PUTRAJAYA: U Mobile Sdn Bhd has appointed Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp as key technology partners in its rollout of Malaysia’s second 5G network, under the dual network model endorsed by the government.
The partnership was announced during a signing ceremony on Tuesday, where U Mobile chairman Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun stated that the vendors were selected through a stringent and transparent evaluation process. Huawei will spearhead the deployment in Peninsular Malaysia, while ZTE will handle operations in East Malaysia.
“Huawei and ZTE are long-standing infrastructure partners of U Mobile with strong global deployment credentials,” said Tan. “We are confident in their capabilities to support us as we scale up our 5G ambitions.”
Chief executive officer Wong Heang Tuck revealed that the telco plans to finance the network expansion through a combination of internal resources, bank loans, vendor financing, and proceeds from its anticipated initial public offering (IPO). While he did not disclose the exact investment amount, Wong indicated that the expenditure would run into the billions of ringgit.
To date, U Mobile has invested over RM8 billion in network and technology infrastructure, operating over 10,000 network sites across the country.
Addressing the issue of pricing, Wong said U Mobile’s 5G wholesale rates would be comparable to those currently offered by Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB), the state-backed 5G operator.
“All pricing will be similar to what DNB offered,” Wong noted. “It doesn’t make sense to go higher or lower than that.”
Currently, DNB’s wholesale pricing stands at RM30,000 per gigabit per second per month, or approximately 13 sen per gigabyte.
Appointed by the government last November to develop the second 5G network, U Mobile is targeting 80% coverage of populated areas (CoPA) within the first year and 90% in the following year.
As for its IPO ambitions, U Mobile reaffirmed its intent to list publicly, but noted that market volatility could influence the timeline.
“Global market conditions are quite uncertain right now,” Wong said. “Internally, we’re getting everything in place, but for the actual timing, we’ll need all stars to align before we move forward.”
