Local telcos are not on the same page with MCMC's Mandatory Standards for the Quality of Wireless Broadband Service

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Back in April 2021, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has proposed a new Mandatory Standards for the Quality of Wireless Broadband Service (MSQoS). This initiative is scheduled to begin in August 2021 but it has been met with disagreements by our local telcos

In case you didn't know, the MSQoS is meant to deliver and improve the quality of service by service providers as well as for the consumers' internet experience. That doesn't sound too bad, right? So what's up with the disagreement? Well, one of the following statements in the MSQoS is that the minimum Wireless Broadband speed is 2.5Mbps and 25Mbps for Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) for 90% of the time. 

What did our local telco have to say about it? Thanks to MalaysianWireless.com, you check out the following responses below: 

  • Celcom: High/inappropriate QoS standards imposed by MCMC will eventually increase the deployment cost for wireless broadband in Malaysia, or at the least, competitive pricing declines will be impacted. Celcom is proposing 2.5Mbps, but only 80% of the time. But this should only be used as a reference and not subject to enforcement/penalty by MCMC.
  • Digi: Broadband Speed “Not less than 10Mbps (averaged) based on Crowdsourced data reported at the state level in a quarterly reporting period”
  • Maxis: “Throughput of not less than 2.5Mbps, 80% of the time for the state or nationwide measurement.”
  • Telekom Malaysia: “challenging to meet with the current spectrum allocation and the constraint of not able to carrier aggregate 2.6GHz TDD and 2.3GHz TDD due to unsupported current technology.” TM proposed, “not less than 2.5Mbps, 80% of the time for Static test for both TDD/FDD” or “not less than 10Mbps average within LTE network using the crowdsourcing methodology”
  • U Mobile: “agrees with the required minimum network throughput of 2.5Mbps but at 80% of the time.” FWA to have the same standard as Wireless Broadband as it shares the same network resources.
  • YTL: “Not less than 1.5Mbps, 80% of the time” and “Not less than 70% of subscribed bandwidth, 80% of the time base on the sample”

 

While 2.5Mbps is indeed low, it is good enough for most mobile broadband users to stream videos in 720p consistently. As you can see from Celcom's response, the problem lies within the deployment cost. Moreover, the telcos are proposing that the FWA should be the same as the Wireless Broadband standards with 2.5Mbps as the minimum speed. According to the JENDELA plan, MCMC wants them all to offer an average of 35Mbps network speed by the end of 2022. 

While MCMC has good intentions, what do you think about this situation? Do you agree with MCMC or should telcos keep up with their service quality? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more trending tech news at TechNave.com.