THE Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will work with stakeholders to study and refine the standard operating procedures at disaster areas.
This follows the difficulties faced by the agency in maintaining communication at the Batang Kali landslide disaster area on Friday (Dec 16).
In a statement, MCMC revealed that its Emergency Disaster and Response Team was activated, which instructed the main telecommunication service providers, namely TM, Celcom, Digi, Maxis and U Mobile to immediately analyse and move communication assets to the site.
MCMC also requested assistance from the Malaysian Amateur Emergency Service to provide alternative communication by using amateur radio technology for the use of rescuers to communicate quickly.
However, there were many challenges on site, which included the lack of electricity, the hilly terrain and the distance from the transmitters of the respective service providers.
The difficulties had inadvertently caused technologies such as microwaves to be unusable due to the absence of Line-of-Sight.
“TM immediately provided an alternative method by pulling a fibre optic cable from Awana Genting Node, among others, to enable Multi Operator Core Network to be used by service providers for its respective networks’ coverage.
“Communication facilities were available at the disaster site at 3am the next day (Dec 17), and all service providers involved successfully provided quality communication services to the search-and-rescue mission, and media practitioners at the disaster site.
“MCMC’s monitoring found that all service providers had successfully achieved excellent cellular coverage quality above 50Mbps.
“In addition, TM also provided free 800Mbps Unifi wifi service at the Malaysian Armed Forces, Civil Defense Force, Fire and Rescue Department and police tents for the search and rescue operations.
“One access point was also placed at the Information Department truck as a coordinator for media practitioners’ use,” the statement read.
