Digital Nasional Berhad

Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB; English: ''National Digital Limited'') is a Malaysian special-purpose vehicle company owned by the Ministry of Finance Malaysia and is regulated by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. DNB was established in early March 2021 to drive the development of the 5G (fifth-generation) infrastructure in Malaysia. It offers 5G as a wholesale network service to other telecommunication companies.

The first rollout of the 5G services in Malaysia was launched on 15 December 2021, with TM and YTL as its operators upon rollout.

On October 7, 2022, four major telcos took up 65% in shares of DNB, with the remaining 35% held by the government with a golden share. The four major telcos with their respective stakes in DNB were TM (20%), YTL (20%), Digi (12.5%), and Celcom (12.5%), which was subsequently merged with Digi to form CelcomDigi on 1 December 2022.

Deployment of 5G

DNB had announced that it would launch and rollout the country's first 5G network with a total of 500 sites in areas within Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Cyberjaya by the end of December 2021 which is expected provide about 10% population coverage. The Malaysian government had also appointed Ericsson as the sole network equipment provider at a cost of RM4 billion as well as to build the infrastructure estimated at a cost of RM11 billion.

Digital Nasional chief executive officer, Augustus Ralph Marshall, said that the country's first 5G base station installation at Bukit Tunku has been powered on which aims to deliver 500 5G-enabled sites in Kuala Lumpur, Cyberjaya and Putrajaya upon rollout.

It has also planned to deploy 5G in major cities and districts in Johor, Penang, Selangor and Sabah in 2022. As at May 31, 2023, the rollout of the 5G network had achieved 62.1% coverage of populated areas involving 5,058 5G sites, with the aim of achieving 80% coverage of populated areas nationwide by the end year 2023. On 17 December 2024, it was reported that the 5G adoption rate has reached 52% nationwide as compared to 10.8% in October 2023.

Criticisms

DNB faces criticism from a number of individuals. These individuals want the government to also allow a competing provider, if not switch to a telco alliance-based deployment model as used in Singapore, a sentiment shared by a number of telcos operating in the country. Initially, only two companies- YTL's YES and TM's UniFi Mobile- have agreed to the DNB's term, while the others have publicly protested the plan. Additionally, the network will not allow all 5G phones and will only allow connection from "tested and authorized" handsets. This has raised concerns with early adopters of 5G phones as the network is, as of 2023, blocking all Sony handsets as well as older Asus, Samsung and iPhone 5G handsets, as well as lesser known handsets like the TickTock from Unihertz, but on the other hand most Chinese-made phones like Oppo, ZTE and Huawei are allowed onto the network unimpeded.

In December 2022, newly appointed Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said his administration would review the plan for DNB's 5G network introduced by his predecessor, and on September 27, 2023, he said that the government would allow a second 5G network and shift from a Single Wholesale Network to a Dual Network model to break the monopoly held by DNB.

As of 2024, the company has relaxed its stance on approved devices and began allowing more 5G devices onto the network. Additionally, all telcos are now on board after the government announced that telcos are now allowed to buy a stake in the company. However, the plan for a second 5G network is still on the table.

References

External links

* {{Official website, www.digital-nasional.com.my

2021 establishments in Malaysia
Government-owned companies of Malaysia
Economy of Malaysia