Well, as the adoption of 5G is increased, 5G internet speeds has been significantly dropped on a heavily congested area (outside Paradigm Mall in JB) - until such a point that using 4G is faster. I remember last time (around the same time last year), 5G at the same area has 200Mbps speed.

5G speeds can be less than 10Mbps because of severe congestion.

More networks and/or cells are needed to reduce the network load, especially when DNB guarantees at least 100Mbps speed.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Sep 13 2024, 06:06 AM

So far, there are no 5G operation at 700MHz in Malaysia - it is used as an anchor band (4G LTE 700MHz) for DNB 5G.

All 5G services in Malaysia are on N78/3.5GHz band.

Getting 10-20Mbps on 5G network can only mean severe congestion in that area. So more cells are definitely needed in that area.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Sep 13 2024, 11:47 AM

As more people are exploiting the 5G Anchor Band (B28) for faster internet - the speed on the anchor band has slowed down significantly - in some cases using the standard 4G band will give you faster internet - especially true for smartphones.

People are exploiting this method because of many reasons, such as using 5G only quota in a cheap way (4G routers that support B28 are cheaper than 5G routers), modified routers, and more.

Some people might not live in an area with fibre coverage or might not be using fibre connection as it might not be suitable - hence such exploitation.

When connect to 5G NSA - the speed is around 200-300Mbps (still fast, but is already slower than what it used to be at around the same time!)

Nowadays 5G is congested like hell.

But even with the same "congested like hell" - the performance still varies a bit between different telcos - for example using Celcom (CelcomDigi) is slower than Yes or Maxis Hotlink. 4G is way much faster because the telcos actually actively expand it - but 5G rollout has been stagnant, because it is DNB's responsibility (more 5G cells definitely needed in my area).

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Sep 23 2025, 10:48 PM

5G SA implementation (via Galaxy A06 5G updated to Android 16/One UI 8, Yes Power 35 plan)

Well the calls will no longer drop to 4G, because it natively supported VoNR calls. Interestingly, the status bar will still show "VoLTE" rather than "Vo5G" or "VoNR".



"5G" speed test when I lock to N28 only - very similar to 4G+ speeds, anyhow.

But it is better than the existing reception of Yes 4G at my home - if I used on devices that support 5G SA, it won't need to connect to Yes 4G network anymore - better reception in my house. I used 300Mbps fibre internet at home, anyway - speed is not a concern for me, but 5G congestion itself, is very real in my area.



I have a Yes prepaid SIM, to test if it is able to connect to 5G SA (locked to 5G only), no luck here, it just "fall" to U Mobile 5G (Yes clearly said prepaid services does not support 5G SA yet). My postpaid SIM does connect to 5G SA (when I purposely lock to 5G bands only).



This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Nov 5 2025, 04:03 PM

I can access Yes 5G Advanced (5G SA), on off peak hours 5G speeds are on around 60+ Mbps if I lock to 5G N28 only, speed is better if both bands are used (N28+78), around 420Mbps. Haven't test it on peak time yet, but I expect it to be very slow due to congestion in my area.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Nov 5 2025, 06:18 AM

You can try and see, if there is any router settings that can allow you to lock to N78, if you can do so, try locking to N78 first - it is known that locking to N78 will improve the performance (maybe slightly).

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Nov 5 2025, 04:10 PM

All test done on Samsung Galaxy A06 5G on 5G SA mode (Android 16/One UI 8.0), with 5G SA capable plan (Yes Power 35).

Yes 5G SA (N28 only, peak)



Yes 5G SA (N28 + N78 - aka default - peak)



The speed is as I expected, disappointing.

Real benefit - network will always stay at 5G, even with phone calls. Also, better 5G coverage (because it combined both low and mid band 5G, it doesn't need 4G - 5G signal actually goes further than NSA only - 5G NSA exclusively use N78 + B28 anchor before dropping to 4G when signal is weak, while 5G SA use N28 + N78 - which N28 provide extended range). The signal no longer drops to 4G, on a weak 5G area.
Maybe slightly more internet speed (5G CA mode, I think speed should be similar with existing 5G NSA).

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Nov 5 2025, 09:41 PM

I have to agree with this - to solve congestion, you either add more masts (which is very expensive, and some may oppose the addition of masts), use additional bands (which isn't possible or feasible at this junction yet), or telcos can choose to offload some capacity to fibre/landline broadband by aggressively bundling with fibre plans (which isn't affordable yet).

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Nov 6 2025, 02:04 AM

As on now, only N28 (700MHz) and N78 (3500MHz) are set aside and used for 5G in Malaysia - and may remain so for a foreseeable future.

N28 is only used for 5G SA, while N78 is used for both NSA (combined with B28 LTE DSS) and SA networks.

mmWave is assigned, but not used (short range, easily blocked by hands, glass and so on).

Some American, Australian, and Japanese phone models have mmWave included, but not elsewhere - even when included, the coverage is very very low.

Other bands are "4G only bands" for now, despite it is used for 5G in other countries.

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Nov 7 2025, 05:41 AM

Yes 5G (NSA)


Yes 5G SA


Interestingly, 5G NSA and SA has similar speeds (tested on Galaxy A56 5G).
Plan : Yes Power 35

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Nov 20 2025, 08:31 AM

Yup, that's correct. But I noticed that uploads can be faster on NSA mode.

I can sure the below one is 5G SA. For the NSA test I purposely changed the settings via *#2263# (available on almost all Samsung phones) - and choose NR NSA N78 + LTE B28.

If I left the settings by default, it will connect to 5G SA when the signal is available - if you have the correct plan of course.

Regardless of 5G NSA or SA, as Sam said, the underlaying bandwidth itself is the same regardless of NSA or SA (20MHz X2 on 700MHz + 100MHz on 3500MHz), so the speed difference is not going to be huge (unless there is 5G-A).

This post has been edited by shaun_kok: Nov 20 2025, 12:28 PM