KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 19): Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM), which was slammed by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) today following a spike in user complaints, said today that the service and pricing issues raised in the complaints were due to its "legacy" copper network, which has many technological limitations.
"We have also explained [about] 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," it said in a statement.
Its statement came after MCMC announced earlier today that it has received a 43% jump in the number of complaints to 7,946 against TM from last year, and that the complaints it received were on consumer dissatisfaction over pricing (21%), lack of Unifi coverage (16%), Unifi service disruption (13%), billing disputes (14%), service delivery (14%) and others (22%).
In response, TM said it looks 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 (of Communications and Multimedia) and the 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," it added.
It also stressed that it has been continuously investing in its infrastructure - both fibre and copper network — over the years, to provide connectivity and also to elevate the experience of both its unifi and Streamyx customers, concurrently. "The primary focus is in expanding Malaysia’s high speed broadband coverage."
It said its LTE 4G services coverage currently exceeds 77% of the household population in urban and rural areas, completed by a 90% 3G service coverage provided together with its partner. WiFi service coverage and quality has also been enhanced with its more-than-12,000 hotspots nationwide, it added.
Regarding complaints on its products and services, TM said it has been actively engaging with customers and stakeholders by responding individually on social media, as well as via several media statements, with the latest issued on Oct 16, providing details of its plans and progress.
TM is also doubling speed of Streamyx for customers for the same price of their current broadband plan, with free speed upgrades of up to 8Mpbs, or an alternate offer of 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," TM said.
As for the service disruption that occurred yesterday, TM said it was because of multiple fibre cable cuts that happened due to ongoing road works on the Mass Rapid Transit in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, by third party contractors, and on the West Coast Expressway (WSE) by the project's contractors in Sabak Bernam, Selangor.
While repair and replacement works on these fibre cable cuts are still underway, TM said it has optimised its network by rerouting traffic and fully restored service to those affected at 10am today.
The company said it has also highlighted this issue to the local councils to prevent a recurrence and is taking necessary actions against the contractors.