KUALA LUMPUR: Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) and mobile network operators (MNOs) are expected to sign share subscription agreements (SSAs) by the middle of this month.
Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said currently the government's focus is to execute the SSAs for the MNOs to take up equity in the DNB before furthering discussions on the 5G second network deployment.
"I believe we anticipate the signing of the share subscription agreement for pickup of equity on the DNB to take place first before further discussions on the second network will be at a more advanced stage.
"The first step is the signing (of the SSAs), and I was informed by the 5G Taskforce that if all things go well, this will be done before the middle of this month," he told the media after the launching of Petronas 5G Private Network adoption today.
Five MNOs, namely CelcomDigi Bhd, Maxis Bhd, Telekom Malaysia Bhd, U Mobile Sdn Bhd and YTL Communications Sdn Bhd, have agreed to buy stakes in DNB to support the development of the country's 5G network.
The Minister also emphasized that the government will retain shares in DNB before deploying a dual network model to deploy 5G.
"For the time being, the Cabinet has not made any decision to divest," he added.
To make full use of 5G, the International Telecommunications Union or ITU, stipulates that it needs a minimum of 100MHz of the 3.5GHz bandwidth, 3.5GHz spectrum for efficient use of 5G.