PETALING JAYA: A group of students sat in for a lecture conducted 1,400km away from their location in a test of Malaysia’s 5G capability today.

The students at the Miri campus of Curtin University were following a lecture by Syafiqah Saidin who is based at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in Bangi, Selangor.

More than just the lecturer droning away on the subject matter, the students were treated to an augmented-reality-virtual-reality reproduction of the workings of the human heart. All they had to do was don the AR/VR headsets.

This, according to Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) and Ericsson, would pave the way for a host of next-generation digital business, industrial and public service applications.

DNB is Malaysia’s sole provider of 5G service and Ericsson is the technology partner.

Sarawak utility and telecommunications deputy minister Liwan Lagang, who was invited to join the “metaverse” session, expressed hope that the technology would soon be made available not only to varsities but to those living in the remote areas as well.

For the lecture, DNB had utilised the carrier aggregation technology to combine the 700Mhz low band, 3.5Ghz mid-band and the 28Ghz millimetre wave (mmWave) to maximise the 5G spectrum.

The process created a “connective pipeline” to enable DNB and Ericsson to deliver a bandwidth of up to 7Gbps to the Australian university campus in Miri.

The network slicing technology was used to sub-divide the connective pipeline and to use a portion of it to enable DNB to carve out a dedicated portion of the bandwidth for the exclusive showcase.

Lagang said he is looking forward to the day when 5G connectivity could help Sarawak cross key economic and employment milestones as part of the post-Covid-19 development strategy (PCDS2030).

“We want to see digital transformation in education and human capital power the six economic sectors in the state, namely manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, forestry, mining and services,” he said.

Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh head David Hagerbro said the success of today’s event opened up new opportunities for Malaysia.

With the connectivity, he said, even schools, hospitals and businesses that were historically underserved because it was not cost-effective could now be connected.