KUALA LUMPUR – The major telecommunications companies opposed to the single wholesale network (SWN) for 5G broadband services in the country are placing profits above the welfare of the customers and are unlikely to roll out the technology rapidly, said opposition politician Ong Kian Ming.

The Bangi MP said he was “very disappointed” with answers provided by the telcos, or mobile network operators (MNOs), involved in the issue after he asked them 10 questions recently.

He said the telcos – Axiata-owned Celcom, Digi, Maxis, and U Mobile, which proposed a separate consortium in a dual wholesale network (DWS) ecosystem – merely responded with 20 lines about the plan to the government and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Ong also said the telcos were not willing to engage the public on the issues that are raised.

“Definitely the public should take cognisance of this and understand what the underlying factors driving their telcos’ response are,” Ong said.

“I would say that it’s mainly their profitability that they’re taking care of, rather than the welfare of the people through the 5G roll-out.”

Ong said this during an an interview on radio station BFM89.9's Pressing Matters segment yesterday morning.
 

He told the station’s presenter Shazana Mokhtar that although the risks involved in setting up 5G infrastructure nationwide were lower with the DWN, the benefits were limited.

Apart from his questions for the telcos, Ong had also recently written a letter to MCMC, in which he urged the commission to make public the details and implications of the DWN proposal by MNOs.

“I firmly believe that the telcos, based on their 4G roll-out record, will want to take their own sweet time in terms of 5G roll-out.”

Ong also said he was satisfied with the 21-page response given by DNB, following questions he sent earlier. He also said the answers provided by DNB chief executive Augustus Ralph Marshall were “unprecedented” for a government-owned company.

Ong’s remarks echo a United Nations adviser’s belief that Malaysia will be better off with a 5G broadband spectrum provided by a SWN, as other models for its roll-out would be “confusing” for stakeholders and consumers in the country.

Brett Haan, an adviser to the UN and Brazil’s Economics Ministry on 5G strategy and policy, said although mobile network operators have raised several concerns, including the domino effect of failures due to a single source, the private telecommunications companies can also view the model as a basic utility for the people.

Ong said that although the SWN offered by Finance Ministry-owned Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) had more risks, the roll-out would be faster, especially to the rural and underserved areas.

He said this was because DNB was not operating on a demand-based model, unlike the telcos’ approach to providing 4G services.

“Telcos would say ‘look, there’s no demand for 5G in the rural areas, so I am not going to roll out immediately to those places.’

“Whereas DNB can take the option of saying ‘look, I’m going to roll out in the urban areas but because I’m not driven by this demand constraint, I’m going to roll out to the rural areas as well.”

He said that most importantly with SWN, the telcos must subscribe to DNB’s radio access network in all areas where 5G is rolled out, regardless of them being rural or urban.

Ong said this was an attractive point for policymakers who wanted to narrow the digital divide.

On comparisons made to the roll-out of 5G in Mexico, Ong said this was not a fair comparison as the “company involved is competing with existing players”.

He said the SWN model proposed in Malaysia instead turns telcos into DNB “customers”. – The Vibes, February 22, 2022