During the launch of the Malaysia Pavilion at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (MWC 2024), Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil declared that Malaysia is number 1 worldwide for 5G consistency. He said Malaysia’s achieving an impressive 80.2% 5G population in just about 2 years has proven naysayers wrong.
Fahmi says Malaysia ranks No.1 globally for 5G for consistency
Fahmi said one of the remarkable success stories lines in Malaysia’s 5G rollout which took a unique approach by establishing a state-owned Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). He added as a result of this innovative strategy, we have achieved an impressive 80% coverage of populated areas (COPA) in just about two years. This SPV is now known as Digital Nasional Berhad, the sole entity (5G Single Wholesale Network) to roll out 5G in Malaysia. Fahmi also added that Malaysia has a 5G adoption rate of more than 30% to date.
Quoting Ookla, he declared Malaysia now ranks No. 1 globally for 5G with a Consistency Score of 97.27%. He said the Consistency score is an Ookla specific methodology of measuring speeds where it has to satisfy both criteria – down and upload – 25Mbps and 3Mbps respectively.
Malaysia has proven the world wrong with its own 5G rollout
During his speech, Fahmi said “I remember prior to assuming this role as Minister of Communications while serving as an opposition member in Parliament, I used to read GSMA reports. At the time, there was no country in the world that rolled out 5G the way we do. There were very few people who thought we could make it and I’m sure many perhaps wanted to be naysayers for various reasons, yet we have proved all of them wrong.
That’s why for us, this pavilion and us being here, not just the ministry and the MCMC, but with all the MNOs, we have proven effectively the world wrong. There is a way forward and we can work together. But in order to work together, we have to spend time, listen to each other, to think about the future and sustainability must be built into the model.
Fahmi added that last year he was supposed to be here (Barcelona) but Prime Minister tak bagi. But this time he could after accomplishing 80% 5G population coverage by the end of 2023.
Last year, Fahmi announced a 5G policy shift to transition from a Single Wholesale Network to a Dual Network model. The government’s decision to allow a second 5G network was meant to avoid a single point of failure and to establish redundancy for 5G. He also said the Dual Network model takes into consideration the capacity of the current telecommunication industry in Malaysia and it will end monopolistic elements associated with DNB.
The transition was supposed to start in January 2024 after DNB had achieved its 80% 5G population target. However, there’s still no sign of the second 5G network.
