As announced recently, Celcom has started its 5G friendly user trials (FUT) with selected customers. If you’re one of the lucky customers, you can enjoy higher download speeds and lower latency as long as you have a compatible 5G device and within Digital Nasional Berhad’s (DNB) 5G coverage areas. Celcom has published its 5G FUT FAQ, revealing more details about its 5G trial offering.
According to the blue telco, customers who have been provisioned with 5G services will receive an SMS notification. If you’ve been notified, just make sure that your mobile network settings on your phone is 5G enabled (e.g. select
5G/LTE/3G/2G (Auto Connect)”). If you didn’t get any SMS about 5G, Celcom says interested customers will be able to register their interest on their website for their subsequent trial but so far we didn’t see any forms yet. If you don’t wish to use 5G, you can set your network settings to LTE/3G/2G.
Like Yes 5G, customers can enjoy high-speed 5G services within DNB’s coverage areas which is claimed to cover 30% of the national population. DNB’s 5G network currently covers Kuala Lumpur, Cyberjaya, Putrajaya, Ipoh, Ketereh, Kampung Peringat, Johor Bahru and Penang. It aims to achieve 40% 5G population coverage by the end of 2022 and 80% by the end of 2024. You can check DNB’s current 5G coverage here.
Celcom offers free 5G usage until further notice
Celcom added that 5G services on its network are free until further notice. Any 5G data utilisation will not utilise your existing 4G data quota during the trial period. It added that customers will be informed about the commercial 5G plans once the free trial ends.
To utilise 5G, customers are required to use Celcom’s newer USIM and a compatible 5G device. Unfortunately, iPhone devices including the iPhone 12, iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 are not supported yet. Apple has listed four telco partners for Malaysia but none of them is listed with 5G support yet. For now, you’ll have to use an Android device such as Samsung, Honor, Oppo, Realme, Xiaomi and Vivo. In terms of performance, Celcom says 5G is 10 to 20 times faster than 4G and you can expect a minimum speed of 100Mbps.
Celcom offers 5G roaming in 15 countries
If your Celcom line has been provisioned for 5G, you can also enjoy 5G services abroad when you activate a Celcom passport plan which starts from RM38 per day. Unlike Maxis which offers 5G roaming only in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, Celcom currently has 5G roaming agreements in 15 countries. Here’s the list of telcos that supports 5G roaming with Celcom:
- Singapore – Singtel
- Thailand – AIS & TRUE
- Taiwan – Chunghwa
- Vietnam – Viettel
- United Arab Emirates – Etisalat
- Qatar – Vodafone Qatar
- Bahrain – Zain
- Finland – Elisa
- Oman – Oman Mobile
- Belgium – Proximus
- Korea – SK Telecom
- Luxembourg – Proximus
- Canada – Telus
- Philippines – Globe
- Brunei – DST
To learn more, you can check out Celcom’s 5G FUT FAQ page.
