U Mobile Sdn Bhd (223969-U) is a

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

n mobile telecommunications service provider and was founded in 1998 as

MiTV U Television Sdn. Bhd. (formerly known as U Telecom Media Holdings Sdn. Bhd. and MiTV Corporation Sdn. Bhd.) is Malaysia's third pay television operator. It was launched on 5 September 2005, after having obtained all the necessary approvals from ...

Networks Sdn Bhd. U Mobile is a wholly owned

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

of U Television Sdn Bhd, which was formerly known as U Telecom Media Holdings Sdn Bhd and

MiTV Corporation Sdn Bhd U Television Sdn. Bhd. (formerly known as U Telecom Media Holdings Sdn. Bhd. and MiTV Corporation Sdn. Bhd.) is Malaysia's third pay television operator. It was launched on 5 September 2005, after having obtained all the necessary approvals from ...

. The company utilises the 018 and 011 prefix allocated to the organisation by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), although with the implementation of mobile number portability mandated by the Malaysian government this does not apply to subscribers who switched from their old mobile service provider over to U Mobile.

Coverage, Products and Services

U Mobile operate

4G LTE In telecommunications, long-term evolution (LTE) is a standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA standards. It improves on those standards' capacity and speed by us ...

and 4G LTE-A networks. As of 2015, U Mobile claimed to have 95% population coverage from a combination of over 10,000 sites of 3G and 4G LTE own-built, 3G

RAN Ran, RaN and ran may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ran'' (film), a 1985 film directed by Akira Kurosawa * "Ran" (song), a 2013 Japanese song by Luna Sea * '' Ran Online'', a 2004 MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) * ...

share and 2G Domestic Roaming with Maxis. 3G RAN share is collaborated with Maxis Communications since October 2011 but ended on 27 October 2018 due to U Mobile awarded two additional spectrum of 2x15MHz of 1800 MHz bands and 2x5MHz of 900 MHz bands that were awarded by the government on 2016.

Subscribers

As of January 2021, U Mobile has more than 7 million subscribers.

Corporate history

In April 2007, U Television Sdn Bhd signed the country's first nationwide domestic roaming memorandum of understanding, which led to an agreement with the mobile network operator Celcom Axiata Bhd allowing U Mobile's customers nationwide coverage while U Mobile rolled out its own high-speed mobile 3G service nationwide. The agreement was completed in June 2007. In December 2007, the 3G communications operators KT Freetel and NTT DoCoMo jointly invested US$200 million (est. RM669 million) for a total of 33% stake in U Mobile. In March 2008, U Mobile launched its first publicly available product called "Surf with U", a data-only plan for mobile users provided using U Mobile's HSDPA-driven mobile network. The following month, it rolled out its first mobile service, the postpaid U38 plan. In July, U Mobile launched two new postpaid services, U68 and U98, and the 018 Prepaid service. In 2009, KT Freetel, one of U Mobile's foreign investors, sold its 16.5% stake (62.6 million shares) to U Mobile's major shareholder. In November 2012, U Mobile activated 3G

RAN Sharing The use of Multi-Operator Radio Access Networks (MORANs), also known as Radio Access Network sharing, is a way for multiple mobile telephone network operator A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a wireless service provider, wireless ca ...

with Maxis and transitioned its 2G network provider from Celcom to Maxis. On 31 August 2013, U Mobile announced that En. Jaffa Sany Bin Md Ariffin has been terminated as the chief executive officer and ceased to be an employee of U Mobile due to disciplinary action. Accordingly, he is not authorised to act for and on behalf of the company in respect of any matter with immediate effect. He was appointed as chief executive officer of U Mobile on 1 June 2012. On 17 December 2013, U Mobile launched its

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a telephone and mobile broadband standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement *** LTE Advanced Pro * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers produced by Compaq * ...

network on the 2600 MHz band that covers the

Klang Valley Klang Valley ( ms, Lembah Klang; zh, 巴生谷; ) is an urban conglomeration in Malaysia that is centered in the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, and includes its adjoining cities and towns in the state of Selangor. It is con ...

