The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) earlier this week has held a briefing to discuss the next stage of 5G implementation in Malaysia which involved 55 initial live demo projects in 6 states across Peninsular. Interesting enough, plenty of these live demo projects will be implemented in Langkawi, Kedah.
Out of the nine verticals that are involved in this phase of 5G implementation in Malaysia, only Oil & Gas, as well as Manufacturing & Process Industries, will not have any live demo projects at the island. Hence, the question: why Langkawi?
According to the Chairman of MCMC, Al-Ishsal Ishak, one of the biggest reasons why so many companies chose to implement their 5G demo projects in Langkawi is the very fact that it is not located on the mainland. Being an island, Langkawi comes with its own challenges that many of the companies and organizations that are involved in the 5G project would like to address and explore.
For example, the short distance between Langkawi and Thailand provides the opportunity for them to assess and rectify issues that are related to cross-border signal interference. Not to forget, Langkawi is also a very popular tourist destination and tourism is one of the 9 focus segments in this phase for the 5G implementation in Malaysia.
In terms of existing infrastructure, Al-Ishal pointed out that Langkawi is already connected to the mainland via submarine cable and TM has also rollout fibre throughout the island. Well then, let’s see how things will turn out to be for the next 6-months.
