According to a report from Ookla, a platform for Internet access and performance analytics, Malaysia has the third fastest 5G network worldwide as of September 2023. It also has the best performance among Southeast Asian countries. In terms of download speed, Malaysia’s 5G network has a median speed of 485.25Mbps, ranking below the United Arab Emirates (592.01Mbps) and South Korea (507.59Mbps).
When compared to neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, Malaysia outperforms them with its leading position. Singapore has a median speed of 338.36Mbps, Thailand has 141.65Mbps, and the Philippines has 124.58Mbps.
However, Malaysia falls short in terms of adoption, with only 30.1% of network-connected mobile devices that conducted tests using Ookla’s platform utilizing the new 5G network. Other countries have higher adoption rates, with the United States at 69.3% and China at 68.6%.
Ookla’s data also reveals that 21.5% of 5G-capable devices in Malaysia were not using the network, while 44.8% of the tests were conducted using devices without 5G support. It is important to note that this data does not indicate whether the users are subscribed to a 5G add-on, as they may have been using the 4G network during the test.
The report also highlights that 4G speeds in Malaysia have improved since last year, with the median speed increasing from 24.04Mbps in Q3 2022 to 36.95Mbps in Q3 2023.
