The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has said that telecommunication companies (telcos) could be penalised if they do not respond to customers’ complaints within the mandatory standard of quality and service.

Chairman Dr Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek said the usual penalties imposed for service providers would be a fine of an appropriate amount.

“As a service provider, you do not want to be penalised for poor services because that will impact your ability to manage your customers.

“Therefore, the penalty amount is not the big thing, but it is the fact that there is a penalty.

“With the enforcement (of penalties), service providers would certainly be on their toes to ensure that the service is always tip top for the customers,” he told a virtual media briefing on MCMC’s third quarterly report detailing the latest development and progress of the national digital infrastructure plan, Jalinan Digital Negara (JENDELA) today.

Fadhlullah also acknowledged that no technical service would be without any problems.

“Just like the computer we are using, we need to reboot it from time to time.

“Likewise, the (telecom) network do have (its) problems,” he said.

According to Fadhlullah, the commission will inform service providers when complaints come in and they will be given a certain period of time to fix the problems and get back to the customers.

“One of the things that the service providers have committed is that you will no longer have a situation where the complaints are considered closed and resolved without the complainant signing off or acknowledging that the problem has been resolved by the service provider.

“That is one of the most positive things that has happened since we started the journey of JENDELA,” he added.

For the record, Fadhlullah said Celcom Axiata Bhd still leads in the number of customer complaints in June this year with 12,056 complaints.

At the industry level, MCMC noted a spike in network complaints, largely due to work from home and home-based Learning and Teaching (PdPR) amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

On a month-on-month (m-o-m) comparison, he said the number of complaints received by Celcom in June surged to 12,056 from 3,780.

Maxis Bhd came in second with 8,926 complaints compared with 2,796 complaints recorded in May.

Digi.Com Bhd received 8,056 complaints in the same period.

“The Movement Control Order (MCO) is an abnormal situation for the country and the number of complaints has gone up in the current challenging period.

“Otherwise, it was on a downward trend,” he said.

Fadhlullah expects the number of complaints to drop once the country moves from Phase One to Phase Two and Phase Three as per the National Recovery Plan (NRP).