News & Reviews:   Digital Nasional Berhad

In case you missed it, U Mobile has signed a three-year 5G wholesale agreement with Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) at the end of February. At the same time, TM confirmed and exercised its contractual rights to terminate its existing 5G wholesale access agreement with Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB). As you can imagine, this didn't sit well with DNB.

Today, U Mobile has signed a three-year 5G wholesale agreement with Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), marking a significant development in Malaysia’s evolving dual-network 5G landscape. The appointment follows a structured evaluation process, underscoring U Mobile’s technical expertise, service capabilities and ongoing nationwide 5G rollout. The company is targeting 80% Coverage of Population (COPA) by the second half of 2026, with deployment said to be progressing ahead of schedule.

Malaysia’s 5G rollout is entering a new phase. Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo has confirmed that all liabilities of Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) will be fully absorbed by its telco shareholders once the government completes its divestment from the company—a move that marks a major shift in the country’s digital infrastructure strategy.

Today, the Malaysian government has officially launched the 100-day countdown to Smart City Expo Kuala Lumpur 2025 (SCEKL25). It is a historic first for Southeast Asia as it hosts the regional debut of the prestigious Smart City Expo World Congress from Barcelona.

Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching in Parliament today revealed key details about the coverage of both the 5G and 4G networks in populated areas nationwide. She asserted that 4G network coverage in populated areas nationwide has exceeded 97%, while the 5G network coverage is at 82.4% as of 31 December 2024.

As we previously reported, both Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) and MyDigital ID are now sorting out their rollout after a not-so-good rollout last year. The second 5G network has been announced but delayed and the MyDigital ID servers crashed due to an influx of new user registrations

Previously, we shared how Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim expressed his dissatisfaction at the rollout delays of the second 5G network by Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB), as well as the MyDigital ID initiative by the company with the same namesake. Now, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has revealed that Anwar has given both MyDigital ID and DNB a deadline to tackle the delays of both initiatives’ rollout.

Telekom Malaysia has now announced that they have received a cancellation notice from Digital Nasional Berhad about the share purchase agreement. With this, TM will not have a stake in DNB. Previously, DNB had given a period until August 21, 2024, for TM to provide an answer and subscribe for a shareholding in DNB. Still, the period was not sufficient for TM to hold a meeting with board members and obtain approval to buy DNB shares.

Today, Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) and Cybersecurity Malaysia (CSM) have signed a Collaboration Agreement. To witness this new partnership between the two parties, YB Tuan Gobind Sigh Deo, Minister of Digital Malaysia, was present at DNB's My5G Portal experience centre earlier today.

Back in January, we reported how Malaysia’s 5G network coverage in populated areas finally reached the 80 per cent target, hitting 80.2% coverage as of 31 December 2023. However, it seems that the coverage rate has stumbled this year, as only a mere 1.5 per cent coverage increase was recorded in 5 months.