloud partnership bundles

⚠ Mostly pilot scope; not scaled into signature moves

~5%

🔴 Beyond Innovation

Small, vendor-driven experiments

  • 5G-Advanced & automation
  • AR/VR showcases
  • Satellite/NTN tracking
  • AI network management

⚠ Technology-led, not customer-led

Portfolio Diagnosis

Balance: Core-heavy → diminishing returns risk

Differentiation: Weak Edge bets → parity with rivals

Customer mindset: Experience not keeping up with expectations

Culture: Rules override judgment

Reimagining Support as Strategy

The biggest untapped engine of innovation in telecom

Support is where customers reveal what they really need. It's where innovation should begin.

Action Outcome
Tag "no-script-fit" cases Surface unmet behaviors in real time
Weekly Signal Huddles Faster Core fixes, Edge ideas, Beyond seeds
Product team call shadowing Empathy → smarter prioritization
Lightweight VoC database Turn 10M users into discovery network
NLP service mining Predict churn before numbers drop
Wild prototypes Observe → test → scale
Reward insight Culture of care, not fear

Customer Signal Ops Function

Sits between Support × Product × Network × Data

📈 Success = loyalty and learn rate, not just ARPU and cost savings

What's at Stake

If Maxis stays Core-only

  • Margins erode
  • Network becomes a commodity
  • Loyalty collapses into silence

If Maxis leads with care

  • Malaysia gains a telco that invents again
  • Customers gain dignity, not just data
  • Innovation becomes human-centered

The future of telecom won't be won by towers.

It will be won by moments of humanity.

The Next Competitive Advantage

Loyalty shouldn't be punished. Support shouldn't be afraid to think. Systems shouldn't become bullies when no one inside feels allowed to care.

"When loyalty isn't enough, care must be."