LOCAL telco provider Maxis Bhd appears to be doing just fine on its own despite bowing out of the Government’s national 5G plan, with the former’s 5G “alliance” having expanded to 23 members in just three and a half months.  

Since its launch in June 2022, Maxis’s 5G Alliance has gained momentum, adding seven new partners, namely Gamuda Land, Garuda Robotics, ITXOTIC, LinkUp Smart Solutions, NOKIA, NVIDIA and ZTE. 

In a recent statement, Maxis said it is working closely with its 5G Alliance partners on initiatives to create and commercialise 5G use cases and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions across industries in Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific. 

“At Maxis, we remain committed to bringing 5G to the nation and are excited to leverage the benefits that 5G will bring to businesses in strengthening Malaysia’s competitiveness in the region,” said Maxis CEO Gokhan Ogut.

“Our 5G Alliance community is expected to continue growing as it is intended to be an open collaboration across all organisations to fast track the adoption and deployment of innovation,” he added. 

“Members will benefit from this ecosystem where their collaboration and initiatives can foster innovation and truly unlock the value of IR4.0 across economic sectors.” 

He spoke of two initiatives – the Sept 20 GSMA-APAC 5G Ecosystem: Unlocking opportunities through strategic partnership virtual event and the Maxis-OMRON Autonomous Mobile robots showcase – where industry leaders and enterprises can gather and collaborate, collectively strengthening the ecosystem. 

“Not keen” 

Last month, Reuters reported that Maxis and U Mobile Sdn Bhd would be pulling out of the Government’s 5G rollout plan as they were not keen on being minority shareholders in the country’s new and sole 5G operator Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB). 

This comes after the Government knocked back a proposal made by the two companies and two other major carriers – Celcom Axiata Bhd and Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd – for the four to take a combined majority stake in the agency.  

The Government had instead asked six mobile operators in the country to agree to take up a combined 70% stake in the agency by Aug 31.   

So far, Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), YTL Communications Sdn Bhd (YES), Celcom and Digi have expressed interest in subscribing to DNB’s shares. 

While Maxis never publicly responded to or confirmed the Reuters report, the statement it issued yesterday (Sept 14) seems to echo U Mobile’s announcement when it pulled out of the national 5G rollout plan. 

On Sept 1, U Mobile said it believes it would better serve Malaysians by focusing on its strengths of providing innovative and unbeatable connectivity and digital services that would realise the full potential of 5G technology. 

Meanwhile, Maxis, in their statement yesterday, highlighted statements by some of its 5G Alliance members in praise of its new network and opportunities for growth: 

GSMA 

GSMA Asia Pacific head Julian Gorman said: “We are very pleased to be a Maxis 5G Alliance partner. 5G is a key enabler of digital transformation, unlocking opportunities across businesses and transforming the lives of billions of people.  

“We’re excited to be working alongside Maxis to deliver the virtual event 5G Ecosystem: Unlocking opportunities through strategic partnership, which represents a fantastic opportunity to bring together the mobile ecosystem to help accelerate digital transformation in Malaysia and across the Asia Pacific.” 

Huawei 

Huawei Malaysia CEO Michael Yuan said: “Huawei is delighted to play the role of technology advisor by providing cutting-edge technology know-how through our research and development (R&D) advancements, aligning industry use cases incubation towards commercialisation and assisting in accelerating technology adoption and innovative transformation in connectivity, IoT, Cloud and artificial intelligence (AI).”

He added: “We believe the partnerships cemented via this 5G Alliance programme reinforces all parties’ commitment to joint innovation, and we look forward to working together to advance Malaysia’s digital economy.” 

NEC 

NEC Corporation of Malaysia Sdn Bhd managing director Chong Kai Wooi said: “As a member of the 5G Alliance programme, NEC and Maxis will co-create smart solutions with applications across multiple use cases and industry verticals.  

“Maxis’ converged solutions proposition is a great fit with NEC’s range of AI-powered solutions and we are looking forward to the collaboration.” 

OMRON 

OMRON Electronics Sdn Bhd managing director (industry sales) Kok Soong Lee said: “Automation and robotics powered by 5G are the foundation to factories of the future. We are pleased to collaborate with Maxis to showcase Autonomous Mobile Robots running on their network at MBIC, as well as SEMICON SEA earlier in June.  

“This will enable smart manufacturing and empower businesses to achieve real business outcomes,” he added. – Sept 15, 2022  

https://focusmalaysia.my/23-members-in-just-3-months-maxis-5g-alliance-shows-it-doesnt-need-dnb/