Malaysia’s LTE subscription to increase 61% by 2021

Ericsson (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd expects LTE subscription in Malaysia to increase from the current 21 per cent to 61 per cent by 2021. This, according to Ericsson Malaysia and Sri Lanka’s president Todd Ashton, is in line with the group’s findings in the latest edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report.

“LTE subscription will continue to grow in the Southeast Asia (SEA) and Oceania region and is expected to reach 100 million LTE subscriptions in this year alone,” he told reporters at a media briefing held today. “Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand are among the countries in the region that are rolling out LTE and continuing to improve coverage. In fact, Malaysia is expected to hit 61 per cent LTE subscription by 2021, from the current 21 per cent.” Ashton noted as well that by 2019; LTE will be the dominant mobile access technology in Malaysia as well as globally. The report also expects Malaysia to double its smartphone subscription penetration rate from 25 million currently to more than 40 million by 2021. There are currently five billion unique mobile subscribers globally. By Lidiana Rosil, 14 June, 2016, www.nst.com.

There has been strong growth in Malaysia’s telecom sector over the last decade, but the growth has not been consistent across the sector. The number of fixed-line services, after growing rapidly at first, had been relatively static for around ten years; then we have seen clear evidence of a shrinking fixed subscriber base. In the meantime, the mobile operators are locked in close combat: Celcom, with 12.3 million subscribers had the largest market share of the mobile market (31.3%) by mid-2015, very closely followed by Maxis with 31%. Digi followed in third place with 30% market share. By that stage the household broadband penetration in Malaysia had passed 70%, according to the MCMC.