Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah has argued that Putrajaya's decision to put a state-owned special purpose vehicle (SPV) in charge of the 5G Internet rollout will benefit the people in at least three ways.
Namely, the rollout will be faster, have wider coverage, and be cheaper for users, he said.
Speaking to reporters in a joint-interview on Wednesday, Saifuddin informed that the government's plan to roll out 5G is now a year ahead of schedule, which will be the end of this year instead of the end of 2022.
"Secondly, we can go to places that (businesses) don't want to go to, which was one problem in getting 100 percent 4G coverage.
"I don't blame telcos, they are profit-oriented... but with the 5G infrastructure being built by the SPV, even if it's not profit-making, it will be constructed anyway," he added.
As for price, the minister said since telcos will only be renting from the government's infrastructure and need not invest any capital into developing it, charges will be cheaper.
"Whatever the charges, it will be cheaper," Saifuddin said.
The SPV, dubbed Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB), will have an allocation of RM15 billion to spend on the 5G rollout over a period of 10 years.
The DNB will be overseen by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
Fitch Solutions previously expressed concern that the potential lack of transparency with the SPV will affect the speed of the rollout, on top of possible higher costs.
"Purported corruption in the ranks of the Perikatan Nasional government could also affect the 5G rollout potential," the research arm of Fitch Group said.
It added that the lack of private sector involvement raised concerns that contracts might not follow open tender processes.
Saifuddin, however, had said previously that using the SPV would enable the distribution of 5G capacity to telcos in a fair and transparent manner. - Mkini
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