Tag Archives: 5G

Rolling Out Commercial 5G Isn’t Going to be Easy – 3 Things To Learn from South Korea

January 30, 2020 Nur Jeevan Leave a comment

Malaysia is set to be one of the world’s pioneer markets when it comes to the rollout of 5G. As reported previously, Malaysia is on track to rollout commercial 5G by Q3 2020; that’s a mere 6 months away at this point. Having shown off 5G’s potential in many use cases at the 5G Malaysia conference, Malaysia now faces its largest hurdle yet – the actual roll out.

While Malaysia is one of the first in the region to explore and rollout 5G, we still stand behind the first world countries in Asia; namely Japan and South Korea who are already on the verge of developing 6G connectivity. Having said that, the technologies behind 5G are still in their infancy. That said, being an early adopter, Malaysia can learn from the hurdles faced by these countries.

At the 5G Malaysia conference, we had a chance to sit down with Mr Choi Woo Hyuk from the South Korean ICT Policy Bureau. South Korea has already deployed commercial 5G back in April 2019. These were a few things he highlighted as hurdles that the South Korean government faced when investing and rolling out 5G.

1. 5G is about Collaboration

The first hurdle that came up with 5G in South Korea was the alignment of everyone’s interests to roll out 5G. There are many parties involved in 5G’s roll out including vendors such as Samsung, Telcos such as SK Telecom and LGPlus, Consumers and the Government. That said, each party has their own interests to guard. The ongoing negotiations between the parties necessitates mediation and compromise.

In Malaysia, the government has already brought together all the players to form a Consortium. This Consortium and the 5G task force has been a first step towards dealing with the issue. However, the government faces a huge hurdle thanks to a legacy of monopoly with players such as TM. Even now, we see TM lobbying heavily to be the main provider for 5G when it hasn’t even completed the roll out of fiber connectivity across the nation. In fact, we have sources who confirm that the High Speed Broad Band (HSBB) roll out is severely delayed due to TM.

The government will face a similar challenge when it comes to mediating the interests of all the players in the local telecoms and connectivity industry with not only Maxis, DiGi (Telenor), Celcom, TM, TIME and even companies like edotco involved. The government will need to take into consideration the interests of all the parties involved including the interests of its electorate to ensure smooth rollout of 5G and the report from the 5G task force which was handed over at the 5G Malaysia Conference.

2. 5G is a Balancing Act between Privacy, Data Security and Industry

This will be the case the world over as the public grows increasingly cognizant of how they are being tracked. However, with 5G, the amount of data that can and will be collected is increasing by at least tenfold. In South Korea, the government has passed Personal Data protection laws in addition to Financial Protection and Online Privacy acts. That said, policymakers are beginning to realise the nuances that 5G presents when it comes to data and privacy.

Malaysia is on-track with our policies thanks to the implementation of the Personal Data Protection Act 2010, more commonly known as PDPA. However, with security and connected cities being some of the use cases being investigated by our 5G Consortium, the question then arises is “How much data should be collected?” and when it comes to security, “how much data is too little?”.

That said, the advent of 5G may necessitate new data protection policies to govern the quantum leap in the amount of data that can be collected by industry. It may also pose a threat to national security given the interconnectedness of smart cities and the security applications of 5G.

3. 5G Coverage and Consumer Applications May Take Time

5G is all about industrial applications and the collection and processing of the immense amount of data that can be transferred through more efficient and stable wireless connectivity. As evidenced by the limited rollout of 5G in Langkawi, the roll out of the new connectivity technology will be a hurdle that can only be solved with consistent investment.

South Korea initially rolled out their 5G network with 30,000 base stations and has recently completed about 100,000 base stations. This initial rollout not only posed challenges to Telcos, but also caused a very disrupted, inconsistent experience for consumers. With the limited amount of devices at the time, mainly the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, consumers in South Korea faced issues when it came to battery life as the phones would jump between 5G and 4G networks due to limited coverage.

While players such as Maxis, DiGi and Celcom are touting 5G readiness in Malaysia, it would not be surprising if we see the same issues crop up when 5G hits commercial availability. The increased hype and anticipation could be the biggest hurdle as the implication of 5G are more focused in industry rather than consumer technologies.

With these lessons in mind, it seems like the road to 5G is still quite bumpy and it will take a herculean effort from all the players to ensure that we have an open, unadulterated 5G in Malaysia. However, the success of Malaysia’s 5G rollout will depend on the government, its policies and mediation.

Mobile, News

Another Step Toward a 5G Malaysia – Maxis Hits Nearly 3Gbps In Latest Test

January 7, 2020 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

5G is a relatively new technology globally. So far, only three known regions have successfully implemented the technology; two of them are in Asia. Then again, the two Asian countries also have two of the biggest telecommunications organisations in the world; HUAWEI and Samsung. These two have been on a race to implementing 5G through the world too.

In Malaysia, we have our own race to our very own first implementation of 5G. That race is not in between manufacturers, that race is in between the telcos. The major telcos like Maxis, Celcom, and Digi have been pushing the 5G technology with multiple tests that have taken place since last year. In February 2019, Maxis made the move to secure HUAWEI’s technology and expertise in 5G testing and installation.

