01 November 2012
IT looks like with a mobile telephone penetration rate of 133.3 per cent per 100 inhabitants, the telco industry is expected to further grow and expand.
According to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, a 133.3 per cent penetration rate equals to almost 38.5 million mobile phone subscribers in the country.
The question is while the telcos are raking in profits are the consumers getting a fair deal?
After years of ineffective regulation, it looks like MCMC has finally woken up to its role and has expressed, at least publicly, that it would act sternly against service providers who have been taking consumers for a ride.
In the past MCMC was a weak and ineffective regulator; hopefully that will change. The statement by the new chairman gives us hope.
Complaints received by the National Consumer Complaints Centre against the telecommunications sector involving hand phones, Internet and satellite television increased from 1,297 in 2006 to 8,181 last year; an increase of 530 per cent in just 5 years.
What is shocking is that the complaints are almost similar over the five years.
This means that the service providers continued to offer shoddy products and weak service.
Service providers focused on increasing their consumer bases, never to provide quality service. They sold confusing plans and did not deliver on their promises.
Coverage is often low and consumers are subject to long periods of network instability resulting in no lines or "dropped" lines, where the call just gets cut-off and the consumer has to make the call again, often several times.
For Internet providers, the quality of the installation is so poor that often after NCCC makes the complaint, the installation unit is replaced.
Consumers keep getting unsolicited messages; where do businesses get consumers' telephone numbers? This raises the question of personal data security.
In many instances, there are billing disputes, in which charges are unexplained and unreasonable. Charges must be transparent and with the consent of the purchaser, and not arbitrarily billed.
In most of the companies additionally, the customer service quality is extremely unsatisfactory. Promises made by the call centre are not followed through.
These consumer grouses have been going on for too long.
With greed for profits, the companies have expanded their consumer base without regard to their ability to provide even the most basic service.
The Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations looks forward to MCMC taking on a more proactive role.
It should have a minimum quality level that service providers must comply with, or there would be consequences.
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