Rightway: 5G door still open to Maxis

TM launches first-phase 5G services for unifi customers

KUALA LUMPUR:Telekom Malaysia Bhd TM) launched the first-phase of its 5G services, which includes unlimited data for existing unifi mobile postpaid customers as well as new postpaid and prepaid customers.

TM group chief executive officer Imri Mokhtar said the 5G service would reinforce the company’s leadership in fixed-mobile services for consumer and micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) segments, strengthening its mobile capabilities to provide the widest and fastest all-in-one solution.

“With 5G currently covering more than 33% of populated areas throughout Malaysia, this first phase is key to growing TM’s reach and presents the opportunity for a new push in unifi’s convergence play, riding on its strength of three million households and close to 400,000 MSME customers,” he said in a statement yesterday.

In addition, TM will continue to modernise the country’s fibre network architecture, integrating automation and virtualisation technologies to boost back-end infrastructures that will support the anticipated demand for 5G.

TM recently launched its 5G Sphere, an ecosystem of leading technology and smart solution partners that will accelerate the co-creation of innovative 5G use cases, taking enterprise 5G transformation from ideation to realisation. To date, there are 39 partners in the programme.

TM said its nation-building efforts with the government will also speed up the availability of smart cities, smart industries and 5G-enabled applications, creating a more sustainable and inclusive digital society and economy. — Bernama

5G services to 12 million hand-phone user by year-end

PETALING JAYA: Some 12 million Malaysians will begin to have access to the fifth-generation (5G) mobile services by the end of this year, says caretaker Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

The announcement by Annuar comes after five out of six telcos had met the Oct 31 deadline to ink the reference access offer (RAO)with Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) for the implementation of the country’s 5G network.

“Before the companies could offer their services to the public, they had to sign the access agreement before the Oct 31 deadline.

“The agreement was signed to enable the companies to fix the bundle or retail prices from DNB and subsequent price offers to the public,” he said at a press conference yesterday.

He said that among the telcos that had met the deadline were Celcom Axiata Bhd, Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, YTL Communications Sdn Bhd, Telekom Malaysia Bhd

and U Mobile Sdn Bhd.

He clarified that there was some confusion among mobile phone users as to the eventual rollout of 5G services in the country.

“Many complain why talk about 5G when they can’t even get the 4G or 5G services yet.

“There was confusion as the earlier mention of 5G was done generally and this referred to the development of the infrastructure where the rollout of services had yet to begin,” he said.

With the conclusion of the RAO, Annuar said that the telcos are expected to begin offering their 5G services by the end of this year to some 12 million handphone users in the country.

He noted that only those using mobile phones with 5G capabilities will be able to access the service.

Malaysia’s 5G network is being rolled out by DNB, with the five telcos taking a stake in the former and by inking access agreements with it.

The telcos are then to compete by using the same infrastructure to roll out their 5G-related services.

Currently, 5G access is available in the Klang Valley, Johor, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Perak, Penang and Kelantan.

By MARTIN CARVALHO mart3@thestar.com.my

5G door still open to Maxis

Malaysia’s largest mobile network operator (MNO), Maxis Bhd , will not be able to roll out 5G services to its over nine million mobile subscribers until the company signs a network access agreement with Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB)

While the deadline to sign the access agreement expired on Oct 30, DNB chief operating officer Nasution Mohamed told StarBiz that Maxis still had the chance to ink the agreement “anytime” in the future.

“But its capacity commitment will be at a premium to those that had concluded on Oct 30.

“Maxis will have to commit to greater capacity off-take over the next 10 years, not necessarily having to pay more,” he said.

Nasution explained that Maxis had expressed its interest to be part of the country’s 5G journey via the single wholesale network (SWN) model.

“I believe it is sorting out some matters internally. Once it is settled, it can sign the access agreement,” he said.

In a statement issued late evening yesterday, Maxis said it was still assessing the governance requirements for the 5G access agreement.

“Maxis is committed to bringing this to a close as soon as possible.

“Meanwhile, the company has already been developing multi-industry use cases and forging partnerships with major players for 5G services and solutions,” it said.

The country’s 5G infrastructure is being rolled out by DNB under the SWN model. Telecommunication companies (telcos) that have signed the access agreement can tap onto the DNB-owned 5G infrastructure and spectrum by paying a wholesale price.

The telcos will then transfer the 5G access to end-users, alongside their other value-added offerings, at a marked-up pricing.

Excluding Maxis, the remaining five MNOs have executed the network access agreement for a 10-year period, confirmed Nasution.

The MNOs are Axiata Group Bhd

, U Mobile Sdn Bhd, Digi.com Bhd

, Telekom Malaysia Bhd

(TM) and YTL Communications Sdn Bhd (YES).

The signing of the access agreements comes after Axiata, Digi, TM and YES agreed to take up a collective 65% stake in DNB this month.

The government will retain the remaining 35% stake and hold a golden share.

U Mobile and Maxis have declined to take up equity in DNB.

The access agreements were finally executed after multiple rounds of delays previously.

However, this does not mean the MNOs will immediately be able to roll out 5G services nationwide.

With DNB expecting to reach 37.9% 5G population coverage by the end of 2022, compared to the initial target of 40%, most areas in Malaysia do not have access to 5G infrastructure yet.

Currently, 5G access is available in the Klang Valley, Johor, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Perak, Penang and Kelantan.

YES was the first MNO in Malaysia to roll out 5G services from Dec 15, 2021.

This was followed by TM, which is rolling out 5G services effective yesterday via unifi Mobile.

Meanwhile, Axiata’s Celcom and U Mobile announced that their 5G services will be commercially available to customers from Nov 1 and Nov 3, respectively.

As for Digi, the commercial roll-out date is not known yet.

In a stock exchange filing yesterday, TM said the provisioning of 5G services would enhance TM’s position as the preferred partner in accelerating the adoption of fixed-mobile convergence via 5G and fixed broadband solutions.

The telco has about 2.9 million fixed broadband subscribers as of the first half of 2022.

U Mobile chief executive officer Wong Heang Tuck said in a statement that the company is supportive of the government’s vision of a SWN model for 5G deployment, whereby all operators will have access to the same network without differentiation in terms of speed and quality.

“Hence, we are delighted to have signed the 5G access agreement and be part of this network.

“We have full faith that DNB will honour the mandate of providing quality 5G coverage and capacity on an equitable and non-discriminatory basis,” he said.

U Mobile has launched a line of 5G-ready postpaid plans, namely U Postpaid 38, U Postpaid 68 and U Postpaid 98.

Axiata told Bursa Malaysia yesterday that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Celcom Networks Sdn Bhd, has entered into an access agreement with DNB to allow Celcom wholesale access to DNB’s 5G network.

“Under the agreement, there is no charge to be incurred in 2022.

“The DNB Reference Access Offer (RAO) published on the DNB website sets out the salient terms and conditions subject to which network facilities and network services will be provided by DNB to Celcom.

“The RAO may be updated or replaced from time to time in which case the agreement will be governed by and incorporate the terms and conditions of the RAO published on the DNB website,” it said in a filing.

Meanwhile, Digi said its unit, Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd (DigiTel), has on Oct 30 executed an access agreement with DNB.

Via the agreement, DigiTel will also have the option to purchase future 5G wholesale services to be rolled out by DNB, to develop innovative 5G enterprise and value-added services to serve customer needs.

“The board, having considered the access agreement, is of the opinion that the access agreement is in the best interest of the company,” it said.

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