KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian telecommunication companies have received accolades from the internationally-acclaimed 2024 Global Mobile Network Experience Awards hosted by Opensignal, an application that measures the mobile network experience of global users.
The companies were recognised as Opensignal’s “Global Rising Stars” for 2024 for showing year-on-year improvements in two categories, namely “Download Speed Experience” and “Upload Speed Experience.”
Six of Malaysia’s major telcos – Yes, Maxis, UMobile, Celcom, Unifi, and Digi – were placed in the Group 1 category of Global Rising Stars for Download Speed Experience after recently introducing 5G through the nation’s wholesale network provider, Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB).
Sweden’s Telenor, Djezzy from Algeria, and India’s Jio were also awarded in this category.
Among the 15 other winners, five of the local providers – Yes, UMobile, Celcom, Unifi, and Digi – were also awarded for enhanced Upload Speed Experience, along with Bitel from Peru, India’s Airtel, and Indonesia’s 3.
According to Opensignal’s report on the awards, 80 countries were analysed and split into two groups, each consisting of 40 countries.
Providers from markets having an area of more than 200,000 km2 are included in Group 1, where Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and the United States are classified.
Home markets smaller than the aforementioned surface go into Group II, which consists of countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Opensignal analyses the experience of the top 15 operators in each group (I or II) between the second half of 2023 and the same period in 2022, based on the largest percentage improvement in mobile network experience in the previous year.
The Global Rising Stars awards were given based on measurements of the actual mobile network experience, including time on 4G/5G, upload speed, and download speed.
In the report, Opensignal mentioned that users in Malaysia and India saw significant increases in download speed, which was attributed to their 5G rollout.
Last week, Ookla, a global leader in network intelligence and connectivity insights, announced that Malaysia’s 5G Consistency Score for Q4 2023 is the global winner amongst countries that have successfully launched 5G commercially.
Malaysia scored 97.27%, followed by North Macedonia at 94.06% and the UAE at 93.88%.
Ookla president and chief executive officer Stephen Bye handed over the Best Global Consistency Score award to Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil in a ceremony on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress Barcelona, which was also attended by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia (MCMC) chairman Tan Sri Mohamad Salim Fateh Din.
Describing it as a well-deserved award, Bye noted that although the approach taken by Malaysia in building the network with DNB was unique and had a lot of scepticism, it had proven that it could be successful with the support of the regulatory environment, the ministry, and operators. – March 6, 2024