PETALING JAYA: Malaysia continues to outpace countries in the region in rolling out 5G networks, outperforming its neighbors in terms of network performance, consistency scores and download speeds.
Ookla Research said in its latest analysis that the country’s 5G network has performed consistently well since its launch over two years ago, making it one of the best-performing networks in the world.
The fourth quarter 2023 (4Q23) Speedtest Intelligence® report found that “Malaysia continues to outperform other Southeast Asian countries in 5G network performance despite expected performance decline due to user growth and congestion. exceeds that.”
The country’s median 5G download speed is 451.79 megabits per second (Mbps), higher than Singapore’s 329.73 Mbps, Thailand’s 129.40 Mbps and the Philippines’ 125.14 Mbps.
Ookla Research notes that although current 4G networks can only meet users’ needs for daily tasks such as browsing, streaming, and online communication, the significant performance gains brought by 5G could further improve the user experience. He pointed out that the improvement has not yet been achieved.
“While 5G median speeds are a useful measure of the midpoint of user experience on 5G networks, they do not provide a complete picture of the actual improvement compared to 4G.
“To demonstrate the improvements brought by Malaysia’s 5G network, we compared the 5G download speeds of the bottom 10th percentile of 5G results to the median download speeds over the long-term evolution of 4G.
“We found that the bottom 10% of 5G speeds outperformed the median 4G download speed by at least five times. Comparing the median 5G and 4G download speeds, we found that the median 5G download speed in Malaysia The value was 451.79Mbps, 12 times faster than 4G,” the report revealed.
Furthermore, Malaysia’s 5G network achieved the world’s highest 5G consistency score of 97.3% during the same period, with other top countries being North Macedonia (94.1%) and the United Arab Emirates (93.9%).
Nevertheless, Ookla Research said that although 5G availability is steadily improving, 5G adoption in the country still needs to catch up with other markets.
In 2023, 5G availability in Malaysia increased gradually every quarter, starting from 20.9% in Q1 2023 and rising to 26.9% in Q4 2023.
“This 6 percentage point increase can be attributed to Digital Nasional Bhd’s aggressive expansion of 5G coverage. This increase was driven by improved smartphone availability and the introduction of new 5G plans by carriers. It was encouraged.”
