Malaysian telcos cosy up to Chinese vendors ahead of 5G network news

ZTE in particular. Its name has been cropping up semi-regularly in 5G-related announcements emanating from Malaysian CSPs during the last 12 months. With the results of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC)'s tender process due any time, the frequency of these mentions has picked up.

This will doubtless cause alarm in the quarters of the US government tasked with waging Washington's tech cold war against China. With long-term ally Indonesia only too happy to host Huawei, the deployment of ZTE kit by Malaysia would deal another blow to this effort.

U Mobile seems to have jumped the gun entirely, announcing recently that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ZTE that covers not only the deployment of the second 5G wholesale network, but also collaboration on the development of future RAN technology, including 5G-Advanced.

This is more than likely a PR campaign designed to cast U Mobile as the preferred candidate for building and operating the new network, but the way it was pitched made it sound like a forgone conclusion. It is not – CelcomDigi has also made a big song and dance about its own bid for the network tender.

In a joint announcement this week, CelcomDigi and U Mobile heralded a record-breaking test of 5G-Advanced, reaching a peak download speed of 30.8 Gbps using equipment supplied by ZTE (pictured). They intend to show off the technology by using 5G-Advanced to broadcast the opening ceremony of this year's SUKMA Games – a national athletics and sports competition that takes place every two years.

U Mobile also revealed this week that it has signed an MoU with ZTE's domestic counterpart Huawei. It covers the deployment of various hardware and software solutions to improve 5G performance and lay the groundwork for "future technologies" – presumably 5G-Advanced and 6G.

U Mobile got ahead of itself again, pitching the MoU as supporting the deployment of the second 5G network, which is in the long-winded process of being established in order to compete with the first, Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB).

While U Mobile and CelcomDigi – along with rivals Maxis, Telekom Malaysia and YTL – are all slated to participate in the new wholesaler, a final decision regarding which telcos will deploy the network has yet to be taken.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) concluded its tender process at the end of July. According to local outlet The Star, digital minister Gobind Singh Deo said during a press conference this week that applications are currently being evaluated and a decision will be made as soon as possible.

During the tumultuous inception of DNB, the process of selecting Ericsson as kit supplier was slammed at the time by Malaysia's opposition party for not being sufficiently competitive. That party is now in power, and one would think it would like to avoid that particular pitfall.

However, if one or both of CelcomDigi and U Mobile get the nod from the MCMC, it seems more than a little likely they will be placing a large order with ZTE, no doubt to the chagrin of the US and its allies.