News & Reviews:   Digital Nasional Berhad

Previously, we reported on the Ministry of Communications and Digital’s (KKD) announcement that the DNB 5G share subscription agreement (SSA) with 5 telco companies would finally be signed last week. However, this never materialised and KKD Minister Fahmi Fadzil has clarified that there are still hiccups to be rectified.

Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), TM and ZTE Corporation (ZTE) recently announced that they have formed a strategic alliance to unveil the world’s fastest 5G live trial which will deliver remarkable speeds up to 28Gbps. Considering that current 5G in Malaysia is anywhere from 300Mbps to 1.5Gbps, we can’t think of any use case for 28Gbps 5G. 

It's been almost 'forever' but we will finally have a new Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) CEO soon. Initially announced early this year, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil told the media that when the share subscription agreement signing is finalised, they will send out the announcement.

Today, Minister of Communications and Digital Fahmi Fadzil announced some good news. In regards to Malaysia's 5G progress, a Dual Network Implementation Task Force and the Ministry of Communications and Digital have successfully reached an agreement. On top of that, Maxis will also finalise the holding shares process in Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB).

Opensignal, a website specialising in mobile network performance measurement and analysis recently lauded Malaysia as a global leader in 5G connectivity thanks to our fast and reliable networks. This is according to its latest “Benchmarking the Global 5G Experience” study released in June which ranked our country favourably in multiple categories.

The 5G network rollout in our country has been relatively successful, albeit not as straightforward as Malaysians would’ve preferred. Case in point, the government recently announced that it will move from a single 5G network to a dual model after the former’s coverage reaches 80% of populated areas.  

Right after the Malaysian government announced the new dual network model transition for Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) by the end of the year, there have been some changes in the equity stake. In case you didn't know, CelcomDigi has severed its stakes in DNB and Telekom is the latest to terminate its share too.

A few hours ago, Dato’ Mohd Ali Hanafiah Mohd Yunus who is the Chief Operating Officer of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was in an interview on Bernama TV. In the short clip, he mentioned that a new entity will eventually take over Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) after achieving 80% of the 5G population coverage.

Today, the Malaysian government announced that the 5G network in Malaysia will continue to be implemented through Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB). However, DNB was given a timeframe until the end of 2023, when it reaches 80% coverage in subsidised areas.

By now, you should know that Malaysia is using a single wholesale network for 5G connectivity. However, it seems that our Malaysian government is going to launch a second 5G network in 2024, according to sources who are familiar with the situation.