By Ainun Madihah
The 5G network is a new technology that will deliver a life changing technology through the next generations and becomes a wider competition among countries.
As the first country’s rollout 5G network today, the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) is launching the 5G network in a bid to provide faster internet facilities for the community.
Its Minister, Tan Sri Annuar Musa told the media on 9 November that “the 5G rollout is for Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Cyberjaya for the first year before it is expanded in stages until it reaches 36 per cent nationwide coverage”.
Digital National Berhad (DNB) mentioned that the government had stipulated that the expenditure of the service should not be covered by customers.
“That is why we made efforts to find a cost-effective service module with the DNB-operated 5G Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) Integration model, because if each telecommunication company does its own infrastructure, it will have implications on implementation costs, and this will be less efficient (unaffordable prices) to consumers.
“Therefore, with the MOCN model operated by DNB, 5G services do not use the concept of ‘different operators, different infrastructures’, instead emphasising on ‘one single owner’ so that services are provided more efficiently and at lower costs,” the Minister told reporters after witnessing a presentation and demonstration on the 5G Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) by DNB at Telekom Malaysia Titiwangsa.
In future planning, Annuar also mentioned that the government hopes to make Malaysia as one of leading countries for 5G network services with the MOCN model in the next three years.
This planning is important for the government since it is part of planning that depends on our ability to provide 5G of 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP).
According to The Star report (16 October 2021), DNB was established in March 2021, however, by December this year, the business had worked out strategies to publicly offer its services in Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, and Kuala Lumpur, involving 500 locations.
We expect to cover 80 per cent of populated areas throughout the country in the next three years as it is an important aspect of national agenda. It will be a game changer for the economic activities throughout the country.
More than that, the 5G network service could also be one of future digital economies as it established the speedy and secure network connections, hence it can boost data usage in future.
In upgrading the network service, it is expected that this process will be costly, time-consuming, and damaging to the customer’s experience. Hence, users are not expected to pay high costs to get 5G services as the government has taken the matter into account before the rollout.
With the financial strain of the 5G network eliminated off telcos’ systems, DNB’s strategy to network finance would be totally financed by the private industry.
The pandemic is affecting and impacting the economy and society of the country in unforeseen ways.
One of the most significant changes in the post-COVID-19 economy will be substantial shifts in commerce and services, as well as exploiting the power of information and technology.
The epidemic has widened the gap between rich and poor. Workplace conventions that we were accustomed to have altered forever. The issues of sustainability and climate change have become increasingly urgent. And digitisation and automation have been widely adopted across the world.
More than that, COVID-19 has also been tested for digital’s infrastructure to be more advance and shows a rapid use among the society. Hence, it is very important for the internet network to upgrade its service.
Other than that, each successive wireless network generation has seen a huge improvement in speed, and the advantages of 5G are everywhere better than 4G internet coverage. The speed of 5G is predicted to represent beyond up to 100 times in improvement.
Customer experience is one of important keys in a business because consumers will be eager to experience the availability of 5G coverage by the wider rollout. This full benefits of 5G coverage depends on a network capability to support next-generation capabilities and features.
This wireless internet network can give a lot of benefits to the users as well as in developing the country’s technologies. Therefore, society and the business sector must be prepared with the new technology as they gear themselves to play a bigger role in the country’s development. ***
(This article is written as part of individual assignment series for Feature Writing class)