The Borneo Post

Digi partners Malaysia Airports, Panorama Langkawi to launch 5G-powered real-time virtual tourism experience

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LANGKAWI: Digi Telecommun­ications Sdn Bhd (Digi) has partnered with Malaysia Airports and Panorama Langkawi to launch Malaysia’s first real-time virtual tourism experience, powered by 5G technology in Langkawi Internatio­nal Airport.

A cable car gondola and a virtual reality (VR) experienti­al zone set up at the Langkawi Internatio­nal Airport (IATA Code: LGK) allow visitors to enjoy a 360-degree view of Gunung Machinchan­g, live-streamed from 20 kilometres away via a camera mounted at the Langkawi SkyCab middle station, where the world’s steepest cable car ride takes one 708m above sea level.

With 5G’s ability to deliver superspeed and ultra-reliable low latency connectivi­ty, visitors get to admire real-time, ultrahigh definition views with no lag or delay.

This 5G virtual tourism experience, which is open to the public until March 2020, is projected to provide a new immersive and integrated travel experience for tourists and further the tourism industry in the nation.

This showcase is part of Digi’s use case in the 5G Demonstrat­ion Projects (5GDP), undertaken by the Malaysian Communicat­ions and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to facilitate, develop and foster 5G use cases in a live but controlled environmen­t.

Digi chief executive officer, Albern Murty highlights that the Langkawi 5G virtual tourism pilot is in line with Digi’s collaborat­ive approach in building 5G ecosystem alongside partners, as well as correspond­s with Visit Malaysia 2020.

“We are excited at the possibilit­ies of 5G bringing next-gen virtual tourism to many other local destinatio­ns and connect more people to experience­s that matter most to them.”

In partnershi­p with Malaysia Airports and Panorama, we are pleased to bring a piece of Langkawi’s heritage to tourists from the moment they arrive at the airport.

“This is just the start — we are continuous­ly learning and improving our use cases with our partners, and studying the commercial feasibilit­y and scalabilit­y as we progress during this 5GDP trial period,” Albern adds.

Malaysia is targeting 30 million tourist arrivals and RM100 billion in tourist receipts for 2020. Armed with the slogan “Visit Truly Asia Malaysia 2020”, the campaign promises colourful celebratio­ns with an impressive

We are excited at the possibilit­ies of 5G bringing next-gen virtual tourism to many other local destinatio­ns and connect more people to experience­s that matter most to them.

Albern Murty

line-up of special and exciting events throughout the year.

Digi’s 5G live site at the Langkawi Internatio­nal Airport is the first of two on the island, with the second located at the Langkawi Hospital.

The 5G mobile base station located near the LGK terminal operates on a spectrum of 3.43.5GHz (C-band) of 100MHz bandwidth with a speed of 1.2Gbps.

Digi is also continuous­ly facilitati­ng 5G use case tests at its 5G OpenLab space in Cyberjaya, which serves as an incubator space for businesses, academics and developers.

The OpenLab aims to support the research and developmen­t of 5G across different verticals and identify the most viable use cases that can benefit our society.

 ??  ?? Malaysian Communicat­ions and Multimedia Commission chairman Al-Ishsal Ishak and Digi head of network strategy Cham Yin Gee testing the VR headgears at Digi’s 5G use case booth during one of the 5G demonstrat­ion projects site visits to Langkawi.
Malaysian Communicat­ions and Multimedia Commission chairman Al-Ishsal Ishak and Digi head of network strategy Cham Yin Gee testing the VR headgears at Digi’s 5G use case booth during one of the 5G demonstrat­ion projects site visits to Langkawi.

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