KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 1 — Five mobile network operators signed a share subscription agreement (SSA) today to hold equities in Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB).
They are CelcomDigi Berhad (CelcomDigi) through Infranation Sdn Bhd, Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd (Maxis), U Mobile Sdn Bhd (U Mobile), Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), and YTL Power International Bhd (YTL).
Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said the next step after signing the SSA is for these companies to help DNB complete the 5G implementation process to reach 80 per cent coverage.
“As of October 31, we have achieved 73 per cent coverage of populated areas, and there is another seven per cent to reach 80 per cent.
“This figure is important because after we have hit 80 per cent, the government will announce a new entity can be created with a number of the operators remaining with DNB as entity A, while another number of operators will begin operations and develop the second 5G network under entity B,” he told a press conference today.
The government had earlier targeted an 80 per cent coverage of populated areas for the 5G network by the end of this year.
Fahmi also assured the 5G service being used by the people would not be disrupted both throughout the process of completing the 80 per cent coverage and when entity B is established and the second network developed.
All operators had agreed the 5G wholesale price would not increase when the second network is launched.
“On the part of KKD (the Communications and Digital Ministry) and MCMC (the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission), we will continue to monitor the implementation to ensure no problems will arise.
“The Special Committee set up on May 9 this year for 5G implementation will also monitor and invite all parties for discussions to ensure that in terms of implementation, there will be no problems that cannot be resolved together,” he added.
Apart from this, Malaysia’s 5G adoption rate stands at 10.8 per cent as of the end of October this year.
Meanwhile, DNB said the SSA signing, subject to due diligence, would enable operators to own 70 per cent of shareholdings in DNB collectively or 14 per cent of shareholdings individually.
The government, through the Minister of Finance Incorporated, would hold the remaining 30 per cent of equities in DNB and Special Share.
“Every operator which signed this SSA will inject RM233 million into DNB, which will be used to meet the financing needs for implementing the 5G network in Malaysia,” it said in a statement.
The SSA’s inking marked an important achievement by the Malaysia 5G Dual Network Implementation Task Force, which consists of members from the Finance Ministry, KKD, MCMC, DNB, and operatoes.
As of the end of October, DNB said there were 3.6 million subscribers to the 5G service in the country.
— Bernama
