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Malaysia’s 4G is on a roll

It’s been four years since Malaysia’s first LTE networks came online, and in that time, the country has established itself as a solid 4G player.

In OpenSignal's State of Mobile Networks: Malaysia report, published today, four of the six operators (Celcom, DiGI, Maxis and Yes) were able to provide 4G services over 70% of the time, and two of them - Maxis and Yes - are offering 4G download speeds above the global average. But all operators showed 3G speeds on the slow side.

MalaysiaPhoto courtesy: i.gunawan / Flickr

A lot has happened since our last Malaysia report was published in 2016, notably a new operator, Yes, has entered the market and straight up won our availability award, providing signals over 93% of the time, more than 12 percentage points higher than runner-up Maxis (80.5%). A high level of availability, though, does not guarantee speed, as Maxis was the clear winner in our LTE speed metric, providing average 4G downloads of 23.6 Mbps (with Yes following at 19 Mbps and Celcom coming third at 16.2 Mbps).

Our 3G numbers project a dimmer picture, with our users experiencing average download speeds well below the global average. Maxis offered the best download speed at 3.8 Mbps, while Celcom, U Mobile and Digi were all under 3 Mbps.

Finally, in terms of latency, Maxis is a clear winner in both 4G and 3G network responsiveness (our measurements show 41 milliseconds and 97.4ms respectively).

Malaysia offers a huge choice of telecom operators for consumers, six to be precise, namely: Celcom, DiGi, Maxis, U Mobile, Webe and Yes. This not only encourages intense competition, but, as per our findings,  also creates a clear divide between market leaders and followers.

For a full report, check our latest State of Mobile Networks report on Malaysia. Or let us know what speeds you’re getting by downloading the OpenSignal app (available on iOS and Android).