Malaysia - Mobile Infrastructure, Broadband, Operators - Statistics and Analyses

Malaysia - Mobile Infrastructure, Broadband, Operators - Statistics and Analyses

Malaysia's mobile market has made a remarkable recovery after having struggled at times. Even in the down times there has been evidence of the market's long term commitment to mobile communications, with consumers showing a particular eagerness to adopt mobile data services.

Since 2014 there has been a contraction in mobile subscriber penetration in Malaysia, due to a saturated market and challenging market conditions. After peaking in 2014 at 149%, market penetration has dropped to 146% in 2015 and 138% in 2016. In particular the two largest mobile providers Celcom Axiata and Maxis Communications have seen a significant reduction in their mobile subscriber base. A slight rise in mobile penetration is predicted for the next five years to 2021. Mobile subscriber market penetration is predicted to over 140% by 2021.

There has been very strong growth in the mobile broadband subscriber base in Malaysia since 2012. Growth has been driven by a strong and mature mobile subscriber market and high data caps.

Progress has been reported on closing the urban/rural divide, with expanding mobile infrastructure in rural areas.

Key developments:

ZTE entered a partnership with U Mobile for the development of 5G mobile broadband technologies.

Telekom Malaysia agreed to provide fibre backhaul to support U Mobile's LTE rollout.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) outlined plans to reallocate frequencies in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands among four telecoms operators by late 2016.

Celcom Axiata, Telekom Malaysia and Packet One Networks (P1) announced three core deals being related to TM Next-Gen Backhaul (NGBH), High Speed Broadband (HSBB) (Access) and domestic roaming services.

DiGi had introduced LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) technology to 28.8% of the nation's population.

Companies mentioned in this report include:

Axiata, Celcom, Maxis Communications, U Mobile; DiGi; Altel; Alcatel/Lucent; ZTE,