CONNECTIVITY today underpins nearly every aspect of modern life.
It determines how businesses operate across distances, how professionals collaborate beyond physical offices, how students access education regardless of geography and how entertainment is experienced in increasingly immersive ways.
U Mobile, Malaysia’s newest 5G network provider, sees the expansion of its next-gen 5G network and ULTRA5G experience in Sabah as a key step in supporting the state’s growing digital economy and enabling Sabahans to participate more fully in the latest high-speed digital experiences.
“U Mobile has been aggressively expanding our next-gen 5G network and we are delighted to have further strengthened our presence in Sabah, supporting the state’s digital transformation and the growth of its digital economy,” said U Mobile chief technology officer Woon Ooi Yuen.
“With the increased availability of our ULTRA5G experience, apart from enhancing customer experience, we are also enabling Sabahans to unlock digitalisation opportunities through 5G-Advanced (5G-A) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications, alongside enterprise-grade solutions and cybersecurity safe services.”
Woon shared, “As a Malaysian company, we are also actively collaborating with local partners such as Celcom Timur Sabah for fibre backhaul, creating local job opportunities, skills development and business growth to further benefit Sabahans as part of our ongoing rollout effort.”
Enhanced access
U Mobile has expanded its ULTRA5G, the brand name for its 5G experience, across Sabah, with coverage now available in Kota Kinabalu, Tuaran, Beaufort and Kudat, with more to come.
Beyond outdoor coverage, indoor ULTRA5G is now available at key high-traffic locations such as Imago Mall and Kota Kinabalu International Airport – addressing a long-standing challenge where connectivity often weakens precisely where people gather, work and travel.
With 80% of business activity happening indoors, the availability of ULTRA5G in these key buildings is a catalyst to unlocking digitalisation opportunities for building owners, tenants and customers.
What makes ULTRA5G different
U Mobile’s next-gen 5G network is engineered with advanced technologies, which enables:
> Unrivalled performance for real-world demand: ULTRA5G delivers double the network capacity, enabling it to handle significantly higher traffic while maintaining peak performance even in congested areas.
Combined with ultra-low latency and real-time responsiveness, users benefit from smoother streaming, clearer video calls, faster downloads and more responsive gaming – all without the interruptions often caused by peak usage.
For enterprises, this performance is taken a step further through network slicing.
This allows for the creation of customised virtual networks with guaranteed bandwidth and priority, ensuring that mission-critical applications maintain high speed, reliable connectivity regardless of public network traffic.
This infrastructure paves the way for large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) innovations, ranging from smart cities and real-time AI to private 5G networks tailored for Sabah’s growing digital economy.
> Widest and deepest 5G coverage: ULTRA5G is engineered to deliver Malaysia’s widest 5G coverage, targeting 80% Coverage of Populated Areas (CoPA) by the second half of 2026 and currently ahead of schedule – as well as the deepest 5G coverage, strengthened by extensive In-Building Coverage (IBC) deployment.
This ensures seamless connectivity inside shopping malls, airports and commercial hubs – places where network reliability is often tested most and where reliable 5G is crucial to empower enterprise digital transformation.
> Next-gen network with built-in security: ULTRA5G is powered by an AI-driven intelligent network designed for maximum spectrum efficiency and seamless integration between 4G and 5G layers.
Beyond performance, cybersecurity is embedded as a central priority, ensuring users and businesses can digitalise with confidence.
To strengthen protection at the network level, U Mobile has implemented advanced security capabilities that screen and block malicious activity before it reaches users’ devices.
To date, the telco has already blocked more than 365 million scam calls and fraudulent SMS nationwide through its network-level scam protection firewall, safeguarding customers against impersonation scams, phishing attempts and other fraudulent campaigns.
Further reinforcing its security architecture, U Mobile has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Palo Alto Networks to integrate network-embedded Security-as-a-Service (SECaaS) capabilities into its infrastructure. Once AI-powered threat detection and next-generation firewall technologies are implemented, the solution will enable real-time protection against malware, phishing attacks and evolving cyber threats directly at the network level.
By embedding security directly into its network architecture, ULTRA5G ensures a safer digital environment for everyday activities such as online banking, e-wallet transactions, remote work and cloud applications, while providing enterprises with a scalable and secure platform to innovate with confidence. Enterprises are also empowered to adopt and innovate 5G, 5G-A and AI with confidence.
Enabling better digital experiences
For individuals and households, the impact of ULTRA5G is most clearly experienced in everyday life.
Professionals benefit from stable connectivity for remote work, cloud platforms and high-quality video conferencing.
Entertainment becomes more immersive, with ultra-smooth streaming and gaming experiences no longer disrupted by lag or buffering.
Students gain uninterrupted access to online lectures, digital resources and collaborative learning platforms, enabling more flexible and connected learning environments.
Importantly, no new SIM card is required to access ULTRA5G.
Customers can connect seamlessly as long as they have a supported 5G-enabled device, are within ULTRA5G coverage and are subscribed to a 5G-enabled prepaid or postpaid plan.
Economic catalyst
Beyond individual users, ULTRA5G is a powerful enabler for business digitalisation across Sabah.
Enterprises in sectors such as retail, transportation hubs, logistics and tourism can leverage 5G-A and AI-driven applications to improve operations and customer experiences.
ULTRA5G supports:
- Lot deployments for smarter,data-driven operations;
- AI solutions for real-time analytics and automation;
- Private enterprise 5G networks for secure, mission-critical use;
- Cybersecurity-safe services to protect digital assets.
These capabilities help businesses operate more efficiently, respond faster to customer needs and prepare for future growth in an increasingly digital economy.
Community empowerment
U Mobile’s commitment to Sabah extends beyond network infrastructure. The company maintains a store at Imago Mall, along with a new outlet at Kompleks Karamunsing, ensuring customers have convenient access to services, support and product guidance. Sabah-focused offerings such as U Borneo Prepaid, Postpaid and U Home 5G Borneo plans are tailored to local needs, making next-generation connectivity more accessible to households and businesses alike.
As part of its 5G strategy, U Mobile marked the wider availability of ULTRA5G in Sabah with a large-scale consumer celebration, the Cara U Sabah ULTRA5G Fest, which attracted over 10,000 attendees. The three-day music, food and fashion festival took place from Feb 6 to 8 at Jetty DBKK, Kota Kinabalu, drawing strong public interest and reinforcing ULTRA5G’s arrival as a tangible, community-focused milestone.
Festivalgoers were treated to live performances by local and international artistes, alongside family-friendly activities such as a Karaoke Bus and ULTRA Pickleball, creating an engaging environment where entertainment and technology intersected.
A key highlight of the event was the opportunity for attendees to experience firsthand the difference delivered by ULTRA5G’s enhanced speeds, twice the network capacity and lower latency, through interactive showcases demonstrating the capabilities of U Mobile’s next-generation 5G network.
U Mobile also hosted a dedicated booth where visitors were able to trial AI-powered applications such as AI Wardrobe and AI Grooming, offering a practical glimpse into how advanced connectivity enables emerging digital and AI-driven experiences in everyday life.
As a critical enabler of inclusion and innovation, ULTRA5G is bridging connectivity gaps to ensure all Sabahans can fully participate in the digital economy – discover the next generation of connectivity at https://www.u.com.my/en/ultra5g.
