THE nation’s 5G initiative, which is meant to take mobile telephony to the next level, is never far from controversy. Over the past year or so, Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) has become a political football as competing interests seek to champion or politicise the project.
There were suggestions that the approach taken by DNB, which is the government’s special purpose vehicle for the roll-out of 5G, was wrong. DNB had proposed a single network that would see telecommunication service providers subscribing for access, while the telcos on the other hand wanted to set up their own infrastructure.
At almost all stages of its existence, DNB was met by some with suspicion – speculations, suppositions and allegations – all of which imputed nefarious intentions on the part of its management and supporters.
It was to be expected too, given that it was one of the largest infrastructure initiatives rolled out last year with billions to be spent over the duration of the 5G project in the next few years. Also, as a country, we thrive on conspiracy theories.
In its early days, many politicians within and outside the government took adversarial positions against the DNB initiative. It was a heady combination of political big guns, including the then opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, and the relentless rearguard action of the telcos that put the 5G initiative on the brink.
Even a deputy minister brazenly went against the grain and stood opposite his minister and the government to oppose DNB’s plan.
Nevertheless, the then government persevered and over time the opposition abated. Telcos were also offered stakes in DNB, and some did plan to take them up. All telcos, except for one, are launching their 5G services now.
We have been supportive of DNB’s 5G approach as it will hasten our adoption of the technology, since telcos then were not too keen to invest in the near term, preferring instead to get as much as they can from their existing 4G networks.
In the meantime, many neighbouring countries have been offering 5G services for over a year now.
We also believe that 5G will improve the current mobile services, which can only be described as poor. Try making cellular calls at peak hours.
Also, telcos were charging too much for broadband access, and DNB has promised to sell access to telcos at less than 20 sen per gigabyte.
This would be a fraction of the almost RM2 consumers are currently charged for 4G by their service providers, and for superior quality connections, too.
Having debated on the 5G initiative in Parliament last year, it is of course understandable that Anwar and his new administration would want to have a look at the project and DNB’s role in it.
This got some opponents of DNB rather excited, some of whom are even suggesting a revamp of the entire project. Perhaps they should just chill and let the prime minister do his job.
I think DNB would welcome and should be glad that Anwar, who is also finance minister and who will have direct influence on the project, has strong interest in the initiative.
If what DNB officials say are true, that everything is above board, from the appointment of the technology provider all the way to awarding contracts to vendors putting up telecommunication towers and laying down fibre optic lines, then it should be glad for the opportunity to brief the new prime minister and allay and answer all concerns and fears.
It would be an opportunity for DNB to provide him with a first-hand primer on the project, minus the shrill politics. It would also be an opportunity to show that things are on the up and up and that the people would benefit most from the project instead of some interested parties.
It is important too for the prime minister to be getting the information first hand from DNB, not via consultants or from its critics reading the playbooks from opponents of the project.
Anwar’s interest in the project would also allow him to be more informed of the state of the current telecommunications infrastructure, the roles of telcos, DNB as well as regulators such as the MCMC and the Communication and Digital Ministry, for instance.
Let us not allow politics get in the way of our decision making. The much-heralded Pakatan Harapan (PH) government of 2018 came to power with a lot of promise, but instead managed to politicise major projects and undo several decisions that did not reflect well on the long-term perception of them.
For instance, the initial instinct to politicise projects, such as the East Coast Rail Link, Klang Valley LRT3 and MRT3 resulted in delays, new inferior specifications, default payments, etc and at the end of the day, any perceived savings vanished as costs escalated and opportunities were missed as the projects took a longer period to complete.
DNB had said that the network would reach some 40% coverage of populated areas, or 14 million subscribers by the end of the year, and 80% of 30 million by 2024.
This is a terrific milestone given the work done, and presumably one should resist changing horses in midstream if there was nothing untoward in the handling of the project.
Perhaps what Anwar should try to find out from the lone holdout resisting the 5G plan is why is it denying more than 10 million of its subscribers a superior and potentially cheaper service? – The Vibes, December 12, 2022
Datuk Zainul Arifin Mohammed Isa is a veteran newsman with more than 35 years in the business. He is CEO at PETRA News
