The group of dreamers and thinkers are keys to helping the country reap the benefits of the IR4.0 and elevate its digital economy

by TMR

DIGI.COM Bhd and Malaysia Digital Economy Corp (MDEC) last Friday announced a collaboration to ensure more entrepreneurs, start-ups and developers obtain access to perform trials on the next-generation 5G technology at Malaysia’s first 5G OpenLab in Cyberjaya.

Both parties agreed that 5G will drive significant progress in emerging technologies, placing entrepreneurs, start-ups and developers in the best position to test the limits of 5G and bring to the fore new ideas for solutions and content.

This group of dreamers and thinkers are keys to helping the country reap the benefits of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) and elevate its digital economy.

To this end, Digi and MDEC welcome more entrepreneurs, start-ups and developers to conduct trials in the 5G OpenLab to better understand and verify the technical requirements needed for the deployment of 5G in Malaysia.

Use cases should be related to the areas of smart cities, smart mobility, smart healthcare and digital creative content.

Through the data collected, learnings can be applied to narrow down and identify which use cases will be relevant for the growth of 5G in Malaysia.

Commenting on the partnership, Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo said: “I welcome this strategic collaboration that aims to develop new 5G capabilities. The government would like to encourage more partnerships of this nature that provide invaluable opportunities to the start-up community.

“I believe that initiatives such as this will accelerate the development and adoption of new and innovative 5G technologies. I wish to see more ‘Made in Malaysia’ 5G solutions, and this initiative will help our local aspiring entrepreneurs achieve that goal.”

Digi CEO Albern Murty reiterated that collaborative efforts involving parties in the private and public sectors are imperative to move 5G forward for the nation.

“As 5G networks take shape, industries such as healthcare, transportation, agriculture and manufacturing will all be significantly more capable of innovation and growth than before. We need tech innovators who can either improve existing solutions or create entirely new ones for these industries to benefit from the unparalleled speeds and even higher amounts of data that 5G offers.

“Our partnership with MDEC allows us to support greater research and development across these different verticals and put 5G in the hands of those who can facilitate the innovation needed to develop and accelerate the deployment of 5G in Malaysia,” he said.

MDEC CEO Surina Shukri said: “Deeper collaboration between the private sector and government agencies, especially around new technology such as 5G, is vital towards opening up white spaces for economic growth in Malaysia.

We need to enable more spaces and supporting ecosystems to encourage greater innovation, efficiency and productivity.

“I believe this pioneering initiative creates a platform for innovators to nurture fresh technology-driven ideas to transform businesses and enhance user experience through the hyper-connectivity made possible by 5G.” Digi’s 5G OpenLab is located at RekaScape, a community space by Cyberview in Cyberjaya. The lab serves as a collaborative space for businesses, academics and developers to test their 5G use cases.

The 1,102 sq ft 5G-powered space is the first of its kind in Malaysia and offers super high-speed, massive bandwidth and ultra-low latency connectivity for 5G use case trials in a live, controlled environment. Applications to participate can be submitted to digi.my/5GOpenLab.