Malaysia by this quarter expects “some kind of finality” in its review of its 5G mobile services contract, Malaysian Minister of Communications and Digital Fahmi Fadzil said yesterday, amid fears that it would delay the rollout of the high-speed network.
The government’s concerns with 5G services range from the contracts signed to the speed that the network is being deployed, Fahmi said in an interview with local radio station BFM 89.9.
The government has a meeting today with state-run Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB), the network’s owner, he added.
“I believe it might be early right now to say when the Cabinet will come to a decision, but I expect perhaps within this quarter we will have some kind of finality. Hopefully, because any further delays will perhaps, you know, we’re not sure what kind of effect or impact it would have,” Fahmi said.
Dogged by years of political instability, Malaysia has been one of the 5G laggards in Southeast Asia. In terms of average mobile download speeds, it trails Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, which have rapidly rolled out the network, a report by Opensignal said.
The previous administration formed DNB in 2021 to spearhead the 5G deployment via a single wholesale network. DNB partnered with local unit of Swedish telecom major Ericsson AB to manage the project for 11 billion ringgit (US$2.5 billion), courting criticism from then-opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim — now the country’s prime minister — over the cost and transparency.
“Prior to this, the ministry of finance did not have full horizon visibility of the contractual obligations, whether it’s about Ericsson,” Fahmi said. “I believe there’s 145 contracts that DNB has signed, but more than that, it’s about the speed of rollout.”
Mobile network operators in Malaysia were slow to execute their access agreements to lease the network amid disputes over equal stakes totaling 70 percent that DNB offered to them. Six firms eventually signed up in October last year, with Maxis Bhd still seeking shareholders’ approval.
DNB in a statement on Monday said that Malaysia’s 5G network had as of the end of last year achieved almost 50 percent coverage of populated areas with some 3,900 sites — exceeding the target of 40 percent.
These figures would take the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission two weeks to verify, Fahmi said.
He said that as of Nov. 30, DNB had rolled out 2,575 5G towers, according to the commission, compared with the company’s forecast of 3,433 towers by that period.
DNB must deploy a total 3,518 towers, he added.
Another key aspect is that just 87 percent of the towers are “fiberized,” Fahmi said.
“So that means if people have been complaining: ‘Yeah we have 5G but it’s still only about 30 to 40 megabits per second, not the 100 to 200, whatever that’s been touted’. A lot of it might be because, where they are, the towers are not fiberized yet,” Fahmi said.
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