Recently CelcomDigi — two Malaysian telcos that were allowed to merge because they were stonewalling the government’s effort to roll out 5G — announced that it will be ending 5G access for Celcom MEGA Postpaid, Xpax Postpaid and Xpax Prepaid customers, on 30 April 2023 and calling it a “free trial access”.

To continue getting 5G, “customers” will have to “subscribe” to new eligible “plans”. These plans are as clear as concrete and you can check them out for yourself here:

https://www.celcom.com.my/support/faq/personal

It also plans to announce more “5G products” in the second quarter of 2023.

I shouldn’t be surprised. When Malaysian telcos announces that their existing customers can get 5G, it was such a novel gesture. I even wrote a story about it in the publication I was working at (at the time).

No telco does anything from the goodness and generosity of their heart. It doesn’t have one. Sure enough, it still doesn’t have one.

It is this kind of shenanigans that justify the Malaysian government’s move to wrench 5G out of the hands of local telcos in the first place. And why I support the move and would probably stay on 4G and use WiFi instead.