Malaysia poised to capitalise on 5G as innovation driver
The deployment of 5G in Malaysia will serve as an economic and innovation driver for Malaysia, enhancing the nation’s global and regional competitiveness, accelerate Industry 4.0 and enable new digital services in the consumer and enterprise spaces.
By providing Malaysia with secure, robust connectivity and infrastructure, 5G also sets the foundation for future technological and business growth by delivering higher data speeds, ultra-low latency, greater reliability, massive network capacity and an enhanced consumer experience for users.
In the IDC White Paper – “Building a 5G Foundation for Digital Malaysia” – commissioned by Ericsson, the critical role of mobile networks (4G/5G) in accelerating the ‘JENDELA’ and MyDIGITAL initiatives, Malaysia’s 5G readiness compared to its regional peers and the potential impact of 5G on the consumer and enterprise segments in Malaysia has been examined and some recommendations for 5G deployment have been made.
Commenting on the White Paper, Head of Ericsson Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, David Hägerbro, said: “The White Paper was commissioned as part of our 5G study on Malaysia to see how Malaysians, investors and industries could be empowered to reach their full potential with a network that is reliable, robust, energy-efficient and secure. Ericsson now looks forward to working with Digital Nasional Berhad to deliver a world-class 5G network for Malaysia and accelerate the digital transformation for Malaysian consumers and enterprises.”
5G handsets forecast for 2025 in Malaysia
According to IDC, the 2025 forecast on 5G handsets for Malaysia is 21.2%, since consumers have already started buying 5G devices in Malaysia, as they become more affordable, despite the non-availability of a 5G network in Malaysia. IDC projects that 5G handsets will make up 60.6% of total handset shipments to Malaysia in 2025, which in turn will enable a rapid take-up rate of 5G services.
IDC forecasts that by 2025 there will be 12.7 million 5G connections or roughly 22.4% of total subscribers as well as 43.1 million 4G LTE subscriptions in Malaysia or 76.2% of total subscriptions.
According to the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, 5G will contribute RM8.5 billion to Malaysia’s GDP in 2025. A 5G-enabled infrastructure will impact the economy positively, across all industry verticals, including the consumer segment. Consumers will become the foundation of 5G revenue for MNOs until enterprise revenues can be fully realized. Technology pillars such as cloud, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), IoT (including industrial IoT) and big data, when combined with 5G, form a powerful combination of radio + connectivity + virtualised intelligence, which will drive many use cases across both consumers and industries.
