Malaysia rolls out 5G demo projects in six states beginning Oct 2019

MCMC has announced the rollout of 5G demonstration projects that will be taking place in six states for a period of six months from October 2019 to March 2020. The objective of the demonstration is to facilitate, develop and foster 5G use cases in a live but controlled environment. This will also help to facilitate collaboration between ministries and industries.

During the media briefing, MCMC Chairman, Al-Ishsal Ishak, has said that 5G is one of the key components of NFCP and he also stressed the importance of fixed broadband. He shared that a 10% increase in fixed broadband penetration can contribute a 1.38% increase in GDP, according to the ITU.

The MCMC has received a total of 83 use cases that are proposed by the Government as well as the industries. For the upcoming demonstration, 55 use cases will be rolled out in 32 live sites across 6 states, namely Kedah, Perak, Pulau Pinang, Selangor, Terengganu and Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur. Al-Ishsal added that the six states are the first batch of 5G demonstrations and they are selected based on proposals received by telco partners and state governments.

The industry will be investing RM116 million in the demonstration projects which will cover 9 verticals such as agriculture, education, entertainment/media, digital healthcare, manufacturing and processing, oil and gas, smart city, smart transportation and tourism. The demonstrations across the six states will be conducted by Altel, Celcom, Digi, edotco, Maxis, Petronas, TM and U Mobile.

Some of the use cases include Smart Traffic Lights, Smart Parking, Remote Diagnosis, Medical Tourism, Remote Medical Consultation, Smart Agriculture, Augmented Reality for education, Vehicle Tracking and 5G 360-degree panoramic Live Video Surveillance.

Langkawi will host a significant number of demos as it is said to be the perfect testbed. The duty-free island is also the first location to perform a full analogue to digital TV switchover. Due to its location and proximity, the island also faces signal interference from Thailand.

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