KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Telecommunications providers have been urged to be prepared for the upcoming 5G requirements.

Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chief digital officer Gerard K M Lim said the goal was to ensure positive customer experience in terms of connectivity without congestion issues.

"This is also in tandem with the government’s National Fiberisation and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) to provide the people with robust, pervasive, high quality and affordable digital connectivity as we usher in the next wave of technological advancement.

"Thus telecommunications providers must plan to optimise the current 4G access and look into potential bottleneck or congestion point in the network,” he said in a statement here today.     

He said the current 4G network in Malaysia is still facing problems of low throughput at nine megabit per second (Mbps) or 36 per cent below average for certain periods during the day.

"The situation is due to congestion between the elements of network such radio interface and core network.

"This is the effect of end-to-end network architecture which have only 40 per cent fibre optic at the base transceiver stations (BTS). Currently the average 4G download speed in Malaysia is 21.1 Mbps,” he added.

He said the 5G technology promises 1Gbps for each user and if the core network is overlooked, the same throughput issue faced currently will continue to plague the country.

In November last year, MCMC established a 5G task force to explore the practical uses and modes of 5G as well as to iron out policies, regulations and spectrum planning of 5G. — Bernama