JENDELA: 342,424 more premises have access to fibre broadband in Q2 2021

The JENDELA programme appears to be hitting most of its targets ahead of schedule based on the latest quarterly report released by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). For the period of April to June, the industry has erected new and upgraded mobile sites above expectations while the number of new premises with fibre access is nearly double of its original target for the quarter.

In the last 3 months, a total of 342,424 new premises have fibre access which is 185.3% of its original target of 184,802. This brings the total of fiberised premises to 6 million as of 30th June 2021.

For mobile connectivity, there are 52 new sites while 2,465 existing sites were upgraded. In terms of speed, there’s a slight bump to 26.03Mbps as of 30th June, which is still a far cry from its 35Mbps target for Phase 1 of the JENDELA programme. The MCMC uses Ookla Speedtest data to evaluate average mobile speeds on the national level.

As highlighted recently by Ookla, Malaysia’s average mobile speeds did increase to 29.58Mbps in April before it started to decline. This is likely attributed to the new movement control orders as there’s an increase in demand for data as more Malaysians turn to mobile connectivity for online learning and work from home arrangements.

As Malaysia aims to shutdown 3G by the end of this year, the current network migration seems to be going according to plan. The industry has switched off nearly 40,000 3G sites and migrated close to 900,000 users between January to June 2021.

The current Phase 1 of the JENDELA programme is running until the end of 2022. To recap, it aims to increase 4G population coverage from 91.8% to 96.96% while increasing average mobile speeds from 25Mbps to 35Mbps. In terms of gigabit fibre broadband access, the programme aims to increase the number of premises passed from 5 million to 7.5 million by the end of next year.

As of 31st March 2021, Malaysia’s 4G population coverage stands at 93.77%. According to the MCMC, the next 4G coverage measurement will be available in August 2021. By 2025, the Malaysian government aims to have 100% 4G population coverage and 100Mbps speeds by adopting 5G. It also targets to have a total of 9 million premises covered by fibre connectivity.

Related reading