“With webe’s launch, it will extend our promise of life and business made easier into the mobile space, which perfectly fits into our converged suite of offerings,” Group CEO Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa was quoted as saying by Nikkei Asian Review (NAR).

He added that the service was now available to some Telekom Malaysia and P1 customers before being opened to the public later this year.

The peak period of investment will occur this year with capex spending expected to “taper down” next year, Telekom Malaysia said.

Telekom Malaysia acquired the wireless Packet One Networks, which evolved into webe, in 2014.

“When we acquired webe, we mentioned that the capital expenditure was about RM1.6 billion,” Group Chief Financial Officer Bazlan Osman said at a press conference.

Webe will be competing with the country’s three largest mobile telecommunications providers, Maxis, DiGi.Com and Celcom and smaller upstarts like U Mobile and YTL’s Yes.

Telekom Malaysia’s stronghold has been fixed-line services which have seen a decline in users in recent years, said the NAR report.

Telekom Malaysia announced that net profit fell 34.2 per cent year-on-year to RM139.5 million on the back of a 7.2 per cent increase in operating revenue to RM3.05 billion for the second quarter ended June.

The drop in net profit was due to lower operating profit, higher finance cost, and foreign exchange losses on US dollar-denominated borrowings, while the revenue growth was due to an increase in UniFi subscribers, said the report.

For the first half of 2016, its net profit increased 35.5 per cent to RM461.9 million while its operating revenue improved 5 per cent to RM5.9 billion.

Telekom Malaysia shares declined four cents or 0.58 per cent to RM6.84 Tuesday.