While it had been reportedly widely, across many months of 2023, that Malaysia’s efforts to establish and expand its 5G network have been hitting various milestones, there have not been much details on its general application, such as rollout plans for public areas and within educational institutions.
The newly minted Malaysian Ministry of Communications, through its minister — Fahmi Fadzil, wants to flip this point and make it hyper-relevant. During his recent public address, which revealed updates on the ongoing 5G network rollout for Malaysia, he shared that his ministry is now working towards ensuring that all Malaysian public universities have 100% penetration for the 5G network.
While the goal sounds achievable, it will require laser-focus from both Fahmi and his ministry as 4G coverage is still spotty in rural areas. This is moreso in towns and villages outside of the capital cities and populous urban areas of Sabah and Sarawak. Even if the lofty claim is doable in all major public universities across the Malaysian Peninsular, it is unlikely that the same can be said of those operating in the Borneo region.
As is, some users have shared how their user experience on the 5G network is not as per what had been promised. Issues include slow transfer speeds on the mobile network they are on, signal lost in zones that should have the best network coverage, and experiencing bad network connectivity from the telcos.
It will be interesting to see how the Malaysian Ministry of Communications will manage these issues and reach the goal of ensuring all public universities will get 100% 5G network coverage. Even if this is achieved, it will still be a challenge to deliver the best quality of life and user experience as well.