Although Malaysia’s 5G plans appear to be delayed without a clear timeline, one telco is about to launch its live 5G network trial next week. This is an interesting development considering the Malaysian authorities have yet to allocate 5G spectrum to telcos.
U Mobile has sent out invites for its “Fast Forward” event next Monday where they will launch what claims to be the first live 5G network trial in Malaysia. It added that it will allow customers to experience the power of 5G.
As part of the 5G Demonstration Projects, several telcos were given temporary spectrum to run 5G use cases. U Mobile currently has live 5G towers which are used to demonstrate remote healthcare, virtual tourism and fixed wireless access services. It might be possible that the orange telco is offering selected customers with 5G devices the opportunity to tap onto their 5G network for free.
However, don’t expect an extensive coverage like the Singaporean telcos. Realistically, U Mobile would have limited 5G base stations at very selected locations. It is likely that Berjaya Times Square will be included in its 5G trial coverage area.
It is also worth mentioning that Celcom had launched its 5G live cluster field trial in Petaling Jaya last year. The 5G network wasn’t open to all Celcom subscribers but they ran user trials with MBPJ as well as selected residents and business owners in the coverage area.
The blue telco had deployed 3.5GHz indoor 5G coverage at their office with 100MHz bandwidth which offered 1.2Gbps download speeds on an Oppo Reno 5G. They have also deployed five 28GHz mmWave outdoor sites with 800MHz bandwidth for the trial.
Looking at the current situation, it might take at least a year before there’s substantial 5G rollout. Both Celcom and Maxis are currently targeting 2021 for commercial 5G deployment.
Stay tuned to us as we will be covering U Mobile’s launch event on Monday.
