Introduction
We have seen a lot of change since our last report. DiGi swept away our Video Experience and Download Speed awards, which were previously held by Maxis. At the same time, U Mobile won our Voice App Experience and Upload Speed Experience awards outright, the operator also jointly won our Games Experience award along with Maxis. And last but not least, Unifi was able to force a statistical tie with Celcom on 4G Availability.
Also, we saw some remarkable increases in users’ mobile experience across operators in most categories. Our Unifi users reported a significant increase in Video Experience (31%), Download Speed Experience (35.1%), and 4G Availability (5.2 percentage points). In comparison, their peers on U Mobile observed improvements in Games Experience (17%), Upload Speed Experience (5.5%), 4G Availability (5.4 percentage points) and 4G Coverage Experience (2.5%).
In this report, we've analyzed our data gathered in the 90 days ending on 28 February 2021 to compare the mobile network experience of our users on Malaysia’s five national operators Celcom, Maxis, DiGi, U Mobile and Unifi. We further delved deeper into 13 states and two federal territories, comparing the results of these five operators as well as the 4G-only network provider Yes.
These results show that Maxis has lost its dominance on Malaysia’s mobile network experience that we had seen in the last report and competition has intensified as the variation in mobile network experience between service providers in Malaysia has narrowed
A lot is also happening on the ground in Malaysia as well. On the one hand, the potential merger of Digi and Celcom is in advanced discussions. On the other hand, Celcom, DiGi and Maxis have signed a fibre infrastructure sharing deal for efficient deployment of fibre backhaul to base stations that will enable widespread 4G connectivity and increase Malaysia’s fibre infrastructure (without duplication), in line with the state’s Jalinan Digital Negara Plan (JENDELA). Alongside the JENDELA initiative, which aims to strengthen Malaysia’s existing connectivity, the Malaysian government expects to invest MYR15 billion (USD3.7 billion) over its nationwide 5G deployment plans that will be undertaken and managed by a special purpose vehicle under the Malaysian government. Under the government’s current plans, it is anticipated that Malaysians will begin to gain access to 5G ‘in stages’ by the end of this year.