In response to an article written by Emir Research CEO Dr. Rais Hussain on the Single Wholesale Network model adopted by DNB which was published by BusinessToday, Digital Nasional Berhad shared a paper drafted by Plum – a specialist telecommunications consultant. (Emir says the specialist was appointed by DNB)
DNB says the Plum paper showed that EMIR Research fundamentally misunderstood DNB’s 5G Single Wholesale Network (SWN) rollout.
It argued that Dr. Rais assumed that the SWN involves active RAN sharing which makes it impossible for the mobile operators to compete in service innovation at the network level. This is incorrect – there is no active RAN sharing. He had also ignored the fact that changing from the SWN to multiple 5G networks will lead to major delays in 5G rollout at a time when Malaysia needs 5G services for economic growth.
Plum said that claims that DNB’s costs in rolling out and operating the SWN will increase substantially and will not lead to lower end-user prices. In contrast, the rational economic analysis indicates that EMIR’s proposal will lead to wholesale 5G costs 4 to 5 times higher than those of the SWN. Dr Rais’ belief that demand for 5G services will be sluggish and will focus on high-density areas and specialist applications such as improvements in industrial processes was not true and in contrast experience from elsewhere in the world suggests that the main demand for 5G will come from growth in mobile data services and fixed wireless access services.
The UK specialist said Dr Rais’ assumption that the Government will continue to be the major funder of DNB when the expectation is that the Government will contribute only a modest minority share of DNB’s required funds by 2025.
Plum also showed that if EMIR’s policy proposals were to be implemented, then Malaysia would face 5G services which are 4 to 5 times more costly at the wholesale level than continuing with the SWN and are delayed by many years in Malaysia at a time when 5G is starting to become important as a driver of economic growth elsewhere in the world.
Emir’s suggestion will offer little or no improvement in network service innovation and infrastructure competition it added.
