PETALING JAYA: The government needs to allow telecommunication companies (telcos) to purchase shares in the government’s 5G infrastructure company, Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), former prime minister Najib Razak said today.
He warned otherwise, the country risks losing trillions of ringgit should DNB fail in its plans to roll out 5G to the whole country.
“Telcos must be allowed to play an active role in managing and monitoring DNB so that the 5G infrastructure can be better implemented,” he said.
Recently, finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz told the Dewan Rakyat that the government had no plans to sell DNB’s shares to telcos.
Najib said the decision by the former Perikatan Nasional-led (PN) government to set up DNB has seen Putrajaya already spending billions on the project.
According to Najib, Malaysia is the only country in the world utilising the “Single Wholesale Network” (SWN) monopoly for the implementation of the 5G network nationwide.
“This monopoly takes away the freedom for consumers to choose the best network service provider.
“The single wholesale model for DNB makes it the sole owner of the 5G spectrum and related infrastructure, with telcos having to get licences from the company to use the spectrum,” he said.
DNB announced recently that it expected 5G to roll out in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Cyberjaya by the end of the year and the rest of the country by 2024.
The project was expected to cost RM11 billion over 10 years.
When announcing the 12th Malaysia Plan recently, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said an additional RM15 billion would be invested by the private sector in implementing the 5G network nationwide.
DNB was reported to have appointed Ericsson as the sole network equipment provider at a cost of RM4 billion. - FMT
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