PUTRAJAYA (April 15): U Mobile Sdn Bhd on Tuesday appointed Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp as its technology partners to deploy Malaysia’s next-generation 5G network under the dual network model.

U Mobile chairman Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun said the appointment of the two Chinese telecommunications vendors followed a stringent and transparent selection process, with Huawei tasked to oversee deployment in West Malaysia and ZTE responsible for East Malaysia.

“Huawei and ZTE are no strangers to U Mobile. Having been our long-term infrastructure partners, they have a proven global deployment track record, hence, we are looking forward to pivoting our business together,” Tan said at the vendors signing ceremony on Tuesday.

U Mobile intends to use a mix of internal funding to roll out the second 5G network, including bank financing, vendor financing as well as future proceeds from its initial public offering (IPO), its chief executive officer Wong Heang Tuck told a press conference.

Wong, however, declined to reveal the exact investment amount, but he disclosed that the cost would be in the "billions of ringgit".

Earlier, Tan said that U Mobile has invested over RM8 billion in its network and technological infrastructure, with over 10,000 network sites.

Meanwhile, on the U Mobile 5G network pricing, Wong expects its wholesale rates to be broadly “similar” to those currently offered by Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB).

“All pricing will be similar [to what DNB offered] because I think it doesn't make sense for us to go lower or higher,” he added.

The country's 5G operator DNB's current wholesale price offered to telecommunications companies (telcos) is RM30,000 per gigabit per second a month — or 13 sen per gigabyte.

U Mobile was appointed by the government to deploy the second 5G network in November last year. It targets to achieve 80% coverage of populated areas (CoPA) within the first 12 months, and 90% CoPA in the subsequent 12 months.

On its IPO plans, U Mobile reaffirmed that it remains committed to going for a public listing, though it cautioned that timing would depend on global market conditions.

“Looking at the global markets at this point in time, there are upheavals because of what is happening in the world today,” Wong said.

“I think for the company itself, what we can do is prepare ourselves in terms of all the solutions [for the IPO]. But in terms of timing, I think we need all stars [to align] before we can go IPO,” he explained.