Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil has hinted several times that a new CEO will soon be appointed for Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB). The Star reports that former PLUS Malaysia Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Datuk Azman Ismail will be appointed the next CEO of the 5G Single Wholesale Network.
Quoting a source close to the matter, The Star reported that the Finance Ministry is likely to announce the appointment sometime this week. DNB is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) under the Ministry of Finance that manages and operates Malaysia’s national 5G network. Datuk Azman is expected to take over the top job at DNB which was left vacant after Ralph Marshall’s two-year contract expired in March this year.
Datuk Azman was the MD and CEO at PLUS from January 2017 to December 2022. Prior to that, Datuk Azman had a 30-year career at Shell where he held several positions covering operations, retail and finance.
At the moment, DNB is mandated to achieve 80% 5G population coverage by the end of this year with a total of 7,509 5G sites. As of the end of September, DNB has claimed to achieve 70.2% 5G population coverage with 5,873 5G sites. In terms of 5G adoption, there are close to 2.5 million subscriptions which translates to 7.4% penetration in Malaysia.
Back in May, the government announced a 5G policy shift towards a dual 5G network and the second network could be established once DNB has achieved its 80% population coverage target. Before a second 5G network is permitted, the government is still trying to get all 5 telcos to take an equity stake in DNB through a share subscription agreement (SSA). All 5 telcos currently offer 5G services through a 10-year access agreement with DNB signed by Celcom, Digi, TM, U Mobile, YTL Communications, and most recently, Maxis.
Before the change of government late last year, a total of four telcos – Celcom, Digi, TM and YTL Communications, signed a conditional SSA with DNB. After the policy change from a Single Wholesale Network to a Dual network, the publicly listed telcos such as CelcomDigi and TM announced their respective terminations on the equity deal as the longstop date to fulfil all conditions had lapsed.
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