TM has no actual date for consumer 5G trials, removes February target for Unifi Mobile

Following yesterday’s discovery that Unifi Mobile Postpaid customers can experience 5G next month, Telekom Malaysia (TM) appears to backtrack by removing the February 2022 availability date. On the Unifi Mobile page, they have replaced the text “Subscribe now to enjoy 5G data in February 2022” to “Subscribe now to enjoy 5G data soon“.

Unifi has released a statement this morning clarifying that they are unable to provide the actual date for customer trial as they are still doing extensive internal testing on its 5G service. It added that its goal is to provide Unifi Mobile customers the best 5G experience they can offer.

Here’s TM’s statement on its 5G availability:

​We have received enquiries on when 5G will be available to our unifi Mobile customers. We would like to thank everyone for their excitement and support as we welcome this new era of unifi Mobile.

Our goal is to provide unifi Mobile customers the best 5G experience we can offer. As such, we are currently doing extensive internal testing on our 5G service. At this point of time, we are unable to provide the actual date for customer trials.

Watch this space for the latest updates on unifi Mobile 5G!

Telekom Malaysia

At the moment, Yes is currently the only telco offering 5G user trials and they are giving away 5G SIM packs for free. Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) is currently the sole 5G wholesale provider in Malaysia and local telcos could only offer 5G through the state-led company. In early December, TM was the first to announce its participation in DNB’s 5G pilot trial and it will be offered to its Unifi Mobile postpaid customers.

DNB currently has yet to secure wholesale deals and user trial agreements with the big 4 telcos such as Celcom, Digi, Maxis and U Mobile. To get the 5G ball rolling, DNB has offered free access to telcos from 15th December 2021 until 31st March 2022, but only YTL Communications (Yes 5G) and Telekom Malaysia (Unifi Mobile) have accepted the order.

From our experience, DNB’s 5G network isn’t ready for commercial use and it only covers selected areas in Kuala Lumpur, Cyberjaya and Putrajaya. The network still doesn’t support Samsung and iPhone devices, and there are issues switching between 4G and 5G.

In several areas, you could get 5G signal but the connection isn’t stable which requires you to constantly switch airplane mode on and off. If you have the right device and at the right coverage area, you can get speeds above 1Gbps. DNB promises that its 5G network can provide at least 100Mbps at the weakest point of coverage.

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