U Mobile and its technology partner ZTE have completed a proof-of-concept for a portable 5G site that runs entirely on green energy and needs no connection to the national grid or to fibre. The pilot ran in two rural East Malaysian communities, and the headline figure is speed of deployment: the site was installed and fully activated in three days, where a conventional tower in the same kind of terrain can take close to a year.
A solar pole instead of a tower
In place of a conventional telecommunications tower, the team put up a lightweight 12-metre pole. It draws on high-efficiency solar panels and a battery backup that U Mobile says can keep the site running for up to 52 hours without sunlight, depending on configuration. Backhaul is handled by satellite, which is what lets the site operate independently of both grid power and terrestrial transmission such as fibre, and makes it deployable in places where building normal infrastructure is difficult or slow.
During live testing the sites carried both 4G and 5G and reached peak download speeds of up to 134 Mbps. For context on where the national network sits today, U Mobile was recently named Malaysia's fastest 5G network at 348.73 Mbps.
Three days versus close to a year
The three-day figure is the point of the exercise. Conventional tower deployments in challenging rural locations can take close to a year to reach activation, once site acquisition, tower construction, transmission infrastructure and grid-power readiness are all accounted for. A pole that arrives, stands up and switches on in three days changes the arithmetic of reaching a remote village.
Where it was tested
The solution was piloted at two locations. The first was SK Mentu, a primary school in Sebuyau, Sarawak. The second was Balai Kebudayaan Iburu, a community hall in Sipitang, Sabah. Both are the kind of underserved East Malaysian communities where connectivity has lagged the peninsula, and both sit outside easy reach of grid power and fibre.
U Mobile framed the work as part of expanding its ULTRA5G network and closing the digital divide, and said it would keep exploring practical ways to reach places where conventional deployment is hard. The operator has been widening that footprint on several fronts, including a recent 5G and AI partnership with Tencent Cloud. More detail on the operator is on the U Mobile website.
