No fibre, no 5G, that's my problem

Our broadband services leave much to be desired - and our mobile services too.

Let’s not even talk about 5G yet, basic 4G services are inadequate while broadband services regularly perform below par. And if you have a cable problem for your broadband service, you are in deep trouble.

I installed my broadband services some five years ago. The reason I used Maxis was that the Telekom Malaysia (TM) contractor asked for RM800 for installation when the ceiling was just RM200 at the time. Maxis, three cheers for them, agreed to do it for free.

Now, my broadband fibre cable has connection problems, even as I write this, the second time in two weeks. It was installed by Maxis but through a convoluted arrangement the broadband was provided by TM.

The first time they came, they simply reconnected the snapped fibre. Each time there is a connection issue or lack of speed, there is a representative from TM, this time a Mohd Rafi, and one from Maxis, one Ahmad Luqman. Ahmad was only available on the phone.

TM’s Rafi said he could not connect the two ends (see pix) because there was not enough cable and opined the entire cable had to be changed, suggesting I get a contractor. I said why can’t you use an extra piece of cable and simply join the two ends. He said he does not have a short piece of cable.

The two pieces were touching and clearly visible. They were not even an inch below ground. He said a cabling team needs to sort out the problem. Why wasn’t a cabling team sent instead? Why is it a person who joins cables does not carry any with him?

A Maxis customer representative from the Maxis hotline, Mohd Ariffin, called me and told me the cable had to be changed. He said I have to get my own contractor, parroting the TM rep and the Maxis rep.

I asked why isn’t Maxis doing this? They provide the services and the works needed are not even in my compound. The previous installation five years ago was done by Maxis, which was described as substandard by Rafi. Ariffin said he will call back. He did not.

Next morning, I called the Maxis hotline. Selvi told me the TM representative did a measurement which showed the cable was faulty and had to be changed. I did not see him do any measurement and I was there the entire time.

She gave me the number of a contractor who will lay the new cables but the contractor said he does not cover the area. I don’t know if I should call Maxis again - I am tired and weary, and like the cable, likely to snap. According to Selvi, they only have one contractor for my area.

I am stuck without broadband. Hotspotting with my phone hardly helps as I don’t have 5G where  I stay, although it’s an urban area, more than a year after 5G was introduced. The government claims 95 percent coverage in urban areas. I stay in Setia Alam in an area where a few hundred thousand others reside.

Exasperated by poor mobile service

A few days ago, exasperated by the poor mobile services, I complained to Maxis but the answer that the service representative gave was they do not investigate any cases where connection speed is more than 5mbps!

My broadband services for which I pay RM300 a month, supplies, or is supposed to supply, 800 mbps.

Frequently, even with four mesh devices throughout the house, the speed is below 200 mbps. But 4G gives just 4mbps on the ground floor sometimes and no connection at all at other times. That is supposed to be ok? Try accessing the internet at that speed - snail’s pace.

Where is the 5G that has been promised? Maxis said there is no tower covering my area, an explanation which has been given for the last few months.

If there is none, what are they doing about it? Should they not pressure Digital Nasional Bhd, the pipeline provider, to do something?

Stuck without broadband connectivity and no 5G, I am certainly not living in the digital age with all the promises that 5G and broadband are supposed to bring in terms of connectivity and speed. I hit the roof - several times.

And then I had to go to the roof to get some service to access emails using 4G service. With all this poor service at hand, our telecommunication charges including broadband, mobile and roaming continue to be among the highest in the world.

Lack of competition and regulation

The underlying problem for such poor service is two-fold - lack of competition and lack of regulation. Mobile, broadband and telecommunication services are big businesses and both competition and regulation are important to make them perform.

On Bursa Malaysia, one telco - CelcomDigi - is in the top 10, three others - Maxis, Telekom Malaysia and Axiata - are in the top 20.

Their service prices seem uniformly high despite so-called competition while a merger between Celcom and Digi was inexplicably allowed although it substantially reduced competition.

Together their value exceeds RM26 billion and they give good dividends to shareholders. Malaysia’s telco space has been very good to them, perhaps too good. The ultimate loser is of course, us, the consumer.

So competition does not seem to exist between them and therefore the only other recourse is regulation. And who regulates them? The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission or MCMC.

But the MCMC seems more interested in regulating the relatively free online media to make them as toothless as mainstream newspapers which are made meek and weak by the Printing Presses and Publications Act, where a licence to print can be removed at the stroke of the home minister’s pen.

Apparently they are considering introducing similar legislation for online media - a return to the Jurassic times and restriction of freedom.

Instead they should be focusing on the important area of communications in the digital era, not hindering communication and honest information dissemination but facilitating it. Our defamation laws are robust enough to take care of miscreants.

The problem is politically appointed industry regulators are more interested in currying favour with the leadership than working to ensure a fair playing field for all in the communications area and ensuring reasonable charges for consumers.

Instead they are engaging in a back and forth over whether there should be one 5G pipeline or more, changing the rules midstream which is bound to increase costs, result in poor services, and inefficiency. That’s a recipe for disaster.

If broadband had a point of entry to each home like electricity or water, all any consumer has to do is to maintain the connection integrity from his home to the points of usage. Now he has to dig public areas and neighbours’ compounds to ensure that. Is that fair?

If 5G was already here, freely available and efficient, we don’t even need fibre. We need to just have a device to hotspot throughout the house. Perhaps that’s why the telcos are dragging their feet.

In fact, that’s what one Maxis customer representative - I have spoken to dozens over five years - suggested I do. I replied, how can I do that when I don’t have 5G service? The rejoinder - but you have a cable problem.

Yes, indeed. So no cable, no 5G that’s my problem. Does anyone know a contractor who will dig public spaces and part of my neighbour’s compound to install a new fibre cable? Maxis won’t do it.

Multiply this and related problems thousands, if not millions of times, and we have a major communications conundrum in our dear, beloved country. This involves thousands if not millions of cable-laying contracts. 

Funny how everything boils down to contracts. Over to you, MCMC - you are our only hope. Or are you? - Mkini

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All P GUNASEGARAM and many other Malaysians want is reliable, fast and reasonable prices for communications to work from and be entertained at home and anywhere else they choose to be.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.