The recent fibre line outage experienced by many users caused much inconvenience and not to mention the downtime affecting business financially. This of course is not the first time, Malaysian internet users have been going through patches of being off the grid without their consent on numerous occasions, only for the service provider to thank their customers for their patience while they restore the service. Surely this got to change!
While coverage has improved over the years, there are still high-density areas within the city where connectivity still is a problem. We can only imagine the suffering of rural folks who have yet to receive any connectivity at all, can you imagine being without the internet for weeks or months? Coming back to the point, Nepal passed a bylaw in March 2023 which allows consumers to make monetary claims from telecommunication operators in the case of inconvenience caused by network issues for more than a determined time. Which means if downtime occurs, the telco will have to compensate based on the package you subscribe to for the time you were affected.
This makes complete sense, but our local regulator can take this further by allowing users to present their case if the outage causes severe loss for business operators for instance. Yes, this could be far-fetched, and difficult to justify, but with 5G being a vital lifeline for the next generation of businesses, there must be a more responsible policy in place to make network operators accountable. The topic of compensation isn’t new, the Consumer Forum Association President renewed the call for telecommunication operators last year when Maxis reported an outage on its network, he called for a framework or policy to be presented to address the issue. During the same period, Japan saw a telco compensating over RM240 million for a 3-day outage with the CEO taking a 20% pay cut subsequently.
Malaysia is too lax when it comes to punitive regulations, the Quality of Service guideline by MCMC which fines telcos based on the number of complaints the regulator receives is a mere slap on the wrist. MCMC should be aware that at most times only 5% of consumers take the effort to officially lodge a complaint. However, an automatic compensation mechanism should be in a place where all network operators compensate in the following bill for postpaid and immediate data increase for prepaid users. We know the financial impact will be minimal to the telcos as they have been enjoying profits year on year for the past decade. Maxis reported a net profit of RM1.18 billion while Celcom’s parent company Axiata registered an RM9.77 billion profit, both these entities combined according to Statista own nearly 70% of the mobile network market share. Telekom Malaysia which controls the fixed broadband market made RM1.14 billion in 2022.
Nepal’s consumer head went even ahead by asking telcos to pay for mobile data if the internet service is disrupted, as users will have to use mobile data when the fixed line is down.
Since it has been acknowledged that internet connectivity is akin to a utility like electricity and water, the importance of the service is unparalleled, and more safeguard measures should be in place to protect consumers. The Ministry and its agencies should stop dragging their feet and act to close this loophole.
