Malaysia is an easy country to be a connected traveller in, and the reasons are regulatory rather than accidental. The communications regulator, the land transport agency and the civil aviation authority all publish the rules and the numbers, and knowing them removes most of the uncertainty from a first visit.
Getting a SIM
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission states the position plainly: "All users regardless of their nationality (Malaysian or Non-Malaysian) are required to register as long as they are subscribers of a Malaysian Prepaid Services", explicitly including tourists, and "Registration is compulsory for every single prepaid mobile number that a user has, with the respective service provider."
For foreigners, the accepted documents are "Passport, Work Permit Identification cards & Student Identification cards", verified against the original — the same passport the arrival card is checked against. The requirement rests on a ministerial direction of 20 February 2006 and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, with guidelines most recently issued in 2011.
On the limit, the regulator's own pages give two versions: that providers "shall not register more than 5 SIM cards per customer/user", and separately that "each customer can only register up to 5 Prepaid SIM cards per service provider" effective 1 June 2017. Both pages are undated and neither gazetted guideline states a number.
The market share picture, for 2024, put Maxis at 28.6 percent, Digi at 21.8, U Mobile at 16.8, Celcom at 16.7 and other providers including mobile virtual network operators at 16.1. Prepaid accounted for slightly over 68 percent of the market. Note that the regulator reports Digi and Celcom separately rather than as a combined CelcomDigi figure.
Malaysia's 5G runs on a model that changed in 2023: originally a single wholesale network through Digital Nasional Berhad, then a dual network model announced on 3 May 2023, with U Mobile appointed the second 5G network provider on 1 November 2024.
Ride-hailing, which is licensed and capped
Operating a ride-hailing platform in Malaysia requires an intermediation business licence under section 12A of the Land Public Transport Act 2010. Operating without one carries a fine up to RM 500,000, imprisonment up to three years, or both.
The land transport agency publishes the licensed list. As at 28 February 2026 it named 31 companies, including Grab, InDrive, Bolt, Maxim, AirAsia Ride, Lalamove, MyCar, Trip.com, EzCab and Kummute, each with its app name and licence expiry.
The 2018 guideline sets the commercial rules. Fares are set by the licensed operator rather than gazetted, but an estimated total fare must be shown before the passenger confirms, and "the surcharge imposed for each journey shall be no more than two times the original fare". Drivers must operate only through the app and may not pick up by street hailing or at taxi stands, and may not renegotiate a fare after accepting a booking.
Vehicles must seat 4 to 11 including the driver, meet an ASEAN NCAP three-star rating or equivalent, and locally assembled vehicles must be no more than nine years from registration. Drivers require a Public Service Vehicle licence and e-hailing insurance as a precondition, and the vehicle must pass inspection and be reclassified at the road transport department before it can be used.
What a metered taxi should cost
Taxi fares are set by a 2015 order made under the Land Public Transport Act, in force since 19 March 2015, and Kuala Lumpur falls under its "all other states" category since only Penang Island is separated out.
| Service | First kilometre | Each additional |
|---|---|---|
| Budget | Not more than RM 3.00 | 25 sen per 200 m |
| Premier | Not more than RM 4.00 | 20 sen per 150 m |
| Executive | Not more than RM 6.00 | 20 sen per 100 m |
Surcharges are defined: an additional 50 percent from midnight to 6am, RM 2.00 extra for a hire arranged by telephone or at a taxi counter, plus toll charges. Infants in arms and hand luggage are free of charge, and hire cars pay an additional RM 12.00 for a run to KLIA or KLIA2. Fares round up to the nearest 10 sen, and the circular states that legal action will be taken against any operator charging above the prescribed rate.
Flying within Malaysia
The civil aviation authority lists nine passenger and cargo carriers holding Air Service Licences: AirAsia, AirAsia X, Firefly, Malaysia Airlines, Batik Air, AirBorneo Airways, MJets Air, Raya Airways and World Cargo Airline.
For the first quarter of 2026 it recorded 28.3 million total passengers, up 11.5 percent, of which 13.4 million were domestic. Market share of total traffic ran AirAsia 33.7 percent, Malaysia Airlines 17.1, Batik Air 10.3, Firefly and AirAsia X 4.0 each, and AirBorneo 0.3 having started operations in January 2026.
The busiest domestic routes in 2025 were Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu at 2.8 million passengers, to Kuching at 2.3 million, to Penang at 2.1 million, to Langkawi at 1.9 million and to Johor Bahru at 1.2 million. Three of the top five cross to Borneo, which is the geography behind the country's heavy domestic flying.
Your rights if a flight goes wrong
The Malaysian Aviation Consumer Protection Code, in force since 1 July 2016 and amended in 2019 and 2024, is unusually specific.
On denied boarding, the airline must first seek volunteers; if it then denies boarding it must immediately provide meals, limited telephone calls and internet, hotel accommodation and transport where an overnight stay becomes necessary, plus a choice between full refund within thirty days including taxes and fees, or re-routing at no extra charge.
On delay, two hours or more entitles you to meals, refreshments, calls and internet; five hours or more adds a choice between a full refund within thirty days including base fare, optional services, fuel surcharge, charges, taxes and fees, or accommodation and transport. Cancellation gives a choice between refund and re-routing. Airlines must display a notice at check-in telling passengers to ask for the text of their rights.
Baggage delay liability is capped at 1,131 Special Drawing Rights, and baggage counts as lost if it has not arrived 21 days after it should have.
What this guide does not cover
No combined CelcomDigi mobile subscription share is given, because the regulator publishes Digi and Celcom as separate lines and no combined figure exists in its report.
No separate share is given for YES, YTL Communications or Telekom Malaysia's mobile arm; none is named in the regulator's table.
Per-operator market share percentages here are the regulator's published figures for 2024; the 2026 statistics publication carries no operator breakdown at all.
No taxi fare order later than the 2015 instrument was found, and no reachable page affirms that those rates remain the current maxima.
Airline market shares are of total traffic including international, not domestic only; no domestic-only breakdown by carrier is published.
No Malaysia Airports passenger figures appear here; that site's traffic statistics pages could not be reached, so the traffic figures come from the aviation authority instead.
The formal status of the former aviation commission, whose code and reports now sit on the authority's site, could not be established from any official source.