03 January 2023

Malaysia expects ‘some kind of finality’ in its review of the 5G mobile services contract by this quarter, said communications minister Fahmi Fadzil.

The government’s concerns with the 5G services range from the contracts signed to the speed of the network rollout.

The network is being rolled out by the local unit of Swedish telecom major Ericsson AB and DNB.

“Prior to this, the ministry of finance did not have full horizon visibility of the contractual obligations, whether it’s about Ericsson,” said Fadzil. “I believe there’s 145 contracts that DNB has signed. But more than that, it’s about the speed of rollout.”

DNB said that Malaysia’s 5G network has achieved almost 50% coverage of populated areas with some 3,900 sites as at end-2022 – exceeding the target of 40%. As of Nov 30, DNB had rolled out 2,575 5G towers, according to the MCMC. This compared to the company’s forecast of 3,433 towers by that period. DNB must roll out a total 3,518 towers.

Another key aspect was that just 87% of the cellular towers were “fiberized,” according to Fadzil.