Fahmi: Second 5G network contract has not yet been awarded

Malaysian communications minister Fahmi Fadzil has gone on record as saying that the government has not yet awarded the contract for the country’s second 5G network rollout. Malay Mail reports that the minister’s statement was made after a suggestion that the contract had been awarded to Chinese vendor Huawei via direct negotiations, a development which Fahmi denied, while stressing that when the contract is offered, it will be via an open tender process.

‘It is a commercial aspect and would be the same procedure that Digital Nasional (DNB) had gone through. It depends on when we will establish the second 5G entity. The board of directors will make the commercial decision … Whoever can provide the cheapest price, then the lowest price [will] win,’ the minister said.

Meanwhile, in separate but related news, The Sun Daily reports that Fahmi has confirmed that a total of 5,873 base stations have now been rolled out as part of DNB’s 5G network deployment, with 70.2% of the population currently covered by the infrastructure. Further, the minister confirmed that there are now around 2.49 million 5G subscriptions in Malaysia, equivalent to an adoption rate of 7.4%.