According to the joint announcement released yesterday, one of the main elements within the new agreement is that Celcom, Digi, and Maxis will be working together to design, build, operate, and maintain related fibre infrastructure all over Malaysia. For current infrastructure, the new agreement will apparently increase the amount of shared fibre as well as mutual infrastructure swapping arrangements. Another element that makes this new agreement rather significant is the fact that it involves a duration of 20 years. Additionally, the three telcos also welcome other operators to come in and tap into the additional network capacity that will be generated through this new infrastructure sharing deal.
Meanwhile, the three telcos believe that the new agreement can help accelerate the fibre backhaul deployments to base stations. At the same time, it may also increase the efficiency of the deployments too, since another major objective of the cooperation is to lessen the amount of duplicated fibre infrastructure. In terms of benefits for consumers, the message is generally identical to what the three telcos have stated last year: improving the coverage and quality of 4G connectivity as well as bringing more fibre to users and prepping up the country for 5G. However, the backdrop has significantly changed since then as there is now something called Jalinan Digital Negara (JENDELA). Not to forget, the government has also backpedaled on its 5G rollout timeline and decided to bring the implementation forward much earlier via MyDIGITAL initiative.
In many ways, the finalisation of the new fibre infrastructure arrangements between the three largest mobile players in the country came at the right time and we certainly hope that consumers will be able to experience the positive impact of this new deal very soon. (Source: Celcom/Digi/Maxis.)
