by AKMAR ANNUAR

COMMUNICATIONS Minister Fahmi Fadzil said no top officials from the Communications Ministry were involved in the decision to appoint U Mobile Sdn Bhd as the country’s second 5G network operator.

He said the shareholders of U Mobile are also not a factor for Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) choosing the telecommunications company.

“Regarding the issue of shareholdings, as I mentioned, the MCMC independently (chose U Mobile).

“The minister, deputy minister were not involved in any evaluation process,” Fahmi told the Dewan Rakyat during Ministerial Question Time today.

He was answering questions by Hassan Abdul Karim (Pakatan Harapan-Pasir Gudang) who grilled the minister on whether the U Mobile shareholders were a factor in the decision-making.

The MCMC’s decision to appoint U Mobile has come under scrutiny due in part because of its shareholders.

The company’s largest shareholder is Singapore’s Temasek-linked Straits Mobile Investments Pte Ltd with a 48.3% stake.

The company’s second-largest shareholder is His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim King of Malaysia, with a 22.3% stake in the company.

In response to concerns about foreign ownership, Fahmi reassured the public that U Mobile’s foreign equity is still within regulatory limits, with a cap of 49% for individual network facilities providers (NFP) and service providers (NSP). 

“U Mobile has committed to reducing its foreign ownership stake to 20%,” he said.

Yesterday, MCMC said U Mobile was chosen based on factors like business and technical plans, complaint records, customer satisfaction and its track record in infrastructure projects.

In a statement, MCMC highlighted that additional considerations included U Mobile’s contributions to the Universal Service Provision (USP) projects, such as Phase 1 of the National Digital Network (JENDELA) and the 4G Upgrade Project, in line with MCMC’s commitment to improving user experience and service quality.