KUALA LUMPUR: U Mobile said on 6 October 2026 that its ULTRA5G network now covers 90 per cent of Malaysia's populated areas, more than nine months ahead of the July 2027 deadline set for the second phase of its rollout. Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil and Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching attended the announcement. The operator began building its own 5G network in July 2025 under Malaysia's dual 5G network model, after the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission selected it in November 2024 to build the country's second national 5G network.
Under that model, Malaysia runs two wholesale 5G networks instead of one. Digital Nasional Berhad built the first, while U Mobile was chosen to build the second and to compete with DNB at the wholesale level. U Mobile committed in its first year to reaching 80 per cent coverage in populated areas within 12 months, and set a second-phase target of 90 per cent by July 2027. Coverage in populated areas, known as CoPA, measures the share of people who live in populated zones and can access a network, rather than the share of the country's land area that is covered.
A build-out measured site by site
U Mobile has also pushed indoor coverage, an area where mobile operators often lag. The company has built more than 250 indoor coverage sites, exceeding its initial first-year target of 175. Indoor sites matter for shopping malls, office towers, transport hubs and stadiums, where outdoor macro coverage alone often fails to deliver usable speeds. That work supports the enterprise and venue customers the operator wants to serve on its 5G network.
- 6,737 5G sites deployed as of 31 March 2026
- 82.9 per cent CoPA at the end of March 2026
- Above 85 per cent CoPA by July 2026
- More than 250 indoor coverage sites against a first-year target of 175
The operator surpassed 80% CoPA before the end of March 2026, less than nine months after deployment began and more than three months ahead of its July 2026 target.
Migration off the DNB wholesale network
The coverage milestone follows the completion of U Mobile's migration away from the wholesale network run by Digital Nasional Berhad. U Mobile finished moving its own subscribers off DNB on 1 July 2026. Telekom Malaysia also migrated Unifi Mobile 5G traffic to U Mobile and fully vacated DNB 5G capacity on 31 July 2026. The moves mark the point at which traffic began flowing over the second network rather than the first.
For customers, the migration is meant to pass without disruption. For the market, it changes the wholesale picture, because two national 5G networks now carry traffic instead of one and operators can buy capacity from either. The dual model was designed to widen coverage and to introduce competition at the wholesale layer rather than leave it with a single supplier.
Independent measures of network quality
Third-party network testing has tracked the improvement. Opensignal measured an average 5G download speed of 346.1 Mbps for U Mobile between 1 December 2025 and 28 February 2026. The same data showed 5G standalone availability rising from 3.5 per cent in February 2026 to 29.2 per cent in June 2026. Standalone architecture matters because it lets an operator run core 5G functions without leaning on older 4G equipment.
Ookla rated U Mobile the best mobile network and the fastest 5G network in Malaysia for the first half of 2026, with 5G availability reaching as high as 50.3 per cent. Availability measures how often a device actually finds a 5G signal, while speed measures what a user gets once connected. Together they describe a picture that coverage percentages alone cannot capture.
By 31 March 2026, U Mobile had deployed 6,737 5G sites and reached 82.9% CoPA.
What comes after 90 per cent
U Mobile says the next stage of the programme is 5G-Advanced and artificial intelligence. The operator plans AI-assisted network operations, using automation to manage a larger and more complex radio estate. It also intends to develop enterprise-grade 5G applications, aimed at business customers rather than consumers. Those plans build on the coverage base the company has now completed ahead of schedule.
- 5G-Advanced network upgrades
- AI-assisted network operations
- Enterprise-grade 5G applications
- Continued expansion of indoor coverage
For Malaysia's cloud and data centre market, the milestone matters for a simple reason: mobile and fixed networks are the access layer that feeds cloud services. Faster 5G coverage in populated areas widens the pool of businesses and consumers who can reliably use cloud applications, and it supports the enterprise use cases that data centre operators in Johor and the Klang Valley are courting. A second wholesale network also adds competitive pressure on connectivity pricing.
The 90 per cent figure also lands while Malaysia's digital policy agenda pushes for broader connectivity. Coverage and affordability benchmarks have been set through JENDELA and the Malaysia Digital 2030 action plan. Delivering a 2027 target in 2026 gives the country more room to argue that its connectivity base can support the cloud, AI and data centre investments it is trying to attract.
U Mobile has not said when it expects to reach full national coverage, and the 90 per cent figure refers to populated areas rather than the whole country. Even so, the announcement confirms that the second 5G network now operates at a scale that makes it a genuine alternative to the incumbent wholesale provider. For cloud and data centre operators watching Malaysia, that is the number that matters.
Source: MalaysianWireless
