Last week, UMNO Youth Wing leaders have handed over a memorandum to Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin, expressing concerns about Malaysia’s 5G rollout through a single wholesale network called Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB). The Deputy Minister also echoed calls for DNB to be investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to ensure good governance and transparency, and to prevent a potential financial scandal like 1MDB.
In response, Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa said he has reviewed the memorandum and a special briefing session on the national 5G project will be held this Friday, 1st July. He said the special session is necessary to ensure that the youth and the ruling party’s leaders are up to date with the latest developments of DNB. He said based on the issues raised, it appears that UMNO Youth have obtained inaccurate and outdated information. He thanked them for sharing their views and he said the Youth Wing deserves to get a more detailed, accurate and latest information about the current 5G situation directly from the horse’s mouth.
Annuar Musa has requested the Ministry of Finance, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Comission (MCMC) and DNB to organise a briefing at 10am, 1st July at Angkasapuri. The Minister has also extended the invite to Puteri and Women Wings of the party.
Seperti dijanjikan di Parlimen, DNB akan berdepan dgn pelbagai pihak untuk memberikan taklimat mengenai pelaksanaan 5G negara & hari ini DNB menerangkan kepada Ahli-ahli Parlimen Pembangkang. Terima kasih kepada mereka yg hadir supaya mendapat penjelasan mengenai situasi sebenar. pic.twitter.com/5GRgHaWTJo
— Annuar Musa (@AnnuarMusa) December 16, 2021
Annuar Musa had previously organised a briefing session by DNB in December last year. Besides opposition MPs, Deputy Minister Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin was seen attending the session held at Parliament.
Zahidi Zainul has been local about the DNB 5G rollout and claims to be unaware of the decision behind the direct award of 5G spectrum to the state-owned single wholesale network. He also said that the DNB 5G project was discussed in secret between former Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah and current Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Aziz, while the MCMC couldn’t explain why there’s a monopoly for 5G rollout.
During the handover of the memorandum by UMNO Youth, Zahidi Zainul was reported to have said that DNB is using public funds and they do not empower Bumiputeras as they lack locals among its top officials.
At the moment, YTL Communications’ Yes 5G remains the only telco to offer commercial 5G services to consumers via its Yes 5G service. The big four telcos such as Celcom, Digi, Maxis and U Mobile have been reluctant to sign up for access and take up equity state in DNB due to pricing and transparency concerns. The big four claimed that DNB’s 5G access offer will not enable affordable and quality 5G services to the rakyat. The Ministry of Finance has set a 30th June deadline for telcos to accept the equity and access, and Tengku Zafrul has indicated that it can be extended to early July if necessary.
Despite earlier claims that Telekom Malaysia (TM) has agreed to own an equity stake in Digital Nasional Berhad, TM has confirmed to us that they are still assessing and working on concluding their negotiations with DNB. It aims to meet the deadline set by DNB and are committed to deliver 5G to its users.
Tan Sri Annuar Musa said that he will issue licences to new players if the number of telcos participating with DNB is not enough. At the moment, there are 9 companies allocated wireless spectrum for 2G and 4G namely, Celcom, Digi, Maxis, U Mobile, Asiaspace, Altel, Redtone, YTL Communications and TM. Under the single wholesale network model, only DNB is allowed to roll out 5G and it is the only party to be given the 700MHz, 3.5GHz and 26/28GHz spectrum. Last year, the MCMC removed technology neutrality for existing mobile spectrum and as a result, the current telcos will not be able to reuse their existing spectrum for 5G and beyond.
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Related reading
- Zahidi Zainul urged MACC to probe DNB’s 5G rollout to prevent another “1MDB”
- Tengku Zafrul on 5G: Malaysia’s interests more important than telcos’ commercial needs
- While Malaysia’s 5G is still up in the air, Thailand leads 5G availability in the region
- Five reasons why Celcom, Digi, Maxis and U Mobile are reluctant to accept DNB’s 5G access offer
