Contrary to Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul’s claim that all six telcos have signed their respective Access Agreements for 5G services, it appears that not all of them have executed their agreements with Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB). When asked about the status of the access agreements during the JENDELA Q3 2022 briefing, DNB’s Chief Operating Officer Nasution Mohamed said the six operators have until the end of October 2022 to sign the access agreements.
He explained that on 7th October, all six telcos (Celcom, Digi, Maxis, U Mobile, Telekom Malaysia, YTL Communications) signed letters which essentially locked in the terms of the Access Agreements. The deadline to sign the Access Agreement also appears to coincide with the 30th October deadline to fulfil the conditions of the Share Subscription Agreements (SSA) that were signed by four telcos (Celcom, Digi, Telekom Malaysia and YTL Communications) on 7th October.
Both Celcom and Digi will each be taking up a 12.5% stake, while Telekom Malaysia and YTL Communications with both take a 20% stake each. The government will take the remaining 35% stake with a golden share.
Following the signing of the SSA, DNB said the development marks a positive development following extensive discussions between telcos and DNB. It added that the signed telcos will make 5G services available to their respective end users from October 2022 onwards.
At the moment, none of the public-listed telcos has publicly announced their commercial availability or signing of the 5G Access Agreements. YTL Communications’ Yes 5G remains the first and only telco to offer commercial 5G services to consumers in Malaysia.
DNB’s network currently has 33.2% 5G population coverage with 1,915 sites as of 30th September 2022. It has coverage in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Johor, Penang and selected areas of Perak and Kelantan. It aims to achieve 80% 5G population coverage by the end of 2024.
Related reading
- Did the govt allocate RM1.3 billion from Budget 2023 to roll out 5G? Here’s DNB’s response
- Tengku Zafrul claims all telcos signed 5G access agreements with DNB, but is it true?
- DNB: Celcom, Digi and TM are expected to roll out 5G services starting this month
- Budget 2023: DNB to spend RM1.3 billion to achieve 70% 5G population coverage
