The Malaysian government has decided to continue using the Single Wholesale Network (SWN) model for the deployment of 5G. This was confirmed by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz in a joint press conference with Communications and Multimedia Minister Annuar Musa.
This means that the Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) will remain as the national 5G infrastructure company and will continue to have full rights over the country’s 5G spectrum. However, the government will be revamping the ownership structure of the company later this year.
Specifically, DNB will no longer be fully owned by the government. Instead, it will only retain a 30% stake in the company through the Ministry of Finance (MoF) while 70% of the ownership is being offered to local telcos in a move that is expected to be completed by June 2022.
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Another reason behind the decision is to avoid additional financial implications on the contract that it has signed with Ericsson. Last month, Celcom, Digi, Maxis, and U Mobile have officially expressed their support for the Dual Wholesale Network model which was something that has been rumoured back in December.
Despite the earlier uncertainties in regards to the 5G deployment model, the government is still aiming to have 80% of populated areas within Malaysia to be covered by 5G. Earlier this month, DNB has said that the company aims to provide 5G to 37.9% of the populated areas by the end of 2022 which is very close to the 40% figure that it has presented to Lowyat.NET in December last year.
(Source: KKMM / Twitter.)
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