This article appeared in The Vibes on 10 November 2021.

KUALA LUMPUR – The Finance Ministry’s special purpose vehicle on the 5G roll-out, Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB), is the most regulated and scrutinised body under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), said Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

Speaking to the press after the 5G Multi-Operator Core Network Integration Implementation ceremony today, the communications and multimedia minister said the cost to develop the 5G infrastructure is paid by the telcos and not the public.

“We know that we are lagging behind our neighbours. With DNB, hopefully we can fast-track our 5G roll-out and within three years, have 80% coverage and be among the countries with a 5G solution system.

“MCMC will continue to play its role as a regulator. DNB is the most regulated entity, scrutinised by the MCMC, who will continue to play that role.

“The public don’t have to worry about transparency and whether a fully government-owned company is governed by the rules,” said Annuar.

DNB chief executive Augustus Ralph Marshall, meanwhile, gave a cost breakdown of the RM16.5 billion allocated for the development of the infrastructure network.

He said that RM4 billion will be to purchase the equipment from Ericsson, RM8.5 billion will go back to mobile network operators (MNOs) such as Telekom Malaysia, Celcom, and Maxis for the development of the infrastructure, RM1 billion will go to MCMC, and RM1 billion to TNB.

He added the project is funded purely by the private sector and that there is no government funding, allocations, or guarantees.

During the presentation, he said DNB expects to have 7,500 sites active in three years’ time.

Earlier during his briefing, DNB chief commercial officer Ahmad Taufek Omar said that DNB has three pricing mechanisms for MNOs.

“One is paying for coverage – we will build 7,500 networks by 2024 and cover 80% of the country. So, we put up a model where MNOs have to pay for the coverage.

“At the same time, one is based on how heavy their usage is, and their requirements for additional capacity. There’s coverage capacity, and additional capacity wherein MNOs have the option to add on to their networks in busy areas where they have a lot of customers.

“The last is buffer capacity. We don’t encourage this, but knowing Malaysia, when people return to their hometowns during festive seasons, networks outside of urban areas might be jammed. So we need to plan for buffer capacity,” said Taufek. – The Vibes, November 10, 2021