His appointment was announced today by the finance ministry, which announced the formation of Digital Nasional Bhd, a new company set up as a special purpose vehicle for the rollout of 5G technology.
The company is headed by Treasury secretary-general Asri Hamidon as chairman.
The board members are Dr Yusof Ismail, director-general of Mampu at the Prime Minister’s Department; the former chairman of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi; and lawyer businessman Muthanna Abdullah, head of Malaysian Life Reinsurance Group.
Marshall was formerly a senior executive with mobile phone operator Maxis and satellite broadcaster Astro. He had experience in starting the rollout of the Maxis cellular mobile phone network.
The government had previously announced that RM15 billion would be invested in 5G technology over 10 years as part of the MyDigital initiative.
Digital Nasional will own the communications spectrum and the physical infrastructure, and resell spectrum and network usage to individual mobile phone companies.
It will be managed based on the appropriate governance framework, an open tender process for the 5G infrastructure development, and global best practices to ensure proper controls.
All service providers will have open, fair and equal access to the 5G network for the development of their retail services.
The finance ministry said members of the company’s senior management will be announced soon.
Commenting on the appointments today, finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said: “It is imperative that our 5G network is deployed quickly, systematically and professionally to accelerate our growth initiatives through MyDigital.
“Playing catch-up is not an option as the world increasingly embraces technology such as artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, robotics, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing.”
He said the government would work closely with the domestic telecommunications industry. “While DNB focuses on 5G infrastructure investments, the private sector players can focus on developing better products and services, without being saddled by heavy and duplicative capital expenditure.
“This is a win-win situation for all parties, including the telco players, businesses and consumers, as we focus our efforts on being 5G-ready by end-2021,” Zafrul added.