Yes 5G gets VoNR right in Malaysia, but not all 5G voice calls are created equal
- ID
- 31824
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 05 Oct 2026, 2:43 PM
- Fetched
- 05 Oct 2026, 4:01 PM
- Provider
- SoyaCincau
- Category
- malaysia-tech
- Original URL
- https://soyacincau.com/2026/10/05/ookla-voice-over-nr-yes-5g-volte-report/
- Source URL
- https://soyacincau.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 4.5
- Created
- 05 Oct 2026, 4:02 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developerssaas_founders
What happened
An Ookla report on mobile voice call setup times found that Yes 5G's VoNR implementation in Malaysia performs strongly, while U Mobile's 5G voice takes longer to set up a call, even though both are the only Malaysian telcos running 5G SA and VoNR commercially to mass consumers. Ookla treats roughly two seconds from tapping call to first ringback tone as the gold standard, and fallback to EPS or CSFB can push setup past four seconds. The report also cites South Korea and Singapore, where newer 5G voice setups don't always beat existing VoLTE.
Why it matters
If you ship or QA any voice or real-time comms feature for Malaysian users, the network you test on changes the result: Yes 5G and U Mobile measurably differ on VoNR call setup, and 5G SA does not guarantee a faster call than 4G VoLTE. Yes activated 5G SA nationwide in Q3 2025 with its core on Digital Nasional Berhad's radio network, so any product relying on 5G SA voice should be validated against both carriers rather than assumed good.
Discussion angle
Newer network tech doesn't automatically mean better UX - should Malaysian builders treat '5G SA' as a marketing checkbox and benchmark voice/real-time features per carrier instead?