KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 18 — Malaysia has surpassed its self-imposed target for 2020 under national digital infrastructure plan Jalinan Digital Negara (Jendela) in terms of the number of premises now having internet connection via fibre optic cables.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said today it projects that telecommunication companies would be able to help the country fully achieve the year’s target for upgrading of sites and near the target for new sites for mobile broadband.
Its chairman Dr Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek today provided updates on the progress so far on Jendela since the five-year plan was announced over three months ago by the prime minister.
In the first quarterly report for Jendela released today, Dr Fadhlullah noted that the target for 2020 was to have 352,101 premises and homes having fibre connectivity, noting that telco firms have managed to have 433,477 premises passed with fibre optics as of December 16, which would be equivalent to 123.1 per cent of the target set.
“We don’t stop there, the industry continues to lay (fibre optics), the forecast number is just short of 436,000,” he said in an online media briefing, referring to the projected total of 435,947 by December 31, which would be a forecasted 123.8 per cent of the 2020 targets or an outperformance by 23.8 per cent.
The 2020 target to improve wireless broadband speed for mobile users was for the upgrading of 16,214 existing base stations at urban and suburban areas, with 16,029 (or 98.9 per cent) upgraded as of December 16, while the total of sites with upgraded equipment is forecasted to hit 16,366 or 100.9 per cent by December 31.
As for 4G coverage, the target for 2020 under Jendela was to build 940 new sites in urban and suburban areas to improve the indoor internet coverage and quality of experience by mobile broadband users.
As of December 16, a total of 746 of the new sites have been completed which represents 79.4 per cent of the 2020 target, with Dr Fadhlullah stating that it is forecasted that 875 units would have been completed by year-end or with 93.1 per cent of the target expected to be achieved.
This means that the new broadband sites are expected to fall short of Jendela’s 2020 targets by 65 new telecommunication towers.
“In total, out of the 940 that we targeted for 2020 in commercial areas, there’s a shortfall of 65, certainly the industry will try to catch up on those numbers moving into 2021,” Dr Fadhlullah said.
He listed telco firms U Mobile, Digi and Celcom as those who will be falling short of the target, confirming however that service providers Maxis and Telekom did not face problems in meeting their respective targets for building new commercial towers.
He listed the various reasons for the shortfall by the three telcos, including the service providers themselves having improper planning and a lack of execution discipline, state bureaucracy, the speed of approval at the local authorities’ level, waiting for site acquisition by state-backed company, and the conditional movement control order’s (CMCO) impact.
Public protest was also cited as the reason for an expected shortfall of one of the new towers, with Dr Fadhlullah stating that approval by local authorities for the building of such structures would be rescinded whenever there are such protests.
When asked if any of telcos lagging behind in meeting the targets for the new towers would be penalised by MCMC, Dr Fadhlullah said: “With regards to penalising, the fact that all the shortfall is being made public to everyone, that in itself is a penalty. At the same time, this is an effort done by the industry and because of the close working relationship, you realise the problem doesn’t sit with one particular entity. The whole value chain needs to be of assistance either in being fixed or in being expedited.”
Woon Ooi Yuen, the chief technology officer of U Mobile who was also at the online media briefing, said the company will seek to improve on its efforts to meet the target for the building of the new towers.
“First of all, we acknowledge our weaknesses, we will improve on it. Just to put things in perspective, I think out of the 940 targeted, we are delivering about 432 and we have sort of forecasted to miss about 53 sites, which MCMC has categorised to be due to U Mobile.
“However, in parallel, we have 57 sites which are contributing similar coverage on air already, and it’s not part of this 940,” he said, adding that the company would have delivered more than targeted if the similar sites were taken into account.
“And we have ambition to deliver more, and these 53 sites of course we are not going to stop, as the (MCMC) chairman said, Q1 (first quarter) we have to finish, so we work very closely with tower providers to give us the towers, because we merely rent the tower from them so we can catch up on them on the 53 sites,” Woon said.
Laying the groundwork for 5G
Following the National Digital Infrastructure Lab sessions from July 13 to August 14 involving representatives from ministries, government agencies and local internet providers (Celcom, Digi, Maxis, U Mobile, Telekom and Time), Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had on August 29 announced the Jendela plan to be implemented under the 12th Malaysia Plan (2021-2025).
Under Jendela’s first phase from 2020 to 2022, Malaysia has targeted to expand 4G mobile broadband coverage from 91.8 per cent to 96.9 per cent in populated areas, to increase mobile broadband speeds from 25Mbps to 35 Mbps, and to enable 7.5 million premises to access fixed broadband services at gigabit speeds, and to completely switch off 3G networks by the end of 2021 to allow the improvement to 4G networks and strengthen the foundation for 5G networks.
The second phase of Jendela is expected to involve bridging any remaining digital divide and to prepare the country to transition to 5G. The 5G network provides faster internet speeds as compared to 4G.
Dr Fadhlullah today said Jendela is about getting the 4G network right before Malaysia moves on to the 5G network.
“Most importantly, I’d like to state that Jendela is not about 4G, it’s about preparing us for 5G and therefore in the event if we are doing reasonably well in achieving our targets, there’s no reason for us not to consider accelerating to 5G. Because once the car is ready, we can drive it on the highway,” he said.
He pointed out that Malaysia actually already has 5G networks which are currently limited to trial areas, noting that those with a 5G device and a service sim card from the service provider conducting the 5G trial would be able to enjoy the 5G network.
He said the 5G demonstration projects period has been extended to June 2021, and expressed hope that more industries would try out the 5G network which is already existing.
To date, there are 50 live sites in six states (Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Pahang, Terengganu) and the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur where the use of 5G has been put on trial. The fields where 5G has been tried include education, oil and gas, digital healthcare, agriculture and smart city.
“The joining of 5G demonstration projects is not about states, it is about industry. The service provider is ready to go anywhere. The states, if interested, they are free to come. There’s no coercion on the part of MCMC. At the end of the day, the use of 5G would actually increase the premium for investments in a particular state,” he said when highlighting the potential economic and investment benefits that 5G would bring to states and when asked if there would be more states joining the 5G deployment trials.
