01
1946DECISION
The Malayan telecommunications department is established.
The post-war institution begins rebuilding and improving the country's telecommunications network.
← ChronologyUpdated 5 Oct 2026
CHRONOLOGY · CONNECTIVITY · TELEKOM MALAYSIA
Telekom Malaysia: from telephone lines to fibre, cloud and an AI-driven digital network
A chronology of Malaysia's national telecommunications backbone from the 1946 telecommunications department through corporatisation, mobile services, dial-up internet, Streamyx, Unifi and TM's 80th anniversary.
Year by year11 events1946-01-01 → 2026-10-05
ANIMATED CHRONOLOGY SUMMARYWatch the sequence before reading the full story.
1946-01-01→2026-10-05
STORY AT A GLANCE
Watch the sequence before reading the full story.
A chronology of Malaysia's national telecommunications backbone from the 1946 telecommunications department through corporatisation, mobile services, dial-up internet, Streamyx, Unifi and TM's 80th anniversary.
11 EVENTS17 SOURCE LINKS
EVENT 1 OF 111946The Malayan telecommunications department is established.
The post-war institution begins rebuilding and improving the country's telecommunications network.
WHY THIS HISTORY MATTERSTM's history is effectively a timeline of how Malaysians communicated: telephone, mobile, dial-up, broadband, fibre and now cloud and AI.
Continue to full chronology ↓The company remains deeply tied to the physical infrastructure behind Malaysia's digital economy even as the consumer-facing technology keeps changing.
FULL TIMELINE · SCROLL / CLICK / DRAG TO EXPLORE
Each step is dated and sourced. Statements, allegations, decisions and confirmed actions stay labelled separately so the timeline does not turn one side's claim into an established fact.
HOW WE GOT HERE
Follow the sequence, not just the headline.
02
1970ACTION
Malaysia commissions its first satellite station in Kuantan.
Satellite connectivity substantially improves international telecommunications and television-signal capability.
03
1980ACTION
Malaysia commissions its first submarine telecommunications cable.
International bandwidth begins moving through higher-capacity undersea infrastructure that will become essential to the internet era.
04
1987DECISION
Syarikat Telekom Malaysia is established.
Telecommunications operations move from a government department into a corporate structure intended to expand coverage, service quality and investment capability.
05
1990MONEY
The company lists on the stock exchange and adopts the Telekom Malaysia identity.
Corporatisation moves into a public-market phase while telecommunications technology is entering a period of rapid change.
06
1995ACTION
Cellular and GSM services accelerate the shift from fixed telephones to personal mobility.
Mobile communications become a mass-market service and transform expectations about being reachable anywhere.
07
1996ACTION
TM introduces dial-up internet services.
Home internet access begins moving Malaysian households from voice communications into the online era.
08
2001ACTION
Streamyx brings broadband internet into the mass market.
Always-on broadband begins replacing the limitations of dial-up connections for homes and businesses.
09
2010ACTION
Unifi launches high-speed broadband.
Fibre access becomes central to TM's consumer proposition and later supports streaming, cloud services, remote work and digital businesses.
10
2023DECISION
TM positions itself around 'true convergence'.
The company increasingly combines fixed broadband, enterprise technology, wholesale infrastructure and digital services rather than operating as a traditional telephone company.
11
26 August 2026STATUS
TM marks 80 years and sets out an AI-driven digital-infrastructure ambition.
The company frames its next phase around trusted infrastructure, local digital capability and an increasingly AI-enabled national network.
HOW DID TM KEEP CHANGING ITS IDENTITY?
Every communications technology wave reduced the importance of the product that came before it.
Telephone infrastructure became internet infrastructure.
Copper voice networks gave way to dial-up, broadband and fibre as data became more economically important than fixed-line voice.
Connectivity became critical national infrastructure.
Submarine cables, fibre, data centres and wholesale networks now underpin banks, government, cloud platforms and everyday digital services.
AI is the latest change in the network's purpose.
TM's 2026 positioning moves beyond access connectivity toward compute, digital capability and AI-enabled services.
WHY THIS HISTORY MATTERS
TM's history is effectively a timeline of how Malaysians communicated: telephone, mobile, dial-up, broadband, fibre and now cloud and AI.
The company remains deeply tied to the physical infrastructure behind Malaysia's digital economy even as the consumer-facing technology keeps changing.
Questions the chronology cannot answer yet.
01How should national fibre infrastructure be shared while preserving incentives to keep investing?
02Can TM become a meaningful cloud and AI infrastructure player rather than mainly a connectivity provider?
03How quickly can rural and lower-income connectivity close the remaining quality gap with urban areas?
The events that would move this story forward.
01Fibre and 5G-backhaul investment.
02Data-centre, cloud and AI infrastructure expansion.
03Execution of TM's Digital Powerhouse 2030 strategy.
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