The spectrum reallocation exercise involving four telcos in Malaysia will see three of them affected by service disruptions for the next seven months. Areas affected by the exercise will see Malaysians on Celcom, Digi, and Maxis facing temporary degradation.
This was revealed by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in a press statement released earlier on its official Facebook page, as the three telcos begin migrating their base stations to operate within the newly reallocated spectrum blocks.
In February this year, the MCMC announced its intention to reallocate spectrum in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands among the four major telcos in Malaysia (Celcom, Digi, Maxis, and U Mobile). These two bands were assigned for a fee to the telcos, and operable for the next 15 years.
Previously, these bands were used for 2G networks, and after the reallocation, telcos will now work on refarming their respective spectrum allocations into 4G networks and above.
The reallocation sees Digi allocated 2x5MHz of the 900MHz band, and 2x20MHz of the 1800MHz band. U Mobile has been allocated 2x5MHz and 2x15MHz of the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands respectively.
Meanwhile, the reallocation saw Maxis’ previous allocation reduced to 2x10MHz and 2x20MHz for the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands respectively. Celcom’s previous allocation has also been reduced to 2x10MHz in the 900MHz band, and 2x20MHz in the 1800MHz band.
While the service degradation seems like a long period to live with, the exercise will mean improved service from all telcos when the exercise is completed in June 2017, as the reallocation will allow telcos to begin refarming and upgrading of base stations into faster network standards.
(Source: Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (Facebook))
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