This article appeared in The Vibes on 4 July 2022.

KUALA LUMPUR – In light of the recent Maxis service disruption, the Communications and Multimedia Consumer Forum of Malaysia (CFM) is renewing its call for compensation guidelines to be drawn up to protect consumers.

CFM chairman Muhammad Radzillah said consumers are becoming increasingly dependent on technology to remain connected both socially and professionally, and any disruptions or service outages will have a major impact on the lives of users.

“More and more of us are using our devices to make calls and conduct our personal and work affairs online and from all sorts of places as well. When this incident occurred, consumers who were working from home, students who were trying to join online classes, those who urgently needed to respond to messages and even those who were trying to make payments at toll plazas, all found themselves in difficulties.

“Many have suffered not only inconvenience but actual losses as well and they should be compensated,” he said in a statement today.

He said while the CFM prefers for there not to be any down time, in instances where disruptions happen, users must receive more than just an apology and a token effort at compensation.

In previous cases, he added, consumers suffered service outages for several hours and were only offered free SMS and in a more recent case, free data for a few hours.

“Compared to the loss to consumers, the cost of SMS is negligible while for users on unlimited data plans, the free data may not make much difference to them.

“As we move towards 5G, these issues should be a thing of the past. Quality of service is a matter for the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), and I believe that they have reviewed the relevant mandatory standards not too long ago.

“However, what we are talking about here is more than just regulatory action but compensation for consumers who have been disadvantaged. In some jurisdictions, it may involve compensation commensurate with the loss to the consumer. Perhaps this can be a starting point for discussions between the relevant stakeholders.”

He said the CFM was confident that with the compensation guidelines, the number of complaints that it receives would be reduced and/or resolved faster.

“A framework that offers guidance on suitable and commensurate compensation would be beneficial to all parties involved in complaints management, providing a clear and consistent basis for resolution.”

He added that the CFM is willing to play its part to work with service providers and the MCMC in coming up with the appropriate guidelines.

On June 30, Maxis users took to social media to vent their frustrations as the network service was disrupted in parts of Klang Valley.

According to several tweets posted by irate customers, the disruption involves either zero or minimal network and data coverage.

Maxis did not reveal the reason behind the disruption and its scale.