Every year the governing body that oversees Malaysia’s telecommunication sector, MCMC releases its report on compound issues to the operators for various misdemeanors. These include dealers not following registration guidelines, poor quality of service, misleading information and others, as most would expect the number of offences to come down in Malaysia its on the contrary, every year more telco’s get fined for the same reason and this year the report reveals to be the highest.

For 2019 as of 31 July MCMC has issued a total of 107 compounds amounting to RM3.83 million for various offences such as non-compliance towards the Guidelines on Registration of End Users of Prepaid Public Cellular Services, General Consumer Code and Mandatory Standards. The total compound value issued is surprisingly 20.4% higher than the total compound valued issued to telcos for the entire 2018, which is at RM3.18 million.

As of 31 March 2019, 63 compounds worth RM2.32 million were issued, while 44 compounds worth RM1.51 million were issued between April 2019 and 31 July 2019.

Of the 44 compounds issued, YTL Communications Sdn Bhd received the highest number of 15 compounds valued at RM750,000, followed by Symphonet Sdn Bhd which was also issued with 15 compounds worth RM150,000 and Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd with six (6) compounds worth RM250,000.

Digi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd and Enabling Asia Tech Sdn Bhd were issued two (2) compounds totalling RM200,000, while Celcom Axiata Berhad, Tune Talk Sdn Bhd, Telekom Malaysia Berhad and U Mobile Sdn Bhd were each issued one (1) compound with the total value of  RM160,000.

The rules has not changed and neither has there been a population surge, but the complaints continue to rise and failure to address then does not look to abate. Maybe the fines are too low and the repercussion too insignificant, a more punitive action is required to ensure consumer interest are kept high.

MCMC over to you!