Maxis army of 'Extreme Testers" out to test the New Maxis Network

As part of its ongoing commitment to deliver the best data experience to customers, Maxis undertook its New Network Test Drive involving over 1,000 of its employees to test its modernised data network across Peninsular Malaysia. Employees travelled within key market centres of Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Pahang, Penang and Johor. The objective of the network test drive is to get employees to experience for themselves the newly modernised network in a fun and exciting way, as well as to engage with customers on the ground. The tests were done based on three key areas important to customer experience, namely download speeds, loading time for popular websites and YouTube streaming.

"Our network is the single most important driver of customer experience, and we obsess over the smallest detail. Today we are playing our role as the biggest army of "extreme testers" by putting the network through pressure tests, so whatever we promise, we can deliver. Maxis can now offer Malaysians the best of mobile technology. We want our employees to take pride in the quality of our network that we have built and understand what it takes to provide an unmatched customer experience. We already have a very competitive network for a majority of the population and it is improving. The test results will be critical in serving as an important benchmark for ourselves. We are continuously investing in our network and on track to spend more than RM1 billion this year. The new network will reach more than 75% of the population before the end of this year," said Morten Lundal, Chief Executive Officer of Maxis Berhad.

In addition to its own initiatives, Maxis engaged independent party Nielsen, a leading global information and measurement company, which conducted a total of 2,120 tests at 91 locations across Klang Valley, Penang, Kuantan and Johor Baharu from the period of 23 - 30 October. The tests were done during peak hours (6pm to 9pm) and off peak hours (9am to 12am or 2pm to 5pm) per location on weekdays. The testers also conducted the test within the specified time (peak and off peak) using the same devices i.e iPhone 5s, Samsung S5 (smartphone LTE enable) at the assigned locations.

Based on the findings, the targets were achieved in all areas covered. These targets are:

• Download speed more than 1Mbps, 80% of the time
• Popular web pages load in less than 8 seconds
• Zero buffering on YouTube, 96% of the time