. U Mobile has currently about 2 million subscribers at the end of 2014. On 1 April 2014, U Mobile announced the appointment of Wong Heang Tuck as chief executive officer (CEO) effective 1 April 2014, Jasmine Lee as chief marketing officer (CMO), and Alex Tan as chief sales officer (CSO) effective 1 January 2014 On 21 December 2015, U Mobile announced that D.Y.M.M. Sultan Ibrahim Ismail Ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar Al-Haj (“DYMM Sultan Ibrahim”) has acquired a further 5% stake in the company to increase his stake to 15%. DYMM Sultan Ibrahim acquired his initial 10% stake in U Mobile in 2014. In February 2016, U Mobile confirms that it has been allocated with 15 years spectrum assignment of 2x5MHz of 900 MHz and 2x15MHz of 1800 MHz for full nationwide implementation starting 1 January 2017. In March 2016, U Mobile announced that it has partnered with Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP) to be the Official Co-Sponsor of the Superbest Power Piala FA and Liga Premier Malaysia for three years, starting from the 2016 season. U Mobile will be the Exclusive Telecommunications Partner for the two premier football competitions. The partnership with FMLLP will give U Mobile marketing, promotion and engagement opportunities around the two competitions, in-stadium branding, corporate hospitality and use of the club and player image rights for advertising purposes. On 26 May 2016, U Mobile become the first carrier in

to support

Wi-Fi calling Voice over Wireless LAN (VoWLAN), also Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi), is the use of a wireless broadband network according to the IEEE 802.11 standards for the purpose of vocal conversation. In essence, it is Voice over IP (VoIP) over a Wi-Fi networ ...

, initially only supporting iPhone owners owning

iPhone 5c The iPhone 5C (marketed as iPhone 5c) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the sixth generation of the iPhone. The device was unveiled on September 10, 2013, and released on September 20, 2013, alon ...

or later running

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

9.3 and above.

for

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

users are only supported on selected devices. In August 2016, U Mobile launched its first 4G

LTE Advanced LTE Advanced (LTE+) is a mobile communication standard and a major enhancement of the LTE (telecommunication), Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. It was formally submitted as a candidate 4G to ITU-T in late 2009 as meeting the requirements of t ...

network at Kota Belud,

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

. On 28 June 2017, U Mobile is terminating its 3G network sharing and alliance agreement with Maxis Bhd which was signed in 2011. Maxis said on Wednesday the termination would take place in stages over 18 months and the completion date is on 27 December 2018. 2G network RAN with Maxis is still in operation but since 2020 the maxis 2G operation is transitioned from maxis to celcom network provider and now 2G service already run on celcom

Stakeholders

The major shareholder of U Mobile includes Straits Mobile Investments Pte. Ltd (49%), followed by U Telemedia Sdn Bhd (21.46%), DYMM Sultan Ibrahim (15%),

Magnum Berhad Magnum Berhad is a company in Malaysia known principally for commercial gambling. Formerly known as Magnum Corporation and Magnum Corporation Berhad, the company was incorporated in December 1968 and was the first private company to be granted ...

(6.33%), Tan Sri

Vincent Tan Vincent Tan Chee Yioun (; born 1952) is a Malaysian Chinese businessman and investor. He is the founder of Berjaya Corporation Berhad, a diversified conglomerate listed on the Malaysian stock exchange. Besides holding stakes through the Berj ...

Chee Yioun (6.2%), and Berjaya Infrastructure Sdn Bhd (2.01%).

5G

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 18): 5G network coverage in Malaysia reached 33.2% of populated areas as of Sept 30, and is on track to achieve the 80% target set by the government by 2024, said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).18 Oct 2022

Partners

U Mobile's partners include: * Atos Origin: Integrator of the BSCS iX Release 2 Billing System. *

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...

High-Speed Packet Access High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile protocols—High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)—that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunicat ...

(HSPA) solutions and management provider. *

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...

: Telecommunication equipment provider, from access layers to core transmissions. * LHS: Supplier of the BSCS iX Release 2 Billing System. * Nokia Siemens Networks: Implementation, integration, and application development of DVB-H services, including the maintenance of MiTV's infrastructure on a turnkey basis. * Rohde & Schwarz Malaysia: Supplier of low, medium and high powered digital television transmitters for the rollout implementation and coverage expansion of U Mobile's Mobile LiveTV. * Telekom Malaysia: Provisioning of backhaul connectivity services through TM Next-Gen Backhaul (NGBH) services. *

ZTE ZTE Corporation is a Chinese partially state-owned technology company that specializes in telecommunication. Founded in 1985, ZTE is listed on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. ZTE's core business is wireless, exchange, optic ...

: Telecommunication equipment provider. * Whale Cloud: Cloud BSS solution Provider.

References

{{Telecommunications in Malaysia 1998 establishments in Malaysia Mobile phone companies of Malaysia Internet service providers of Malaysia Companies based in Kuala Lumpur Telecommunications companies established in 1998 Malaysian brands Privately held companies of Malaysia