State of Mobile Networks: Malaysia (March 2016)
Unlike so many other countries in the world, Malaysia has no 4G speed king. Three years after its first LTE network came online, the country's operators are locked in a close battle for 4G dominance, though one provider, Maxis, holds an edge due to its superior LTE coverage. Drawing on 40 million data samples collected by 21,000 OpenSignal users between Dec. 1 and Feb. 29, we put Malaysia under the network microscope, examining the 3G and 4G performance of its four nationwide operators.

Maxis leads the way in 4G coverage

Maxis won OpenSignal's award for best 4G coverage hands down. In our three-month test period, Maxis 4G users were able to connect to its LTE network 70% of the time, putting it not only well ahead of its Malaysian peers but the majority of operators worldwide.

A three-way race for fastest 4G provider

There was no clear-cut winner in LTE speed for our test period. DiGi, Maxis and U Mobile all delivered average LTE download speeds between 12 and 14 Mbps, close enough to produce a three-way statistical tie. When we measured average speed across all mobile data networks, Maxis emerged as the winner with an overall download speed of 5.2 Mbps.

Celcom's 4G service struggles

Of the four major Malaysian operators, Celcom performed the worst on the national level, lagging behind its competitors in speed, coverage and even latency. In Malaysia's Klang Valley surrounding Kuala Lumpur, though, Celcom fared far better. The operator shared the award for fastest 3G network with U Mobile and tied for second in 4G coverage.

Malaysian networks keep up with global technology trends

Malaysia's 4G networks aren't the fastest in the world, but they are close to matching the global average of 13.5 Mbps. Like many other countries worldwide, Malaysia is also testing out new LTE-Advanced technologies.

DiGi arguably had the worse 3G among 4 telco but overall it's LTE is much better than Celcom and U Mobile

The fact that in my kg ade pencawang digi always 4g..then last month in kg sebelah new pencawang digi baru pasang and im likeee wauuuuuu

Celcom as expected has a solid 3G network but their 4G is just so-so if we were to talk about overall quality in Malaysia.