KUALA LUMPUR (May 26): Communications and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa said his ministry and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) have yet to study the requests of telecommunication companies (telcos) on the shareholding structure of Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB), the special purpose vehicle set up for the nationwide rollout of the 5G network.  

However, he added that the government is firm on not allowing any telco having a higher stake in DNB.

“We have received their request, but the government has not made any firm decision. Both Senator Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz and I were away,” Annuar told a press conference at the launch of YES’ 5G service on Thursday (May 26).

“I will sit down with the finance minister (Zafrul) to look at the request and the government will give our response as soon as possible,” he added.

He confirmed that the big four telcos (Celcom Axiata Bhd, DiGi Telecommunications, Maxis Bhd and U Mobile Sdn Bhd) — collectively known as CDMU — want to have a controlling interest of 51% in DNB.

“We will study the justification, but the basic principle is still the same, I am not going to create a monopoly and make a certain company bigger,” Annuar said.

He added that the deadline for negotiations for the telcos’ stake in DNB remains June 30, 2022.

“The time has come, as far as I am concerned, that by the end of June, I want to see 5G move on without any more hesitation. Despite all this haggling, the deadline remains the same.

“Of course, the Cabinet decided that DNB will be placed under my ministry after June and I can promise you that I am going to be very serious about this. DNB must perform,” Annuar said.

It is, however, not clear at press time whether this means the 30% interest will be held by the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia instead of MoF, which currently wholly owns DNB.

Annual also stated that the government will only hold a 30% stake regardless whether any of the nine — made of six network providers and three spectrum holders — offered for the 70% stake, decline to hold any interest.

He added that the government will discuss after June 30, the final stakes that YTL Communications Sdn Bhd (YES) and Telekom Malaysia Bhd — both are telcos that have opted in — will have in DNB.

He said this applies to potential domestic and foreign private equity firms that are interested in having a stake in DNB.

YES officially launched its 5G service on Thursday, becoming the first telco in the nation to offer the network to the public.

YES chief executive officer Wing K Lee told The Edge on the sidelines of the launch that the take-up rate for the 5G service was in the six digits after YES held its soft launch in December 2021.

“These are organic traffic. The idea of the soft launch was to fine tune the network; we weren’t ready to sell then but to allow our early adopters to give feedback and help us optimise the network.

“From February onwards, it was quite smooth sailing and that is why we are confident to launch in May after our network performance has exceeded all the key performance indicators (KPIs) that we set,” Lee said.

YES is offering an average data price of 30 sen per GB, which it said is 300% cheaper than the 4G market standard. Under the YES Infinite+ 36-month contract, it is also offering a free 5G smartphone to consumers.

DNB was set up by the government in 2021 to deploy Malaysia's 5G network with the goal of reaching coverage in 80% of the populated areas in the country by the end of 2024.