Maxis and Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) announced that they will establish a new innovation centre to develop 5G-Advanced solutions with a focus on use cases, customer experience, operating efficiencies and nurturing local talent.
Under the terms of the collaboration, Maxis and Huawei will establish a Joint Innovation Centre to explore potential innovations for 5G and 5G-A tech features such as mobile edge computing, network slicing, end-to-end network orchestration, RedCap and Passive-IoT.
Maxis and Huawei will also explore ways to leverage digitalisation, artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimise network operating efficiencies for 5G and 5G-A.
The collaboration also includes a programme to build up skillsets for Malaysian university students and the local workforce via training programmes, R&D projects and cooperation between the academic and telecoms industry sectors.
Maxis CEO Goh Seow Eng said this component will equip Malaysian talent with the skills needed to thrive in the rapidly evolving telecoms and technology sector, and also develop industrial and entrepreneurship activities.
“With this latest collaboration we want to take full advantage of 5G-Advanced by building up human capital alongside commercialised innovation for enterprises and industries,” he said in a statement.
Maxis and Huawei have been collaborating on 5G-A since at least February 2024, when both companies staged what they claimed was the first 5G-A technology trial in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
The Joint Innovation Centre was announced during the opening ceremony of the Malaysia Commercialisation Year (MCY) Summit 2024 – organised by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation – where Maxis also showcased several 5G-A applications, such as remote classroom teaching, remote medical diagnosis and rescue, and autonomous smart sorting and assembly for factories.
Maxis and Huawei aren’t the only ones keen on developing 5G-A for Malaysia. CelcomDigi and U Mobile are collaborating with Chinese vendor ZTE to run a live TV broadcast using 5G-A during this weekend’s 2024 Sukma Games. CelcomDigi and U Mobile have also agreed to co-develop use cases for 5G-A as part of a broader agreement to share 100 multi-operator core network sites across the country.