At a press conference here, Fahmi said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had said in a meeting earlier today that he did not want any interruptions to the rollout.

“(He) wants to make it happen as soon as possible. Other countries have done it and some countries are already talking about 6G, so we have to keep up to ensure it takes place soon,” he said.

On Monday, Anwar said the 5G network rollout must be reviewed as it was not done in a transparent manner, “with no proper tender process”.

Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB), the government company handling the rollout, had insisted the tender process was done transparently and managed by top accounting firm Ernst & Young.

When asked whether DNB would be put under his ministry instead of the finance ministry, he said the Cabinet would decide on this.

“Right now, the Cabinet has decided that both ministries will assess the situation.

“There are a lot of things that we need to look into. So, give us a little bit of time and we will have more clarity next week,” he said.

In October, former finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz announced that all six major telecommunications companies (telcos) had signed access agreements (AAs) with DNB, Malaysia’s single wholesale 5G network operator.

The six telcos are Maxis, U Mobile, Celcom Axiata, Digi Telecommunications, YTL Communications and Telekom Malaysia.

However, Maxis was reported to have said that it would seek its shareholders’ agreement before entering into the AA with DNB.

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