Eight firms have been awarded 4G spectrum to offer LTE services in Malaysia by the country’s regulator, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
Celcom Axiata, DiGi Telecommunications, Maxis Broadband, Packet One Networks, Puncak Semangat, REDtone Marketing, U Mobile and YTL Communications won their bids for an allocation in the 2.6GHz frequency. Maxis is the market leader with 12.8 million subscribers, while Celcom holds second place with 12.4 million.
The regulator has not disclosed the amount of revenue generated by the auction. Unsuccessful bidders still have the opportunity to acquire spectrum wholesale for MVNO use.
3G services are widely available to Malaysia’s 39 million mobile users, while WiMAX has seen some moderate success in the market with around 1 million subscribers.