BROADBAND: Have quality checks on their services

2009/11/09

L.K.K. , Petaling Jaya

I HAVE been a Maxis mobile broadband subscriber since February last year.

As a heavy user, I find the quality and availability of this service are getting from bad to worse, even in populated areas and commercial centres in Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur where I live and work.

I am experiencing very slow upload and download speeds (it takes up to 10 minutes to send a 1MB file and up to a minute to open a single webpage).

Disconnection occurs every five to 10 minutes.

Many Maxis customers have experienced the same problem. There were two other occasions this year when I had to complain to Maxis that I could not even log in into the network.

The reason is obvious. Maxis is not investing enough to increase the speed and bandwidth of its 3G and 3.5G networks.

Therefore, when there are many users in the same area, broadband speed slows.

If Malaysia wants to be a leading country in information and communication technology, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission must enforce key performance indicators by conducting regular field tests on service providers, be it mobile, wireless or cable.

Service must be up to mark in terms of quality, measured on the basis of average upload and download speeds, and overall availability of service over a specific period in a populated area.

Those who fail the tests should be given a heavy penalty for non-compliance.

The commission should also encourage service providers to invest in new technologies with higher connection speeds and wider bandwidth to replace networks that will soon become obsolete.

Japan and Korea have done well in this aspect as otherwise they would not be recognised as the few countries in the world with leading information technology and wide broadband adoption.