KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Supportive government policy and a clear spectrum roadmap will mean that Malaysia will be one of the first few South East Asian markets to launch 5G, likely behind only Singapore, analysts said Tuesday.
Fitch Solutions said in a report that it held a positive view on Malaysia's efforts to commercialize 5G although plans to launch networks in early 2020 are ambitious, given that spectrum will only be allocated in the latter half of 2020.
"In the short term, we believe that 5G has great potential as a fixed-wireless service to solve the last-mile connectivity problem, while consumer-focused mobile services will take off in the medium term when 5G standalone standards are finalized, and more 5G-capable mobile devices become available," the report said.
The Malaysian government earlier approved a 21.6-billion-ringgit (about 5.2-billion-U.S. dollar) National Fiberization and Connectivity Plan (NFCP) to expand high-speed internet access to 98 percent of populated areas by 2023.
The report also highlighted that the Malaysian government openly-stated receptiveness toward Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE will be positive for operators in planning their 5G roadmaps.
Huawei earlier entered preliminary 5G agreements with Malaysian communication service providers such as Maxis, Axiata's Celcom and Telekom. Smaller local player U Mobile has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Chinese counterpart ZTE.
