Tune Talk Sdn Bhd has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad to become a Mobile Virtual Network Operator.

“It is an exciting time for us to enter the market,” said Tune Talk CEO Jason Lo. “We are poised to offer an exciting prospect, especially in our ability to leverage off our sister companies Tune Money and Tune Hotels to offer an incredible array of value added services to our customers. We have an excellent management and technical team in place and our partnership with Celcom will give us the reach we need to make Tune Talk the most successful MVNO in Malaysia and beyond.”

Recently, Celcom had inked a deal with Tune Money to launch Malaysia’s first mobile-enabled Visa card service. Last year, Celcom also partnered with Air Asia to introduce the AirAsia-Celcom Prepaid Starter Pack, which was priced at RM4.99.

Tune Talk is currently applying for an applications service provider (ASP) and independent network services provider (INSP) licences from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.

Last month, Redtone International Berhad signed a similar agreement with Celcom to become an MVNO offering postpaid services to the enterprise market. (Read here )

In July, Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd started offering prepaid service to foreigners in the country as a MVNO, utilizing Celcom’s cellular network.

Tune Talk aims to be operational by the end of first quarter next year, and it is in the process of setting up the backend operations and head office in Kuala Lumpur.