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DNB and Ericsson sign MoUs to help develop new 5G-based use cases for industry verticals including manufacturing, transport and more
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State-owned DNB hopes collaboration with Ericsson will help accelerate the digitalization of Malaysian enterprises
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Chip giant Intel will aid Ericsson as its technology partner
The Malaysian government’s Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB) has signed an agreement with Ericsson to accelerate 5G-led digitalization of enterprises in the country to boost the economy. Chip giant Intel will aid Ericsson as its technology partner and will help develop new 5G-based use cases for industry verticals, including manufacturing, transport and logistics.
“We are preparing enterprises for their digitalization with a future-ready network. The digitalization of industries in Malaysia will enable the country to leapfrog as a Digital Nation. But they need to begin planning and investing in their digital journey now or risk being left behind because digitalization is no longer an option,” said David Hägerbro, Head of Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at Ericsson.
Malaysia has adopted a different approach to deploying 5G networks via DNB, which the country's Ministry of Finance formed in 2021 as a way to build a "neutral" single wholesale network (SWN) to boost economic activity and reduce the urban-rural digital divide. DNB claims that its 5G network covers 80% of the population.
“To further drive the adoption of 5G amongst enterprises, DNB and Ericsson have initiated this program that will secure light houses for key industries to demonstrate the full potential of digitalization and 5G. These will act as catalysts to kick-start digitalization across industries,” said Datuk Ahmad Zaki Zahid, Chief Strategy Officer at DNB, in a press release about the deal.
Ericsson was an obvious choice for a partner for DNB due to a pre-existing 10-year partnership. The Swedish vendor has provided end-to-end 5G, including core, RAN and transport, OSS/BSS and managed services to DNB.
According to Ookla’s Q4 2023 Speedtest Intelligence Report, Malaysia leads Southeast Asia in 5G network performance. The country’s 5G network also scored the highest, at 97.3% globally, for "consistency." The superior performance of the 5G network has spurred DNB to use it to drive the digital transformation of enterprises.
A case for use cases
As part of the deal, DNB and Ericsson signed a series of MoUs with several companies to jointly develop use cases for Malaysian enterprises. The two companies will work with automobile manufacturer Scania; autonomous and robotics company, eMoovit; and bearing vendor, SKF Malaysia.
Scania plans to develop a fleet management systems and analytics applications while eMooVit aims to build autonomous transport solutions, including operational technology sensors, camera technology and video analytics application software.
Meanwhile, SKF Malaysia is working to leverage 5G to complement fiber and Wi-Fi to “enable wireless digitalization on the manufacturing shop floor with use cases such as data shower analysis, video sensor monitoring and data capture," according to the company.