Ahead of the game: (from left) Lee, U Mobile chief executive officer Wong Heang Tuck, and Too said the telco is already testing 4.5G network.
U Mobile said it has added 1,000 new 4G sites, expanding its coverage to more locations in Klang Valley, Putrajaya, Seremban and Port Dickson.
It accomplished it three months ahead of its 15 months schedule for the first phase of its network expansion. It is also on track to complete another 1,000 3G sites by year end.
U Mobile chief technology officer Too Tian Jen said the telco will be rolling out another 5,000 3G and 4G sites over the next five years under its expansion plan. Currently, its 4G coverage stands at around 28% nationwide.
It also plans to roll out 4G networks in Penang in the second half of 2016 and Malacca is expected to follow in early 2017.
“U Mobile is a data centric telco as 70% of our customers are smartphone users. We want them to have the best Internet and data experience in terms of speed and quality,” he said.
Its chief marketing officer Jasmine Lee said, “About 77% of our customer base are smartphone users and most of our consumers are data hungry”.
“Most of them consume videos which needs a huge amount of data.”
U Mobile is working closely with ZTE, the Chinese telecommunications provider, to prepare its network for 5G which it expects to roll out in 2020.
Too said that pre-5G (also known as 4.5G) network testing is already underway but if the experience turns out to be not significant enough, U Mobile might skip it and jump to 5G.
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