SINGAPORE, Sept. 29, 2020 When the largest mobile operator in Brunei saw its telecom infrastructure moved into a single national infrastructure company, it saw an opportunity to pivot.
"However, this will put pressure on DST to make radical changes in its business", explained DST CEO Radin Sufri Basiuni. "Without infrastructure, in order to survive we would need to become much more efficient, transforming from network-centric thinking to a customer-oriented, innovation-minded mindset."
For its part, MyRepublic has had a head start in selling a mix of broadband and mobile services in Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia – all without telecom infrastructure. In the process, MyRepublic had created a playbook for how to compete across markets by leveraging technology. This includes developing its own proprietary carrier IT system, which is fully tailored for telecom operations and customer journey, to drive down costs and improve efficiency – a radical departure from other telecom operators that license their IT platform from a myriad of software vendors.
In late 2019, DST engaged MyRepublic to assist through its business transformation journey. In addition to deploying the MyRepublic carrier IT system under a multi-year licensing arrangement, the MyRepublic teams also worked alongside the teams in DST to improve their sales, marketing, and operations processes.
A telecom operator hiring another telecom operator to drive a complete business transformation is not typical. "Our experience and research tell us that there is an appetite for an approach to digital transformation of telecom operators that does not come from the software vendor or consulting community", says MyRepublic CEO Malcolm Rodrigues. "We've been through it and live it day-by-day, and that puts us in a unique position to help."
DST recently achieved a key milestone in launching both mobile and fibre broadband plans on the newly created national telecom infrastructure company named Unified National Networks (UNN). To sustain the momentum, MyRepublic has been roped in to support phase two of the partnership, which involves even deeper collaboration.
"Our old operating model and cost structure would not have worked after the carveout of our infrastructure," according to the DST CEO.
The separation of infrastructure from operators in Brunei went further than similar precedents elsewhere by transferring both fibre and mobile infrastructure – including mobile towers, spectrum, and fibre optic cables – from the existing three operators to UNN. The move, carried out in late 2019, has allowed DST to focus on making their retail operations more competitive by offering more innovative products and services, at better prices for consumers.
DST's approach to its transformation to meet the new market realities proved prescient. "The coronavirus pandemic significantly accelerated digital transformation in many companies", says the DST CEO, "and our partnership with MyRepublic allowed us to turbocharge our own."
About MyRepublic
MyRepublic operates in the Asia-Pacific region, with operations in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. MyRepublic also licenses its platform to operators in Brunei and Indonesia.
With our uniquely scalable and centralised framework enabling the seamless delivery of layered services, MyRepublic has become a leader in the digital transformation and disaggregation of the telecom sector, which is set to play out over the next decade in one of the most exciting regions of the world.
About Datastream Digital Sdn Bhd (DST)
Datastream Digital (DST) is born out of an infrastructure carveout of Brunei's telco industry transformation, which followed through with it, DST's own major digital transformation exercise. From previously a full service mobile network operator and a full service provider to now, an asset light, customer focused digital first operator, in triple play mobile, fixed and all things digitally horizontal.
Now expanding from a mobile service provider to a fixed service provider, both residential and Enterprise and mobile and fixed convergence play, DST remains the major telco player in Brunei. With the expansion of services to fixed, DST is now scaling up its growth in this potential.
Backed by it's 25 years of traditional telco experience, and always transforming mindset, DST continues to build on its digital platform and will continue to build its ecosystem to provide digital services, providing value and convenience as a priority to its customers in Brunei, with a set vision to grow into the region as a digital services provider.
