• Dual network defender outlines Malaysia’s 5G infrastructure development strategy.
• Acknowledges tower sharing economics remain compelling.
• Rural connectivity: remote towers cost 3x more, generate 1/3 less revenue.

Malaysia’s long-debated dual network strategy has entered its most important phase, as UMobile accelerates its 5G network rollout and plans for up to 7,000 new sites by mid-2026, While two years of industry discourse have centred on whether the country needs two 5G networks, the question is: with DNB already covering 80% of populated areas, how does building parallel infrastructure serve Malaysia’s digital ambitions?

Gayan Koralage has shaped Edotco Group’s strategy since its formation in 2013 and helped establish the company as Asia’s leading tower company in eight markets with 55,000 towers, and says Malaysia’s 5G infrastructure development must prioritise network resilience over immediate cost savings.

“The design objective is single network failure,” Koralage explained during an exclusive interview with Tech Wire Asia, amid mounting industry concerns about UMobile’s plan to deploy 5,000-7,000 new 5G sites alongside DNB’s existing 80% population coverage. “If you have only one network running the country’s 5G network, then the whole nation risks not having any if there should be a failure with the single network.”

This defence comes at a time when Malaysia’s 5G adoption reveals significant untapped potential. With only 20% of what industry estimates suggest is approximately 33 GB of monthly per-customer data consumption migrated to 5G networks, the vast majority of digital transformation remains ahead. The government’s vision for building parallel networks with substantial capacity addresses this opportunity, positioning Malaysia to accelerate digital adoption and support the projected surge to 50-75 GB per customer by 2030 as AI and machine-to-machine communications drive demand.

The numbers tell the story of Malaysia’s digital trajectory. Current data consumption of 33GB per customer monthly is projected to rise to 50-75GB over the next decade, driven not just by human-to-human communications but also artificial intelligence applications and machine-to-machine interactions.

“The incremental data growth for Malaysia’s 35-40 million population – the data manufacturing capacity we need to build in the country, predominantly AI-based – cannot be handled by a single operator,” Koralage argued.

The 2025 reality: Beyond theoretical debates

Two years after Malaysia announced its dual 5G network strategy, the debate has moved from boardrooms to construction sites. UMobile’s aggressive deployment timeline targets 7,500 sites with 80% coverage by July 2026 and is the largest network rollout in Malaysian telecommunications history. This isn’t theoretical anymore; it’s happening on the ground.

That is why the current moment represents a shift in Malaysia’s telecommunications narrative. Early 2023 discussions focused on whether dual networks made economic sense, yet this year sees operational realities: spectrum allocation is finalised, TM has secured major fibre deals with both networks, and construction crews are building infrastructure nationwide.

Koralage’s strategic oversight helped attract Japanese and Malaysian sovereign wealth fund investments into Edotco in 2017. He views the transition as validation not vindication. “The question is no longer whether we should have two networks,” he said. “The question is how we execute two networks efficiently.”

“Having two networks is not new. It’s something very well tested,” Koralage said when pressed about infrastructure overlap concerns. “You have to have an overlap to have redundancy in this location. Otherwise, if 5G fails, what’s my backup plan?”

Yet redundancy comes with costs. UMobile’s rollout plan includes 2,000 new locations alongside 5,000 tower upgrades, creating the infrastructure duplication that tower sharing principles were designed to eliminate. The irony isn’t lost on industry observers: Malaysia promotes sharing and mandates separation.

Market balance complexities

The current network distribution reveals structural imbalances that the dual strategy attempts to address. “Right now there are three MNOs – CelcomDigi, Maxis, YTL – in one shared 5 G network, while UMobile operates essentially alone,” Koralage said. “The industry could potentially create traffic balance by selectively sharing networks – for example, with indoor coverage, operators can choose which buildings to serve rather than duplicating infrastructure in the same location.”

The rebalancing exercise suggests the dual network strategy serves broader competitive objectives beyond technical redundancy. The government appears to be engineering market dynamics that prevent any single network from achieving monopolistic control, even if its approach contradicts immediate efficiency gains.

The rural connectivity reality check

Beneath the 5G deployment debate lies an economic reality that exposes Malaysia’s digital divide in financial terms. The JENDELA initiative, designed to connect the remaining 4% of Malaysia’s unconnected population, reveals why market forces alone cannot achieve universal coverage.

“The cost to build a tower in a rural area is three times [higher],” Koralage said, outlining the brutal mathematics of rural connectivity. “Off-grid sites require specialised solutions – backup power, satellite backhauling, full macro towers rather than simple poles. The total cost of ownership becomes three times higher, while the revenue you can generate is only one-third of urban levels.”

This creates what Koralage describes as a “10 times problem” – three times the cost multiplied by one-third the revenue equals a nine-fold economic disadvantage, rounded to ten for practical purposes. The maths explain why government intervention through revenue sharing becomes necessary for rural deployment.

The bureaucratic challenges reveal a fundamental disconnect between urban and rural infrastructure development processes. “The site acquisition permitting process is taking much longer than we expected, because in urban cities, the process is well-known. In those rural locations, the landlords would have to visit government agencies. The process is not quite there, and to top it off, the council doesn’t meet often,” Koralage explained, describing what he characterises as “inherent, intrinsic issues” that complicate rural deployment.

