KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 27): CelcomDigi Bhd, Malaysia’s biggest wireless carrier, and U Mobile Sdn Bhd said on Tuesday they had signed an agreement to share a total of 100 multi-operator core network sites across Malaysia.

Each company has committed to 50 sites, according to a joint statement. The partnership would allow both parties to further expand their 4G long-term evolution (LTE) coverage and boost connectivity without incurring significant operational costs, the statement added.

“Our organisations will also benefit from efficient network operations, allowing us to invest in other areas to improve our customers’ digital experiences,” said CelcomDigi chief executive officer Datuk Idham Nawawi.

The agreement would also allow the companies to share costs, such as in deployment, maintenance or energy, said U Mobile CEO Wong Heang Tuck. “Apart from that, we will also be optimising spectrum usage and network capacity.”

Malaysia’s telecommunications sector is now dominated by two major carriers, with CelcomDigi controlling over 40% of 49 million total subscribers in the country and Maxis has about 12 million subscribers, while U Mobile and other smaller players jostle for the remaining share.

Separately, CelcomDigi, U Mobile and ZTE Corp said they had signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate towards driving the so-called 5G-Advanced (5G-A) adoption and application for mass consumers and enterprises.

The collaboration will cover field trials of live use case applications in Sarawak using 5G-A and other technologies for faster speeds, and improved network-and-streaming management, the companies said in another statement.

“Our partnership with CelcomDigi and U Mobile redefines the standards of live application use cases through the deployment of 5G-A technology and artificial intelligence-driven features,” said ZTE Malaysia managing director Steven Ge.