PUTRAJAYA: Authorities have warned Telekom Malaysia (TM) of regulatory action, saying the country’s largest telecommunications company has failed customers with frequent technical breakdowns and dissatisfaction over pricing.
The Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said TM also recorded the highest number of complaints.
Besides complaints over its pricing which account for about 21% of total complaints, customers are also dissatisfied with the lack of coverage for its optical fibre network broadband service Unifi (16%), service disruption (13%), billing disputes (14%) and service delivery (14%).
“The government views this alarming decline in TM’s services delivery very seriously,” MCMC said in a statement today.
The survey was based on the average number of complaints for every 1,000 subscribers.
MCMC said to date, it had received 7,949 complaints about TM services, an increase of 43% from 4,528 complaints in 2017.
It also criticised TM’s response in handling complaints by citing technical limitations and asking customers to be patient.
“Leaving customers in the dark is not the way a company of TM’s stature should operate,” said MCMC.
For example, it said, TM informed its customers of disruptions in its Unifi services but failed to provide reasons for these.
MCMC said TM must also address the disparity between Unifi and Streamyx pricing so that consumers were charged fairly based on the speed they enjoyed.
“TM needs to be transparent in dealing with consumers by offering packages that are of great value and not taking advantage of the consumers’ lack of options,” it said.
On Saturday, Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo urged TM to explain its high charges for the Streamyx broadband service.
MCMC said as the largest fixed broadband provider in the country with 85.97% market share, Malaysians who depend on TM’s network were affected in their daily activities.
“Consumers are demanding better services for the money they are paying TM,” it said.
MCMC said it would not hesitate to take regulatory action against TM or any broadband service provider licensee found to be in breach.