Malaysian operator Celcom Axiata has signed an agreement with Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) to deploy Celcom’s 5G Innovation Hub at the Celcom headquarters named “@celcom” in Petaling Jaya Sentral. The partnership between Celcom and Huawei will see the deployment of a 5G Innovation Hub at Celcom Axiata’s Centre of Excellence (CACE). The 5G Innovation Hub will enable business partners, technology developers, academia and industry players to test the deployment of 5G use cases.
The hub will also enable Celcom to test the new 5G network performance and functionality. Celcom and Huawei also plan to jointly explore transformation of the current network, evolving towards 5G. These transformations include evolution of RAN equipment to the Next Generation New Radio (NR) Base Station; the upgrade of the transport backhaul to carry gigabits of traffic to cope with the demanding requirements of 5G. The mobile core network will also be upgraded into the NSA Core, equipped with Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) technology.
Celcom Axiata will seek approval from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to start 5G network market trials at the @celcom building in Petaling Jaya Sentral, and its surrounding areas.