The contrast is stark: urban tower deployment benefits from established relationships between municipal councils, landlords, and telecommunications companies. Rural areas lack this institutional knowledge and infrastructure. Local councils convene less frequently than their urban counterparts, landowners are unfamiliar with telecommunications infrastructure requirements, and government agencies haven’t developed standardised approval processes for remote locations.

Koralage describes Edotco as Malaysia’s “National Tower company. It’s delivered 257 towers in seven states for JENDELA Phase One, but these delays represent more than operational challenges – they undermine universal connectivity objectives. The company has committed to 90-day delivery timelines, down from previous 180-day standards, but rural permitting processes often extend beyond targets.

“The government has an ambitious plan with JENDELA: to get it done in six months. The approval process is something which we have to work on,” Koralage said, suggesting that regulatory reform may be necessary to achieve JENDELA’s connectivity goals.

The company advocates for a single-window approval system in all states, which could standardise rural deployment processes and reduce bureaucratic friction that currently hampers national connectivity initiatives.

State-backed competition and industry fragmentation

The proliferation of state-backed tower companies adds another layer of complexity to Malaysia’s infrastructure landscape. The entities emerged partly as a response to what Koralage terms “indisciplined rollout by mobile operators” – situations where multiple towers were constructed in proximity of one another without coordination.

“You’d see situations where we have two towers on the same rooftop, or two towers on the same hilltop – parallel towers built without coordination. That’s the history where the state found that the city’s aesthetic appeal was being compromised. It doesn’t look good, and some towers were built without proper approvals,” he said, defending the rationale behind state-backed companies as a response to industry indiscipline.

Today, Malaysia’s tower industry includes approximately 150 companies, with 40-plus remaining active. Edotco controls 6,000 towers out of 20,000 owned by independent tower companies: significant market fragmentation that enables competition yet complicates coordination.

The company advocates for a single-window approval system in all states to streamline deployment timelines. Edotco has already improved its delivery commitments from 180 days to 90 days, but regulatory bottlenecks remain problematic.

“Right now, we are committed to 90-day delivery. It used to be 180 days, but when network traffic grows in a location and operators decide to add infill sites, they cannot wait 180 days. The network traffic has already increased, calls are losing quality, and by the time 180 days pass, the situation has changed completely. Operators need a faster, more rapid approval process,” Koralage said.

Technology evolution beyond traditional infrastructure

Malaysia’s infrastructure development extends beyond conventional tower deployment into emerging technologies that may reshape rural connectivity economics. Edotco is exploring low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite integration for areas where terrestrial infrastructure proves economically unviable, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak, where point-of-presence locations may be 50 kilometres apart.

The company is also diversifying into adjacent services, including electric vehicle charging infrastructure through its ChargeSini partnership, which targets 200-plus locations using existing tower footprints. Out of the 100 EV charging stations deployed so far, Edotco uses its in-building locations, taking parking lots for ChargeSini charging through revenue-sharing arrangements.

Beyond Malaysia, Edotco’s influence extends to eight Asian markets with 47,000-plus towers, though Koralage acknowledges political instabilities in markets like Myanmar create operational challenges. The company’s RM1 billion annual revenue demonstrates the scale of infrastructure operations, with government projects representing less than 5% of total revenue – contradicting perceptions of heavy government dependency.

“We consider ourselves as the national tower company,” Koralage said, pointing to Edotco’s delivery of 1,200 tenancies in Malaysia last year and projections of around 800 this year. “[That’s] the largest rollout ever conducted by any Malaysian company in the history of the Malaysian tower or telecom industry.”

Edotco’s positioning reflects broader infrastructure responsibilities. The company owns 400 out of Malaysia’s 1,000 IBS-capable buildings, including shopping malls, universities, and iconic locations like the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. UMobile has selected 200 of these for 5G upgrades, representing approximately RM200 million in new business and highlighting how indoor coverage – which handles 70% of Malaysia’s cellular traffic – becomes crucial for network quality.

Critical industry assessment

While Koralage presents a technically sound defence of Malaysia’s dual network strategy, several challenges warrant scrutiny. The economic justification relies heavily on projected data consumption growth and AI adoption – assumptions that remain unproven at scale. Singapore’s successful dual network model may not translate directly to Malaysia’s more complex geography and economic structure.

The regulatory environment appears fragmented, with multiple approval processes creating deployment inefficiencies that undermine the speed advantages 5G networks are supposed to provide. The persistence of 42% operator-owned towers suggests that commercial incentives for infrastructure sharing may be less compelling than theoretical models indicate.

The rural connectivity economics expose uncomfortable truths about market-driven universal access. If remote towers require three times the investment for a third of the revenue, the business case for private investment disappears without government subsidies. This reality challenges assumptions about telecommunications market efficiency.

Malaysia’s approach to 5G infrastructure development reflects a broader tension between market efficiency and strategic resilience. The dual network strategy may indeed provide redundancy benefits, but at costs that extend beyond immediate financial calculations. Success will depend on whether the nation can justify redundancy premiums and deliver the connectivity foundation necessary for the country’s digitally-based economic aspirations.

As Malaysia navigates between efficiency and resilience, the telecommunications industry watches closely. The outcome may determine whether other ASEAN nations follow Malaysia’s redundancy-first approach or pursue more traditional efficiency-focused strategies. Either way, the experiment will provide valuable data points for regional digital infrastructure development.

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