When the government announced that all six telcos that they have been courting have agreed to take up shares in the state-owned 5G agency and that they will all sign the agreement on 31 August, they were confident.
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Being able to announce to Malaysians that the government has managed to unite all the telcos and make them agree to its 5G rollout plan for the good of the people was the dream.
But it was a dream that is not meant to be.
In an exclusive report, Reuters said that according to their sources, Maxis Bhd and U Mobile have not agreed to take up stakes in Digital National Berhad (DNB) and have disrupted the government’s plan to sign agreements with other carriers.
The reason for this derailment? They want to be the major shareholder and see no point in the deal otherwise.
That means the signing of agreements on 31 August was a bust and the process begins all over again.
While DNB said that the other four telcos remain interested and that the plan will continue, a revision to the transaction documents (SSAs and Shareholder Agreement) will need to be made to take into account the fewer telcos.
After that, the four remaining telcos will then have to approve it internally. So there is still a chance that someone can cause a fuss and the whole thing begins again.
The four telcos or mobile network operators are YTL (Yes), TM, Celcom, and Digi. Well, technically there will only be three since Celcom and Digi are permitted to merge.
Despite all that, DNB says that discussions on the 5G access agreements were progressing with all six major mobile carriers in the country and that the rollout plan is on track.
