FORMER prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin has come out in defence of his administration handing over the 5G spectrum rollout to government-owned special purpose vehicle Digital Nasional Bhd.

In a statement today, the Perikatan Nasional chairman also urged the current government not to change the single wholesale network (SWN) model, saying there would be severe implications for doing so.

“There will be a loss of investor confidence, and serious financial implications for the country and DNB if the contract is ended because the government decides to change models,” Muhyiddin said.

Malaysia, he added, would also stand to lose RM122 billion and 15,000 jobs if that happens by 2030, referring to an Ernst & Young report.

He reiterated a Ministry of Finance statement yesterday, saying his administration decided to adopt the SWN model as telecommunication companies (telcos) had previously failed to roll out the 4G network satisfactorily.

“The telcos had taken seven years to cover just 82.2% of the country for 4G, while DNB is targeting 5G coverage for 80% of the population by 2024.”

As a result of the inadequate coverage, Muhyiddin said that the government had to spend another RM28 billion for the national digital plan (Jendela) to connect rural areas.

He said that his administration decided to give the 5G spectrum to a special-purpose-vehicle in February 2021, despite its failure in many other countries, so that it could sell the 5G network wholesale.

He added that DNB was selected through the request for proposal (RFP) system.

“The evaluation was made on a technical, commercial and socio-economic basis. Based on the assessment, Ericsson (M) Sdn Bhd was appointed to build the network.”

Yesterday, Finance Minister Senator Tengku Zafrul Aziz said his ministry had consulted the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia before deciding to give the contract to DNB.

On Thursday, communications and multimedia deputy minster Zahidi Zainul Abidin told Parliament that the Finance Ministry had given the project to DNB despite his ministry’s objections.

“We wanted to give the 5G spectrum to telcos as they already have the backbone and would be faster but DNB wanted to do it and said that the 4G infrastructure was incomplete because it was done by telcos,” Zahidi said. – December 11, 2021.