Travelneeds2u News

Sedania Aims to Venture Into 16 Nations by Next Year - Business Times

SEDANIA Corp Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian-based telecommunication equipment and mobile services provider, expects to venture into up to 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific region by the end of 2010 with its prepaid subscriber identity module (SIM) card called Global Starter Pack (GSP).

Its group chief executive officer Azrin Mohd Noor said the company is now in advanced talks with a number of telecommunication companies from several countries to offer its services.

Sedania has so far tied up with four telcos namely Celcom from Malaysia, Hello from Cambodia, Indosat of Indonesia, M1 from Singapore and a telco in the Phillipines.

Other telcos like Aktel from Bangladesh, Viettel of Vietnam and others are expected to join soon.

"We hope to sign up with most of the telco players in the region by year-end," he said, adding the company, through its unit, Sedania Travelneeds2U Sdn Bhd (ST2U) is set to enter at least five countries before the end of 2009 with sales reaching over 100,000 SIM cards.

Dubbed as a market first and priced as low as US$10 (RM35.30), GSP is basically a telecommunication company's SIM card of the country a person is travelling to. This helps the person to avoid the hassle of having to look for a local SIM card upon arrival to a foreign country.

"It is the convenience of having a local telco's SIM card of the destination country in advance," Azrin said after the launch of GSP in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He said with GSP, travellers can also enjoy competitive rates as a cheaper alternative to international roaming charges.

"Once purchased, travellers will be issued with a GSP voucher that can be redeemed for a SIM card at the destination airport or at any other selected collection points.

"They can start using it immediately without the need to register the numbers first," he said.

Azrin said to market the GSP more effectively, Sedania has partnered Abacus Distribution Systems (M) Sdn Bhd which has a network of 845 travel agencies.

"A total of 55 travel agencies will act as our selling agents for GSP and we hope to sign up more," he said.

Moving forward, Sedania is scheduled to launch GSP in Indonesia in October with 71 travel agencies as agents.

Azrin said in the first year, the company wants to grow and strengthen its business in the region first, before moving to other parts of the world like Europe and the Middle East.

"This is a beginning of a journey to equip all the annual 2.4 billion air travellers with GSP through over 59,000 International Air Transport Association travel agents operating in more than 200 countries worldwide or via ST2U's online booking portal," he said.

Source from:
Business Times Malaysia