Bersatu man demands DNB exit strategy for U Mobile

PETALING JAYA: A Bersatu Supreme Council member has urged Putrajaya to announce an exit strategy for U Mobile, which was chosen earlier this month to implement the nation’s second 5G network, from Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB).

Government-owned DNB was in charge of the first 5G network rollout.

In a statement, Wan Saiful Wan Jan asked why Putrajaya had yet to order representatives from U Mobile who were sitting on DNB’s board to relinquish their positions.

In April, it was reported that U Mobile’s Chang Yit Fei and Tan Kok Leong had joined DNB as a board member and an alternate director respectively.

However, attempts to find their names on the DNB website only returned a message stating that users were “not authorised to access this page”.

Wan Saiful said the decision to appoint U Mobile to implement the second 5G network made the telecommunications company a competitor to DNB.

“I demand that the government announce an exit strategy for U Mobile to leave DNB. Don’t prolong this incompetence by making incomplete announcements,” he said.

Wan Saiful also said he remained dissatisfied with the manner in which the government was managing the impact of U Mobile’s appointment.

He asked if the U Mobile representatives who sat on DNB’s board provided the company with an unfair advantage.

He claimed that the representatives would have access to sensitive data about DNB’s operations and strategies.

“Why is a competitor allowed to collate such data which would be used to give it an advantage over DNB?”

The Tasek Gelugor MP added that DNB was a government-linked company that “belonged to the people”, while a majority of U Mobile’s shareholders were Singaporean.

Singapore-based ST Telemedia has a 48.3% stake in U Mobile.