I have been following the news about the Celcom (Axiata) and DiGi (Telenor) proposed merger of late and I can’t be more excited about it.

There are so many benefits from it but the biggest would be the faster introduction and rollout of 5G network nationwide. 5G delivers vastly increased capacity, lower latency, and faster speeds that can greatly help in Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous vehicles, healthcare and so much more.

But it is never cheap for telcos to replace all their hardware each time when adopting a new technology standard.

I doubt Celcom and DiGi, separately, have the capital to introduce it in the near future. Maybe only after two to four years, these companies may rollout the feature.

If the merger goes through and Merged.co is set up, the mega telco now would have the funds to roll out 5G soon afterwards. Maybe even the first telco in Malaysia.

Even two major mobile networks in USA, T-Mobile and Sprint are merging and both chief executive officers appeared together to announce if the merger goes through, they can roll out 5G very soon.

However, many of my friends both online and in real life have concerns if there will be an increase in prices after the merger.

I doubt Telenor would do that because it is not their style at all, and the best example is DiGi. Since the Yellow telco first burst into the Malaysia over two decades ago, they have been considered market disruptors because of their aggressive and highly competitive prices.

On numerous times, there were literally price wars where DiGi kept slashing its prices when another Telco tried to match or better their lower prices.

I am confident that after this merger, Merged.co will still offer competitive prices while improving its mobile coverage, better network speed and quality. Looking forward for a new telco player in new clothes, a much better one that is.