That partnership came to a fruition at two testing sites in Subang Jaya, approved by MCMC (Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission) for two months. Their latest test involves the C-band spectrum of the 5G spectrum. That is the 3.5GHz (3,500MHz) spectrum of the 5G band.

The C-band spectrum is considered the global spectrum of 5G at this time. Of course, there are more bands of 5G depending on where you are and what the telcos can afford. Still, the optimum bands for 5G ranges from 3.3GHz to 4.2GHz.

The latest test, or approved tests allows Maxis to stretch to 200MHz of the 3.5GHz C-band spectrum. Previously MCMC only allows telcos to push 100MHz of the 3.5GHz. In that previous tests, they see speeds between 1.1Gbps to 1.76Gbps (yes, that is a G for Giga).

That is already 10x faster than our office’s fixed internet line at 100Mbps. The latest test with 200MHz of the 3.5GHz C-band sees speeds of up to 2.96Gbps. While that is not quite 3Gbps, it is still nearly double of the fastest speeds from the previous tests.

Does that mean we can expect that kind of speeds in the real world when 5G starts rolling out in Malaysia? We would say, only maybe. You have to remember that the tests are conducted in very controlled environments with minimal traffic and interference within the bandwidth.

4G LTE+ is technically capable of very high speeds already, speeds adequate for plenty of IoT implementation. Even the Formula 1 racing industry says that the current 4G bands are fast enough to support their operations. The only real benefit, as plenty of experts put it, 5G is supposed to be plenty more stable than 4G.

In the real world, you have to consider plenty of things when it comes to network speeds. Distances from the network towers have to be considered sometimes. In between the towers and you, there would be buildings and trees and other objects that might interfere with the transmission which affects speed. You also have to consider the amount of people using the same bandwidth from the same towers. Or, the amount of people that are using the total bandwidth at the same time. Of course, there are ways that 5G can counter and solve all these problems. It is meant to be the next generation of network after all, that only means that it is more powerful and better overall.

To answer the question posed earlier then, we have to say “maybe not at launch”. Of course, as testing goes, we are going to see higher speeds in the near future. While we may not get the full beans on launch, we can expect speeds and stability of 5G to continue to improve as manufacturers keep pushing the boundaries of 5G. Now, we can only hope that 5G starts rolling out soon, so that we can experience and test them ourselves; that is still the biggest benchmark of them all.

Android, Mobile, News

HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro 5G Coming to Malaysia?

January 7, 2020 Darwin Sucipto Leave a comment

If you kept up with the tech scene as of 2019, there would be one topic that is a little more outstanding that others. No, not foldable devices. Nope, not even flexible glass, or roll-able TVs like LGs. The hottest topic all year long was the dawn of 5G connectivity.

At this point, if you ask us about when you can expect 5G, we can only say this year 2020. You can bet on that though. The three major network providers in Malaysia have started testing out 5G networks as of late 2019 last year. Celcom, Maxis, and Digi have been looking into 5G implementations and have been talking about upgrading their towers for 5G connectivity roll-out. They also claim that some towers are already ready for a 5G switch. Celcom, for example have successfully tested out their 5G network in their own office tower in 2019.

Of course, there is a big problem when our network providers turns on the switch to 5G. That problem is not on their ends. Sadly, we are limited to our devices; we do not have plenty of choices when it comes to 5G ready devices. Even the Samsung Galaxy Fold that comes to Malaysia will not have 5G connectivity. The only 5G ready smartphone that was launched last year was from Vivo.

This year looks to be different though. Other than the expected 5G roll-out, you can expect more smartphones to come with 5G connectivity. One of those smartphones that is confirmed to come as a 5G ready device is the HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro 5G (codename: LIO-N29). How do we know? It just passed through SIRIM’s inspections as of January 2020.

Yes, the HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro is not that new of a smartphone. It launched late last year 2019 in Malaysia. It packs HiSilicon’s most powerful Kirin 990 with 8GB of RAM. The Malaysian model comes with 256GB of storage too for good measure. The Huawei Mate 30 Pro continues with their super powerful quad-camera set-up as well as a large 4,500mAh battery. The device is void of any physical buttons. Instead, the beautiful Horizon display takes on the traditional volume rocker function. Of course, to power on the device, there is still a haptic button on the right side. For 2020, it will have 5G to get it up to speeds with Malaysia’s introduction of 5G.

From the screenshot, HUAWEI’s Mate 30 Pro 5G comes with three 5G bands. The devices comes with a 700MHz, 3,500MHz, and 3,700MHz bands. Nope, not gibberish; the global band for 5G has been reported to be somewhere between 3,300MHz to 4,200MHz. There are also reports of 700MHz spectrums being used in Malaysia for certain telcos. Which also means that the HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro will be perfectly ready for Malaysia’s 5G push.

We do not know when the HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro 5G version will be going into the market. We do know though that SIRIM has approved the specifications within the screenshot. That also means that we can expect the HUAWEI Mate 30 Pro 5G to go on sale very soon. Price? We are guessing about MYR 4,499. Do not take our word for it though, we could be wrong.

techENT