CelcomDigi says recent milestones reached by Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), Malaysia's single wholesale 5G network operator, have strengthened its own position in the country's 5G market, according to a report carried by Pokde.Net.

The claim ties the mobile operator's 5G standing directly to progress at the state-backed network company, which owns and operates the national 5G infrastructure that service providers including CelcomDigi access on a wholesale basis. Malaysia's 5G model is unusual in the region: rather than each operator building its own radio network, DNB deploys a single shared 5G infrastructure and sells capacity to retail service providers.

CelcomDigi itself is the product of the merger between Celcom Axiata and Digi.com, a combination completed in late 2022 that created Malaysia's largest mobile operator by subscribers. The merged entity has positioned 5G services as a core plank of its consumer and enterprise strategy, and its retail 5G proposition depends materially on the pace and quality of DNB's rollout.

The operator's statement frames DNB's recent achievements as a validation of that dependency: as the wholesale network reaches more of the country and carries more traffic, retail providers riding on it can claim a stronger 5G offer without owning the underlying radios. For CelcomDigi, which bills itself as a 5G leader in the Malaysian market, the DNB milestones supply the infrastructure evidence behind that positioning.

The context matters for how the claim should be read. Malaysia's government established DNB in 2021 as a special-purpose vehicle under the finance ministry to accelerate 5G deployment and avoid duplicated network investment. The model drew early resistance from some operators concerned about pricing, access terms and the governance of a single national network owner, and those tensions shaped the negotiation of wholesale access agreements.

CelcomDigi's public emphasis on DNB's progress therefore carries both a commercial and a signalling function. Commercially, better DNB coverage and performance translate into a stronger retail 5G experience for CelcomDigi subscribers. Politically and industrially, an operator publicly crediting the shared-network model lends it credibility at a time when the long-term structure of Malaysia's 5G market — including plans for a second 5G network and a more competitive wholesale landscape — remains under active policy discussion.

The report does not attach specific subscriber, coverage or throughput figures to CelcomDigi's claim, and the operator's description of its own 5G "leadership" is a competitive positioning statement rather than an independently audited market measurement. Rivals Maxis and U Mobile also retail 5G services over the same DNB infrastructure, meaning network reach alone does not distinguish the operators; differentiation rests on pricing, devices, enterprise offers and service bundling.

What the item does establish is that CelcomDigi sees continued DNB momentum as integral to its 5G story, and is willing to say so on the record. As Malaysia's 5G policy framework evolves and the question of additional network infrastructure is settled, the alignment between the country's largest mobile operator and its wholesale network partner will remain one of the defining commercial relationships in the market.