SUNGAI PETANI: Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil today acknowledged that telecommunication service providers (telcos) have been failing to deliver the level of internet speed paid for by home users.

Admitting that even his own home was not spared from the issue, Fahmi said the government was looking for solutions to ensure that telcos deliver the promised speed or even exceed it.

"I also use fixed broadband home internet, and yes, there are issues between the published speed and the actual speed that I am getting.

"Some of the issues are technical, such as the time when you use the internet, for instance, during peak usage hours.

"There are some choke points (location within a network that restricts data flow and that degrades the performance of the network beyond the choke point) in the bandwidth or network congestion.

"This is what we refer to as quality of experience or quality of service," he told reporters after launching the Fixed Broadband Unity Package in Taman Sri Wang here today.

The package, which is offered to B40, selected pensioners, and disabled persons, provides affordable 30 Mbps unlimited data at just RM69 per month, which is 22 per cent cheaper than the current market price.

Fahmi was asked to comment on the issue of home internet users not enjoying the actual speed that they were paying service providers for on a monthly basis.

"The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is looking into this issue, and we are exploring options to ensure that the quality of service enjoyed by consumers is at or exceeds the expected level," he said, adding that he would also be responding to the issue in Parliament.

On a related matter, Fahmi said the issue of dropped calls would be resolved by June.

"I have asked the MCMC to look into this issue. It may take time, but I believe we can implement a basic solution by June.

"Dropped calls are caused by technical issues related to network sharing between telecommunication towers but we expect to reach understanding among the telcos by June," he said.

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2023/03/894558/i-am-also-not-spared-lower-published-internet-speed-home-fahmi