PETALING JAYA: 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.
