Following Tan Sri Vincent Tan’s statement defending U Mobile’s award for Malaysia’s second 5G network, the orange telco has issued a press release highlighting that it is in the best position to roll out a new 5G network for the country. It also reiterated that the telco will be increasing its Malaysian ownership and is ready to spearhead the new 5G network in line with national priorities by strengthening local engagement and participation in critical telecommunications infrastructure.
Adding on to their previous announcement, U Mobile says they are committed to local partnerships, and Straits Mobile Investment Pte Ltd (wholly owned by ST Telemedia) has agreed to the strategic alignment of its shareholding ownership to 20%. As mentioned by Vincent Tan, foreign ownership is common in the telco sector and U Mobile’s strategy prioritises Malaysian industry development and strengthening of local ownership. It added that the increased local partnership supports U Mobile’s dedication to the national interest.
U Mobile says it is confident that it will be able to deliver a rapid and cost-efficient 5G rollout for Malaysia based on its track record of over 17 years. It claims to have 9 million customers at the end of 2023 and over 10,000 network sites covering 95% of the population.
With the establishment of a second 5G network, the orange telco says Malaysia is moving away from a monopolistic model towards a comprehensive competitive landscape. It added that over the years, competition in the telco industry has led to improved and cheaper services to consumers, and competition also forces telcos to innovate products and capabilities.
U Mobile says it has been an industry champion of affordability by offering products and services that are of similar or better specification, but at 20-25% less in pricing compared to its competitors. As a result, it says Malaysians are now enjoying better, innovative services at more affordable prices. It also prides itself on being the first to offer 5G for all Malaysians at no additional cost and they are a pioneer in offering affordable unlimited data plans and innovating on network sharing methods.
As mentioned by the Berjaya tycoon, U Mobile will carry out the implementation of the second 5G network without using public funds. The orange telco said it has robust financial backing from its shareholders, financial institutions such as UOB, CIMB and AmBank, as well as strategic vendor partners who will enable the telco to continuously innovate to stay competitive and to meet network deployment targets. U Mobile says it has achieved consistent growth, with its EBITDA turning positive since 2017, and a track record of strong operating cash flow.
U Mobile says having completed its national 3G and 4G network rollout with its shareholders and vendor, it remains committed to investing in the 5G deployment using private sector funds only.
In the original statement released on The Star, Vincent Tan criticised the current 5G implementation by Digital Nasional Berhad which was introduced during the Muhyiddin administration. He labelled the state-owned 5G network as a monopoly and its establishment has put taxpayers’ money at risk. He highlighted the need to break the monopoly with a second 5G network to provide improved services and affordability to consumers, enterprises and the government.
When U Mobile was announced, the MCMC said that U Mobile may partner with other mobile network operators for the implementation of the second 5G network, subject to approval from the regulator.
The orange telco previously mentioned that it was eager to work with CelcomDigi and TM to deploy the second 5G network. However, there was no confirmation or acknowledgement of a possible partnership by the two telcos.
At the time of writing, the MCMC and the government have yet to provide details of the second 5G network assessment criteria as well as network deployment targets for the second 5G network. DNB has achieved 80% 5G population coverage within two years which is one of the fastest 5G rollouts in the world.
