KUALA LUMPUR (June 15): Maxis Bhd has formed a 5G alliance in Malaysia to spur technological breakthroughs and internet of things (IoT) enterprise solutions in a bid to accelerate industry-wide 5G adoption.

In a statement on Wednesday (June 15), the telecommunications giant said the Maxis 5G Alliance (M5GA) comprises global and local technology and industry partners, innovators and lighthouse customers from diverse industries.

The 16 initial members of the M5GA are Advantech, Amdocs, CrescoNet, Cisco, Google Cloud, Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), Huawei, LLVision, Microsoft, MIMOS, Motorola Solutions, NEC, Omron, Realwear, SAS and Vodafone.

"The alliance will co-create, commercialise and scale 5G use cases and innovative solutions across industries to drive digital transformation and innovation," Maxis said.

"This community is expected to grow as the M5GA is intended to be an open collaboration across all organisations that can help to turbo-charge the adoption and deployment of innovation, that will be enabled through 5G and ubiquitous converged network connectivity," it added.

Maxis highlighted that MIMOS is to provide access to its 5G and artificial intelligence innovative hub to develop and test use cases, while Maxis will provide an experiential journey via its Maxis Business Innovation Centre which will showcase the use cases.

GSMA will facilitate knowledge transfer and training via its quarter forum and 5G insights.

Maxis noted that all solutions and use cases will be powered by its Maxis Programmable Network, which it claimed is Malaysia's most advanced, programmable software-defined network.

"There is no doubt that 5G will bring exciting benefits to individuals, businesses and government in strengthening Malaysia's competitiveness in the region.

"At Maxis, we are committed to fostering and investing in innovation in the country and we are proud to have an esteemed group on board which will enable members to work together to grow and leverage this symbiotic ecosystem to unlock the lucrative value of IR4.0 (industrial revolution 4.0) technologies like IoT, cloud, edge computing, VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality)," said Maxis chief enterprise business officer Paul McManus.

Shares in Maxis closed three sen or 0.91% lower at RM3.25, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM25.44 billion.