CelcomDigi and U Mobile to share 100 4G sites, signs 5G-Advanced deal with ZTE

CelcomDigi and U Mobile have agreed to partake in another new infrastructure sharing deal. Signed at the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, the new agreement will apparently enable both telcos to expand their 4G coverage and improve connectivity without having a huge impact on their operational costs.

The new deal involves 100 sites nationwide

According to the joint statement from both telcos, the new infrastructure sharing exercise will be involving 100 Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) sites all over Malaysia. While they didn’t pinpoint where exactly these sites are located as well as the deployment timeline, the joint statement also said that each telcos have generally committed to 50 sites each.

This is certainly not CelcomDigi and U Mobile’s first rodeo when it comes to infrastructure sharing. Way back in 2007, U Mobile signed a domestic roaming deal with Celcom which was the first of its kind in Malaysia at that time.

During the implementation of the Jalinan Digital Negara (JENDELA) plan, both telcos have once again participated in MOCN infrastructure sharing together with Maxis.

5G-Advanced cooperation with ZTE

Meanwhile, both telcos have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ZTE at MWC 2024 as well. This tri-party agreement covers 5G-Advanced (5G-A) technology as well as in the field of artificial intelligence and digital solutions for real-time live broadcasting.

While this might be seen as yet another general MoU, the joint statement revealed that this collaboration will be covering 5G-A field trials in Sarawak. However, none of the three companies have elaborated further regarding the exact use cases involved in the 5G-A trials.

They did list down all the technologies that will be used at the trial though which include Automatic Antenna Pattern Control, AAU Hibernation, and Native-AI Intelligent RAN. To help boost the 5G speeds at the site of the trials, other technologies such as mmWave, Dynamic Frame Scheduling, and Fusion Assisting Super TDD have been implemented as well.