By Tan Sri Vincent Tan
Proven record of accomplishment
U Mobile, a full-fledged telco (mobile network operator) was founded more than 17 years ago without taxpayers’ money as an innovation-led telco to challenge the giants in the telco industry. After more than RM5 billion private sector money was invested, we reached 9 million subscribers at the end of 2023, have built more than 10,000 network sites and have over 1,000 dedicated Malaysian employees nationwide. At 95% network population coverage, U Mobile is on par with CelcomDigi and Maxis. U Mobile has proven consistent success in the government’s JENDELA initiative and universal service provision (USP) programme to narrow the digital divide in the country. Plans as low as RM15 per month and free connectivity were offered.
In 2023, U Mobile recorded a higher revenue of RM3.5 billion and higher net profit of RM102 million, with increased operating cash flows of RM1.2 billion. In addition, U Mobile’s total assets stood at RM6.2 billion with a total share capital of RM2.6 billion.
As the first telco in the country to offer 5G service at no additional costs for all Malaysians and consistently offering similar services at 20-25% cheaper than competitors, U Mobile’s aggressive investments and innovations have and will continue to challenge our competitors resulting in cheaper and better services for all Malaysians.
20% foreign shareholding, significantly lower than its peer
Foreign ownership in telcos is common in Malaysia and globally. For example, Norway’s Telenor today owns approximately 33% of CelcomDigi. As soon as the second network award was announced, U Mobile confirmed that Singapore’s Straits Mobile Investment Pte Ltd has agreed to reduce its foreign majority stake to just 20%, ensuring us Malaysians solid control of U Mobile.
Early shareholders of U Mobile include U Mobile’s founder and chairman Tan Sri Vincent Tan (since 2007) who founded Digi in the 1990s, Singapore’s Straits Mobile Investment Pte Ltd (since 2010) and His Majesty the Sultan of Johor (since 2015), 9 years before His Majesty was sworn in as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong King of Malaysia.
As we encourage healthy public discourse, we must also urge any comments involving His Majesty our King should be done responsibly based on facts, not wild accusations. U Mobile has been and will always be open to engaging with the public in a constructive and transparent manner. After all U Mobile owes its success to unwavering and growing public support.
Breaking monopoly of the 5G network & no direct award
Despite telcos were willing to fund the 5G rollout without taxpayers’ money, Muhyiddin’s administration insistence on the monopoly of the 5G network through the Ministry of Finance-owned DNB has put our taxpayers’ money at risk. RM4 billion spent to date, and RM12.5 billion more planned through various contracts by DNB over a period of ten years: in total RM16.5 billion of our taxpayers money are at stake.
The monopolistic single network model as chosen by Muhyiddin administration was also against the best practices in the world. The monopolistic single wholesale network (SWN) model has failed in other countries.
Whilst it will be a waste of resources if all major telcos were to invest in 5 separate 5G networks, it is certainly too risky to have just one 5G network for the entire nation. It is critical for Malaysia’s digital resiliency to have two nationwide, modern 5G networks that provide connectivity and redundancy. Competition leads to improvements and innovations. Both networks can compete and coexist to provide the best services with guaranteed affordability to the consumers, enterprises and government.
We applaud the current government for making the courageous decision to break the DNB monopoly by having the second 5G network. U Mobile was selected to implement the second 5G network after a thorough tender process conducted by MCMC by way of a beauty contest that was participated by all major Malaysian telcos.
There is no multi-billion contract that involves taxpayers’ money awarded to U Mobile, contrary to wild accusations. U Mobile will fully fund the entire rollout of this second network. Not a single cent of our taxpayers money will be committed, a vast difference from the Muhyiddin’s administration monopoly model which was funded by taxpayers and has put our taxpayers’ money at risk.
Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun is the Chairman of U Mobile
