For starters, Tengku Zafrul noted that Phase 1 of the rollout will involve 10% coverage of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, and Cyberjaya by the end of this year. While it is true that these three cities have been previously announced as the initial 5G areas in the country, this is the first time that the coverage rate has been publicly mentioned.
Tengku Zafrul added that the rollout will then be followed by Phase1b which is meant to deliver 40% 5G coverage in major cities within Selangor, Johor, Penang, Sabah, and Sarawak. This particular phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2022, according to the minister. The 5G rollout will then continue to other parts of the country in stages and ultimately, the government aims to achieve 100% national coverage for 5G by 2024. Interesting enough, the aim mentioned by Tengku Zafrul is much higher than the 80% target that the Chairman of Digital National Berhad (DNB), Asri Hamidon has said in July.
For something that is supposed to be up by the end of this year, updates regarding Malaysia’s 5G network does not come by often. Even DNB which is the special purpose vehicle owned by the Ministry of Finance that is responsible for 5G deployment, is fairly quiet about it too with the last update being the appointment of Ericsson as its partner back in July. In fact, DNB currently does not even have any website or social media channels that the public could visit to obtain information regarding the progress of the country’s 5G network. Let’s hope that the next update will come soon rather than later. (Source: KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific / Facebook [starts at 31:10]. )
