It will be quite some time before most Malaysians get to enjoy 5G. For now, it is better to expand 4G coverage and improve its speed and reliability. Most Malaysians are still using 4G smartphones, and they don’t need 5G. What most of us want the most is better coverage, speed, reliability, and better pricing. The same goes for fibre connectivity.
In a news report by the Malay Mail, the National Digital Network Plan (Jendela), according to the chief operating officer of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Datuk Mohd Ali Hanafiah Mohd Yunus, is progressing toward its Phase 1 goal of reaching 7.2 million premises with fibre connectivity and 4G coverage at 95.82 % as of 30 June 2022.
It has a mean speed of 47.04 megabits per second (Mbps) and a median speed of 29.89 Mbps.
Jendela Phase 1’s goal is to provide fibre access to 7.5 million premises by the end of the year, with a speed of 35 Mbps and 96.9 % coverage.
In August 2020, when the project started, 4.96 million premises had been connected with fibre access at a speed of 25 Mbps (mean), and 4G coverage was at 91.8%.
In addition, according to Mohd Ali Hanafiah, the cost allocation for Phase 1 was initially set at RM20 billion but increased to RM28 billion in 2021 during the first year of implementation, with 60% of the cost coming from the private finance initiative (PFI) and the remaining coming from the government through the Universal Service Provision (USP) fund.
Currently, the work pending for Phase 1 is the construction of 1,661 new sites across Malaysia to extend mobile 4G coverage in rural and remote areas. Site surveys have been done in most of the sites and (we are) at the stage of getting approvals from state entities and local councils.
Another work pending is to fiberise 929,631 additional premises. Today, we have 304,676 premises yet to be completed (624,955 premises have already been completed).
MCMC, chief operating officer, Datuk Mohd Ali Hanafiah Mohd Yunus
He said that over the April to June 2022 time frame, service providers were able to build 57 additional 4G towers, exceeding their goal of 52, a success rate of 109.6%.
In addition, 1,710 base stations were upgraded as opposed to the 1,607 that were intended for Q2 2022. But they failed to meet its Q2 2022 target of 173,508, only 167,758 premises (or 96.7%) received a fibre connection.
According to the Speedtest Global Index, at the time of writing, Malaysia currently stands at 62nd place in mobile internet speed with a median of 30.50 Mbps and 39th place in fixed broadband speed with a mean of 85.08 Mbps. Ookla said:
Median is a better measure of everyday experience.
Median is a measure that captures the typical user’s experience. In statistical terms, median is less likely to be influenced by outliers than mean is.
