Since the WiMAX days, Yes has always been one of the telcos I looked up to when it comes to telco innovation, the company was the first to launch an IP-based network and offered VoLTE when others are still very much focused on 3G, and it leaped ahead everyone else by offering 5G NSA to the masses when others are still hesitating their partnership with Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB), the nation’s only 5G network provider back then, and now, they are the first to launch 5G Advanced where even its competitor U Mobile, the nation’s second 5G network provider, only offered 5G SA at this time of writing.

What’s the difference between 5G SA and 5G Advanced? To simply put, 5G SA stands for 5G Standalone, which is a true 5G network that’s built with an entirely new infrastructure with upgraded software and hardware that offers ultra-fast connectivity, it is more reliable than 5G NSA (non-standalone) networks and offers network slicing capabilities that can prioritize traffic for certain applications.

5G Advanced builds upon 5G SA and incorporates AI and machine learning that can significantly improve network performance, which one of the highlights include stronger indoor coverage with the 700MHz band and being able to quickly reroute traffic in case the network is having issues.

In fact, DNB’s 5G network that’s built by Ericsson, which Yes depends on delivering its 5G Advanced service, has achieved a Level 4 Autonomy for service assurance, the highest standard ever achieved by a network provider and the first to be validated by TM Forum, which further helps Yes boost its position as a leading 5G network in Malaysia.

While the telco has brought members of the media (me included) for a quick tour around KL a few weeks back to do speed tests and a Microsoft Teams video call in an MPV, I wasn’t entirely convinced despite the impressive real-world tests and decided to take things into my own hands – by signing up myself and using it as how I would, and boy, was I impressed and frustrated at the same time during the testing period.

My test phone is the HONOR Magic V5, which is one of the approved 5G Advanced phones by Yes and has a good 5G modem, my intention on this field test is simple, to find out if Yes 5G Advanced is reliable and usable in the most common locations around Klang Valley.

DISCLAIMER: This is by no means a scientific and professional technical test hence your experience can vary, I paid and subscribed to the Yes Power 35 postpaid plan, there is no assistance from Yes and I am not paid by any telcos to do this.

Test 1 – KLGadget Office @ Boulevard Business Park, V88 Cafe, The Starhill (3/11/2025)

The first location I tested is our office located at Boulevard Business Park located at Block F, 3rd floor, most telco service will absolutely fail to deliver consistent speeds or even stay locked on to DNB’s 5G NSA network, and I was happy when I see the yes 5g advanced label on my phone with full signal strength.

Although I managed to measure an impressive 18ms ping, the download speed just isn’t ideal at 68Mbps even though it is more than sufficient for 4K video streaming and sending emails, but the upload speed is just disappointing at just 0.11Mbps.

On the other hand, my U Mobile ULTRA5G line that was on my Redmi K90 Pro Max had more realistic 5G performance even though it isn’t superfast.

Moving on, I went out for remote work and stationed at V88 Café, The Starhill.

This is the location that Yes invited us medias to test their 5G Advanced network, the cafe wasn’t too busy when I visited at 3pm and sat outdoors looking over the Pavilion KL stretch, which is filled with tourists as always, so it is a good spot to benchmark how reliable the Yes 5G Advanced network is.

I first ran a speedtest as usual and got a ping response of 30ms with 25Mbps download and 23.7Mbps upload speeds, which isn’t the most ideal speed but considering the heavy traffic and amount of users around the area, it’s reasonable.

However, as I performed the second speedtest, I was greeted with a huge downgrade in performance with 108ms ping response and it gets even worse the longer I stayed.

In fact, I was doing some brief office work on the spot and even though most webpages load properly, I noticed a dip in website loading speeds, but if I had done something more demanding like video calls or cloud gaming, this kind of performance just won’t cut it.

Test 2 – Petaling Jaya (6/11/2025)

So, since the city centre isn’t kind to the Yes 5G Advanced network, I decided to take the test to Petaling Jaya and dined at a vegetarian restaurant I stumbled upon in Kota Damansara.

I pulled up the HONOR Magic V5 and the Yes 5G Advanced network is showing full network signal, I then fire up Netflix and wanted to stream “Make a Wish, Genie” while I crunch through my afternoon lunch, the movie loaded just fine but I quickly encountered a downgrade in video quality and eventually encountered the buffering red spinning circle.

I performed a Speedtest and guess what, I got an atrocious 1219ms of ping and 0.38Mbps of download, this is probably worse than Streamyx and the place I was at wasn’t even as busy as compared to Bukit Bintang. Well, I guess its best that I finish my lunch quickly and head to somewhere else.

Next, I decided to do a quick foot scrub session at a nearby massage parlour, and interestingly, despite only just 50m away from the restaurant I dined at, I managed to get 45ms of ping with 43.6Mbps download but yet another disappointing 0.22Mbps upload, which again, not ideal 5G speeds but it is at least better and finally usable than before.

Finally, I decided to end my test at Dough Bakery, Petaling Jaya, located at a nice neighborhood in Seksyen 17 where I was hoping to finally get good 5G performance for doing some work and cloud gaming.

Sure enough, I finally got good network performance that is sufficient for GeForce NOW on my laptop and managed to do my work with ease, although I still encounter slight input delay on GeForce NOW due to high jitter, but I’m still not happy with the 195Mbps download speed I’m getting.

Test 3 – 99 Residence, Block B, Level 53 (12/11/2025)

My final test on the Yes 5G Advanced network is 99 Residence, where I reside on the highest livable floor of Level 53, this is a location where no 5G NSA network will work, while it is also a good testing ground for 5G SA and 5G Advanced on high rise and indoor performance.

I decided to do some cloud gaming before heading to bed and of course, I ran a speed test as usual to evaluate my experience but this time around, I compared it to U Mobile’s ULTRA5G 5G SA network, and to my surprise, it simply outperformed the Yes 5G Advanced network with an impressive 457Mbps download and 45.9Mbps upload speed.

The Yes 5G Advanced network still isn’t too bad with a good 22ms ping response and 55Mbps download speed, which I decided to give it a try and play Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition on GeForce NOW.

To my disappointment, my screen started to get pixelated and GeForce NOW warns me that my game would stop if my connection continues to deteriorate further. I was surprised and quickly ran a speed test again on my HONOR Magic V5 and to my horror, I got 132ms of ping, 0.98Mbps download and 2.34Mbps upload speeds, which explains why my cloud gaming experience went down before I could even get into action.

Verdict – A Promising yet Frustrating Experience

I was genuinely excited when Yes CEO Wing K Lee presented the technological capabilities of 5G Advanced on stage, it enables ultra-low latency and reliable connectivity on IoT devices and can  potentially create highly advanced smart cities, not to mention empower mission critical applications at locations where fixed fibre connection isn’t possible.

No doubt Yes is one of the 9 telcos globally to implement 5G Advanced, which is really commendable and I genuinely salute their effort over other Malaysian telcos despite their size, my experience with the Yes 5G Advanced network is disappointing, perhaps the network is still at its early stages in implementation and there’s still optimization work to be done, but again, since the telco has made the service available and only allow certain phones to use it, I expect it to work well in major locations across the Klang Valley, but that’s unfortunately not the case at this time of writing.

Despite this disappointing experience, I’m still eager to see Yes succeed in the Malaysia telco scene with 5G Advanced, and only time will tell on how fast the telco can resolve these issues together with Digital Nasional Berhad, I’ll be keeping a close watch and hope to see some improvement soon, and I’ll just keep paying RM35/month to see how it goes.