KUALA LUMPUR: Telecommunications companies will be offered less than 20 sen per gigabyte under the national 5G rollout plan, says Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
The Finance Minister said that this will be done so that the price offered is fair and geared towards development rather than profit, adding that the pricing has been almost finalised and is waiting for Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) approval.
“It will be less than 20 sen per gigabyte offered to the companies for 5G, which is way cheaper if compared to the incremental cost of between 45 sen to 55 sen per gigabyte offered by telcos for their 4G services,” he said.
“I believe that they will welcome the announcement of the fixed price which will be made soon,” added Tengku Zafrul when answering a question by Lukanisman Awang Suani (GPS-Sibuti) in Dewan Rakyat on Thursday (Nov 25).
Zafrul’s announcement comes in the wake of claims of a lack of response by telecommunication companies over the 5G rollout due to transparency issues with regard to the pricing offered by service provider Digital National Berhad (DNB).
DNB is a special vehicle set up in February this year to roll out the 5G.
Under DNB’s 5G development model, Tengku Zafrul said that telco companies are predicted to repay DNB between RM3.5bil and RM4bil as the development cost over a 10-year period.
“This amounts to between RM350mil and RM400mil a year which is way less than the RM1bil invested by telcos a year to develop 4G,” said Tengku Zafrul.
“This means that the telcos will enjoy a saving of more than 50% and will be able to lower cost for their customers while paying more dividends to their shareholders,” he added.
DNB targets to roll out 5G to more than 80% of coverage in populated areas nationwide by 2024.
Source: The Star
