TM responds to MCMC’s admonishment

Some existing users are exasperated that they have yet to enjoy the higher broadband speeds promised by their service providers. — SAM THAM/The Star

After being admonished by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for being the cause of many cellular and broadband complaints, Telekom Malaysia (TM) has issued a statement in its defence.

MCMC stated that TM recorded the most number of complaints per customer, with a 43% increase in complaints from the 4,528 received in 2017.

The complaints centred on consumer dissatisfaction over pricing (21%), the lack of Unifi coverage (16%), Unifi service disruption (13%), billing disputes (14%), service delivery (14%), and others (22%).

It said TM’s approach in handling complaints was to cite technical limitations and to request that consumers be patient, which MCMC found to be unacceptable.

MCMC said it viewed the alarming decline in TM’s service delivery very seriously and would not hesitate to take regulatory action against TM or any licensee found to be in breach.

Here's the TM statement in full:

"TM appreciates the concerns highlighted by the MCMC in their media statement today. We would like to clarify on the issues highlighted by MCMC as follows:

1. Complaints on TM products and services

Rest assured that TM is committed towards enhancing our customer experience. We have a process in place in which we regularly engage with MCMC to update on our customer experience initiatives.

We would also like to thank YB Gobind Singh Deo, the Minister of Communications and Multimedia and MCMC for always bringing the issues faced by our valued customers to our attention. Rest assured TM is always listening to our customers and to our stakeholders and have been responding both individually on social media as well as via several media statements, the latest being 16th Oct (http://bit.ly/TMStatement16Oct) where details of our plans and progress were provided.

We have continuously been in touch with our Streamyx customers also via EDMs, calls and SMS messages to inform them of the free upgrades especially of Streamyx customers in unifi areas and for those not in unifi areas, upgrades up to 8Mpbs or wireless broadband LTE 4G solutions.

We have earlier shared a further update on the progress made with respect to the ongoing upgrade exercise for our Streamyx customers. To date, we have successfully upgraded over 50% of more than 340,000 Streamyx customers residing in unifi coverage areas to unifi; at the same price of their current plan. The rest of the 170,000 Streamyx customers who have yet to grab this opportunity for the free upgrade are encouraged to do so. We aim to complete this upgrading exercise by March 2019.

Meanwhile, for Streamyx customers who are currently residing in non-unifi areas, we are committed to continuously invest in the best fit for purpose technologies to bring high speed broadband to them. Meanwhile, where technology permits, we are doubling the Streamyx speed at the same price of their current broadband plan, with upgrades up to 8Mpbs or offering them wireless broadband LTE 4G solutions. Close to 180,000 of those in non-unifi areas can look forward to receiving this free speed upgrade. We aim to complete this speed upgrading exercise by December 2018. However, in order to address the remaining 500,000 Streamyx customers, TM is calling for the discussions with the Government to quickly reach a mutually beneficial outcome for these customers.

Streamyx customers who are eligible for the speed upgrade will continue to be contacted via email and phone. We urge customers to update their latest contact details i.e., telephone number and email address to facilitate this process. This can be done both via the unifi portal and unifi care app.

2. Technology / pricing issues

We wish to highlight that TM has been continuously investing in its infrastructure - both fibre and copper network - over the years, to provide connectivity and also in order to elevate the experience of both its unifi and Streamyx customers, concurrently. The primary focus is in expanding Malaysia’s high speed broadband coverage.

Additionally, TM has continuously invested in the rollout of LTE 4G network and WiFi hotspots to complement its fixed network to provision broadband services anywhere, anytime via home@unifi, mobile@unifi and wifi@unifi. TM’s LTE 4G services coverage currently exceeds 77% of the household population in urban and rural areas and together with our partner, complementing it with 90% 3G services coverage. To enable the convenience of mobility, the Company also enhanced its WiFi coverage and service quality with more than 12,000 hotspots nationwide to date.

We have also explained on the limitations of the current copper network and in this respect have been in ongoing engagement with government, ministry, regulator and other stakeholders on how to solve the legacy copper issues affecting Streamyx customers together. We would like to emphasise that the copper network which is a legacy network, faces many challenges, mainly technological limitations. This is more pronounced for Streamyx customers, whereby the copper network is only able to deliver speeds up to 8Mbps.This requires a longer term and more permanent solution, which will take time to implement and has heavy financial implications.

We look forward to a collaborative win-win approach with the Government to effectively address the challenges faced by Streamyx customers, once and for all. In order to do this, TM looks to accelerate discussions with the Ministry and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to explore potential collaborative options, various fit-for-purpose technologies as well as optimising existing industry mechanisms in order to deliver a better broadband experience nationwide.

3. Services disruption on 18 November 2018

We have issued our second update statement on the services disruption earlier this morning; following our first alert issued last night. We would like to clarify that the disruption was attributed to multiple fibre cable cut incidents due to the ongoing road works by MRT 3rd party contractors in Sentul and Sabak Bernam West Coast Expressway (WSE) contractors in Sabak Bernam.

Our technical team started work on the affected cables as soon as the fault report was lodged. We would like to update that while the fibre cable cuts repair and replacement works are still underway, we have optimised the network by rerouting traffic and fully restored the services affected at 10:00 a.m. today so that the internet experience is back to normal.

Meanwhile, we have highlighted this issue to the local authority council to prevent this from recurring and we are taking necessary actions against the contractors.

TM appreciates the patience and understanding of all our customers as some of these issues need a longer-term solution and have implications that need to be solved at an industry and national level.

Lastly, we will continue to ensure that customers and stakeholders are informed of the progress being made on a regular basis whether on social media, media and via direct engagements.

For any enquiries on our products and services, customers can reach out to us via Live Chat at care@unifi app or unifi.com.my/chat, tweet us @helpmeunifi or message us at facebook.com/weareunifi."