This article by SoyaCincau is dated 25th February 2024.

How is the 5G coverage inside malls and the MRT network now?

Long as you have Ericsson as the sole 5G vendor, don't expect it will improve any time soon at least in the next few years

This post has been edited by LuckyBai: Jun 7 2024, 08:55 PM

Oh dear, this doesn't sound good

The gwailo's 5G is said to be far behind Huawei 5G by as much as 3-4 years.

Good luck DNB as users are suckers.

I thought the government is considering awarding the second 5G network to Huawei?

To balance out East and West.

I could be totally wrong about this

Indoor coverage may vary in floors. In LG/basement parking sure need drop to 4g. (The disadvantage of smaller telco like Yes, unifi, they can be somehow weaker 4g signal)

This is the reason why I will mnp out yes number to larger telco like hotlink

As for MRT, they got 5g line in MRT. But that's different story for LRT kelana Jaya line which smaller telco didn't bother to do at all as well.

Have it been awarded?

Still not sign yet. They supposed to sign agreement this month but anything could happen so may be delayed by some months

Well, you are referring to maxis share sale agreement .. It has nothing to do with the 5G DWN, so the Huawei as the vendor for the 5G DWN not even sure if they will be selected, hopefully yes

Not specifically for maxis tho

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/06/...nt-june-21-says

This is which all msia telcos supposed to sign by this month. Of course nothing that mentioned Huawei or any other equipment oem

This begs the question.

If we have not acquired a 5G-capable smartphone yet, should we wait until the second 5G network rollout is complete?

News on 2 June, that is the expected timeline, yes all telcos need to sign it by then which in fact change multiple times already.

You need to read the latest, maxis signs the SSA first among all

That's still no exact timeline yet. So depends on whether you really need a new phone or not. For now I'll definitely get 5g phone that supports current 5g network first (that officially available in Malaysia, not imported). All of 5g ready phones since 2020 should have support for SA network and NSA network. Therefore that's no need to wait for second network.

The answer is, if you need to buy a new phone now, just get a 5g capable phone. Nobody knows how many years more to wait for second 5g nationwide.
It is not necessary to buy a new phone just for the sake of using 5g.

My next phone will definitely be 5G-capable

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Fyi, .......

https://www.fierce-network.com/tech/t-mobil...ndalone-network - T-Mobile launches nationwide 5G standalone network
By Monica Alleven Aug 4, 2020
.... Devices will need a software upgrade to take advantage of the SA version; the first devices on the T-Mobile network to support SA are the OnePlus 8 and Samsung Galaxy S20 series; eventually the software will be made available for other 5G devices. There’s no word on when the first Apple SA-based iPhone will be available. ....

= you need to buy high-end 5G smartphones in Malaysia because mid-end 5G smartphones may not receive the update for 5G-SA capability. .......

https://www.telecoms.com/wireless-networkin...ndalone-5g-core - DNB, TM and ZTE deliver Malaysia's first standalone 5G core - 18 Oct 2023

= 5G-SA is already being tested in Malaysia.
.

https://www.lightreading.com/5g/four-malays...cond-5g-network - Four Malaysian ministries to develop action plan for the second 5G network
Discussions around the action plan to implement the second 5G network started just as the five telco operators participating in the DNB are reportedly ready to sign their share subscription agreements by June 21.
- 3 June 2024
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Yeah, 2020 phones with 5g just theoretically support NSA+SA. Phone updates might have been terminated for such models like s20 series after go pass 3-4 years support lifecycle. So possibly will need to be replaced eventually.

Remember when very first batch of LTE devices from 2014-2017 were not able to take VoLte support as manufacturers ended software update support lifecycle, those eventually forced to be replaced due to 3g sunset

I believe we won't see 5g SA to be widely use in Malaysia yet. Maybe for industry use cases only. The most important thing now is for MCMC, NDB and telcos to work on improving indoor coverage.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verizon_(mobile_network)
....

850 MHz CLR	n5	NR	5G	Branded as "5G Nationwide", these are the primary bands for 5G NR network. Spectrum is shared with LTE using DSS. Launched October 2020.
1.7/2.1 GHz AWS	n66
1.9 GHz PCS	n2
3.7 GHz C-Band	n77			Branded as "5G Ultra Wideband", launched on January 19, 2022.
28 GHz Ka-Band	n261			Branded as "5G Ultra Wideband", these are the mmWave bands, enabling 4 gigabit speeds using small cells. Went live in May 2019.
39 GHz Ka-Band	n260

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Nasional
....

Band	Frequency	Frequency width	Protocol	Notes
28	700 MHz (703-743, 758-798)	2*2 x20 MHz	LTE	for NSA 5G anchor
78	3.5 GHz (3410.4 MHz and 3511.2 MHz)	200 MHz	5G NR	Govt assigned 200 MHz to DNB
257	28 GHz		5G NR	Govt assigned 1600 MHz to DNB

Verizon USA has low-band 5G frequencies, ie 850MHz, 1700MHz, 2100MHz and 1900MHz for both NSA 5G LTE anchor freq and for consumer use, which give good indoor coverage, ... whereas DNB has only the low-band 4G LTE 700MHz frequency for NSA 5G anchor and none for consumer use, ie DNB has only mid-band 5G frequencies, ie 3500MHz or 3.5GHz, for consumer use, which gives poor indoor coverage.

So, in Malaysia, better to stick to 4G. Eg, .......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_Mobile = U Mobile's 4G LTE frequencies are on low-band 900MHz, 1800Mhz, 2100MHz and 2600MHz, which give good indoor coverage.
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This post has been edited by lurkingaround: Jun 8 2024, 10:44 PM