As if it was not bad enough that Malaysia is years behind the 5G curve, the government picked a radical new approach to fast track the country’s mobile network and the telcos resisted.
This week it was announced that not only will the country continue with the Single Wholesale Network (SWN) plan for 5G, but 70% of the equity in the Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) will be offered to telcos.
Originally the government wanted to use a single state-owned entity (DNB) to roll out and manage the network. At the same time, the telcos wanted to own and implement 5G on their own.
In layman’s terms, one side doesn’t want a repeat of what is happening with 4G and the other wants profit. So they were at an impasse, the big telcos would not sign up.
It was reported that the telcos wanted to build their own network.
When the unstoppable force met with the immovable object, it was announced that the government would decide on how the country will proceed with the 5G rollout last week.
READ MORE: Fate Of 5G Network Plans In Malaysia To Be Determined Next Friday
However, the decision was only made public this week.
DNB, in a statement, welcomes the government’s decision to stick with the SWN plans and that it will only own 30% of DNB.
DNB also announced that it will also extend its free 5G pilot programme to carriers to 30 June. The programme was supposed to end this month.
