KUALA LUMPUR (May 3): Malaysia’s commitment to building its 5G network has given the country a world-class digital infrastructure, according to Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson president and chief executive officer Börje Ekholm.
“To lead on 5G by actually building one network, that takes a lot of challenges involved in doing that, but thanks to a great decision and excellent execution by Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB), now Malaysia has actually a world-class digital infrastructure,” Ekholm said in his speech at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between DNB, Ericsson and several other parties.
The Swedish executive revealed that he experienced a fast and stable 500 megabit-per-second (Mbps) internet connection as soon as he arrived in Malaysia.
“That's unbeatable compared to the rest of the world. So it's really well done by Malaysians, so now that we have this good asset, strong digital infrastructure, and what's the next step? Of course, it is to leverage this to digitalise Malaysia in new ways,” he said.
WATCH: Ericsson hails Malaysia’s ‘world-class’ digital infrastructure
Ericsson Malaysia and DNB have signed the MOU with several parties — Intel, SKF Malaysia, Scania, and eMooVit Technology — to encourage the digitalisation of enterprises and industries in Malaysia.
The first MOU, between DNB and Ericsson with Intel, will see the development of enterprise 5G solutions in Malaysia.
The MOU with eMooVit, a homegrown startup and flagbearer for autonomous vehicle deployment and technology solutions, will enable pilot use cases of autonomous transport.
Another MOU with Scania is on fleet management use cases, while the agreement with SKF on smart manufacturing will see the adoption of use cases on wireless digitalisation within a factory setting.
These enterprises will go to market with their chosen telcos or access seekers to implement their 5G use cases.
"The government, via agencies such as DNB, is currently driving market development activities to ensure that this momentum of digital adoption across all economic sectors will continue to grow, and that various initiatives will be aggressively pursued for more industry stakeholders to come on board," Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said when officiating the signing ceremony.