Ericsson Malaysia has refuted claims that the telecommunication vendor won the 5G contract to build Malaysia’s next-generation communication network other than on merit.
This comes as a member of parliament questioned the arrangement between the two parties claiming the company has prior issues on breaching contract protocols. The PH MP had even asked for the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission to investigate the two parties (DNB and Ericsson) on the alleged breach.
In response, the Swedish telecommunication giant issued a statement stating that the DNB 5G Contract was awarded following the strictest standards of governance as advised and facilitated by EY Consulting and that the company ranked first in all three key components of the tender evaluation criteria. Which were technical, commercial, and socioeconomic, incidentally the group will be the only vendor for the massive RM15 billion project with DNB proposing a Single Wholesale Network model for the country.
Ericsson went on to further comment that it is committed to conducting business with integrity and strongly refutes any and all allegations that the contract with DNB was won for any reasons other than merit, based on the above-mentioned criteria.
It currently has 114 live 5G networks, covering more than half of the world’s such networks.
DNB is a wholly-owned entity under the Ministry of Finance and has been facing controversy over its proposed SWN model, the approach will have local telco leasing the spectrum for the company which nearly all have opposed.
Ericsson says it has already been on the ground and has been launched 5G in Malaysia in less than 6 months of the contract being awarded adding that 5G is already available in parts of Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, and Kuala Lumpur.
The group concludes that it has made significant investments across all markets and geographies to strengthen its Ethics & Compliance program, including by expanding its Compliance team and by implementing enhanced Compliance systems for preventing, detecting, reporting and remediating non-compliance.
