Dual 5G boosts Malaysia’s supply-chain resilience, says industry chief

Malaysia’s dual 5G network model has the potential to make supply chains more resilient by giving manufacturers greater flexibility in how they deploy and manage digital technologies, an industry leader said.

Malaysia Association of Sustainable Supply Chain and Innovation (Massci) founding president Lorela Chia said businesses often become dependent not only on a specific 5G network, but also on particular technology vendors, software, data systems and industrial platforms.

Some of these solutions, she said, may be better suited to one network environment than another.

“A dual-network environment gives industry something quite valuable: optionality, or more choice,” Chia told FMT.

Malaysia’s 5G landscape presently comprises two separate 5G networks. The first, operated by Digital Nasional Berhad, is built on Ericsson equipment, while U Mobile runs the second on Huawei and ZTE technology.

According to Chia, factories rarely run on one uniform system. She said manufacturers often use a mix of legacy machinery, newer automation technologies, different cloud platforms and equipment sourced from multiple vendors, all operating alongside one another.

Chia said some technologies may perform better on one network than the other. Having two networks therefore gives manufacturers more ways to connect the different systems they already use, she explained.

The Massci founder said the availability of an alternative becomes especially useful when companies change suppliers, upgrade parts of their operations or respond to a disruption.

Instead of having to rebuild their entire operations around a single network, manufacturers can choose the one that best supports the technologies they intend to introduce.

“The more flexibly Malaysia’s connectivity environment can accommodate those different architectures, the easier it becomes for companies to integrate, upgrade and avoid unnecessary technology lock-in,” said Chia.

She said this was especially important since smaller suppliers may not be in a position to swap out existing equipment merely to fit a different technology setup.

“For them, switching technology should not mean writing off what already works or starting again from scratch.”

Chia said this ability to rebuild around different technologies is what makes optionality important to supply-chain resilience.

“Redundancy (or having two networks) helps a supply chain absorb disruption. Optionality determines how quickly the supply chain can reconfigure.”

This, she said, was why Malaysia’s dual 5G network model offers value beyond simply expanding coverage.

“Coverage gives us the platform. Optionality gives industry more ways to solve real production problems.”

What businesses want from 5G

Chia said the next phase of Malaysia’s 5G rollout should focus on solving real business problems, including the need for greater reliability, interoperability and cybersecurity, as well as the ability to integrate public 5G networks, private networks, fibre connectivity and edge computing.

She said, presently, the most consistent demand from industry was for reliable, secure connectivity that gives manufacturers better visibility and control over their operations.

In practice, that means connecting machines, moving production data reliably, monitoring and diagnosing equipment remotely, linking factory-floor machines with office IT systems, supporting machine vision and, increasingly, managing cybersecurity across the entire system.

“Industry does not buy connectivity for connectivity’s sake. It buys uptime, visibility, control and the ability to make better decisions faster,” said Chia.

“The strongest demand will come where advanced connectivity can show a clear operational or commercial return — and increasingly, where it can help firms stay visible, credible and connected within the wider supply chain.”

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