Malaysia has revived its plan for a state-backed wholesale 5G network, after several changes of policy during the past year. The country’s prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, now says the network should go live by the end of this year, with the aims of accelerating 5G progress, and extending availability cost-effectively to key industry verticals and to underserved areas. This is part of a broader digital economy blueprint unveiled last week, but also picks up some threads of 5G policy from previous administrations. Muhyiddin promised that MYR15bn ($3.87bn) would be invested over the next 10 years in the wholesale network, which would remain fully state-owned and would complement individual roll-outs by operators. The government plans to set up a ‘special purpose…