Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil revealed that Malaysia’s second 5G network has already covered 54.9% of populated areas in Malaysia.
This marks a huge milestone as U Mobile was able to cover more than 50% of populated areas in Malaysia with its own 5G network in less than 7 months since getting the green light from MCMC. As a comparison, Malaysia’s first 5G network deployed by Digital Nasional Berhad took over a year to achieve 50% population coverage with 3,900 sites.
To recap, U Mobile was named the winner of Malaysia’s second 5G network bid on 1st November 2024 and it received the Letter of Award to deploy the second 5G network on 31st March 2025.
According to Fahmi, U Mobile’s own 5G network (branded as ULTRA5G) has the highest coverage in Putrajaya with 99.7%, followed by Kuala Lumpur with 90.9%, Labuan at 90.8%, Pulau Pinang at 82.3% and Selangor at 70.9%.
Pihak U Mobile telah membentangkan kepada saya status pembangunan rangkaian 5G kedua di Malaysia.
Setakat ini, liputan 5G kedua mencapai 54.9% di kawasan berpenduduk.
Negeri dengan liputan tertinggi ialah Putrajaya (99.7%), Kuala Lumpur (90.9%), Labuan (90.8%), Pulau Pinang… pic.twitter.com/ufloFffeeX
— Fahmi Fadzil 🇲🇾 (@fahmi_fadzil) October 13, 2025
He added that the development of the second 5G network is important to ensure healthy competition, wider coverage and improved quality of service for the people.
At the time of writing, U Mobile has not disclosed its short term rollout targets or the number of live 5G sites. They do not have a coverage map of its ULTRA5G network.
U Mobile’s ULTRA5G was launched in August 2025 with Berjaya Times Square and the Penang Bridge as their initial coverage areas with 5G SA and 5G Advanced enabled from day one. Its subsequent ULTRA5G location is at Kota Kinabalu which was turned on ahead of the Merdeka Day and Malaysia Day celebrations.
During the launch of ULTRA5G, the orange telco emphasised on rolling out in-building 5G coverage for deeper signal penetration. It aims to cover 175 buildings within the next year and over 600 buildings within 4 years.
It’s ultimate goal is to achieve 80% 5G population coverage by the second half of 2026 and it aims to increase it further to 90% within the following 12 months. U Mobile has appointed Huawei and ZTE as their 5G technology partners, with Huawei looking at West Malaysia and ZTE for East Malaysia.
At the current rate, U Mobile’s 5G rollout appears to be the world’s fastest. If U Mobile accomplishes its 80% 5G population target by July 2025, effectively, it took them just 1 year and 3 months to achieve its goal. As a comparison, DNB took 2 years and 2 months to achieve the same 5G population coverage by the end of December 2023.
