Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil has revealed that Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) will be making a major announcement tomorrow. During today’s Pakej 5G Rahmah launch, he said DNB will be holding a meeting tomorrow and they will make some important announcements which include a new leadership and CEO.
DNB which is under the purview of the Ministry of Finance has yet to announce a new successor after Ralph Marshall left the company when his contract was not renewed in March this year. Fahmi said previously that the appointment of the new CEO is to be decided by the Ministry of Finance which is currently headed by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
At the moment, DNB is led by Chief Operating Officer Nasution bin Mohamed and Chief Strategy Officer Datuk Ahmad Zaki bin Zahid. There are currently just three board members which include Secretary General of Treasury Datuk Johan Mahmood Merican, Deputy Secretary General of Communications and Digital Ministry Ma Sivanesan Marimuthu and Dr Anand R Prasad.
After Maxis signed the 5G access agreement with DNB two weeks ago, the spotlight is now on the Share Subscription Agreement (SSA) between the telcos and the single wholesale network. Last month, Fahmi said that all five operators (CelcomDigi, Maxis, U Mobile, TM and YTL Communications) are in the process of finalising their shareholding with DNB despite the earlier announcement that Malaysia will be shifting from a single wholesale network to a dual network approach for 5G.
After the announcement of the 5G policy shift, CelcomDigi and TM announced the termination of their respective equity deal with DNB. However, they are still able to provide 5G services to consumers as their access agreement remains intact.
With all five telcos signed a 10-year 5G wholesale access agreement with DNB and are now taking a stake in the single wholesale network, the biggest question is who will be building Malaysia’s second 5G network? Is it still financially feasible to build a second network if they have a long-term commitment with DNB?
At the moment, DNB is the sole 5G network provider in the country and it is reported to have 66.8% 5G population coverage as of the end of July 2023. DNB has been mandated to accelerate its 5G rollout to achieve 80% 5G population coverage by the end of this year before a second 5G network is permitted. DNB is still the only entity that has been provided with the 700MHz and 3500MHz spectrum for 5G rollout. Meanwhile, telcos are still not allowed to use their existing spectrum for 5G services as technology neutrality for spectrum has not been reinstated by the MCMC.
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