‘Current mobile plans not affected by new standard’

UPDATE: MCMC issued a statement stating that telcos may need to revisit some of their consumer plans (such as their prepaid plans) to ensure adherence to the regulatory requirements for offering broadband wireless access services to consumers.

PETALING JAYA: The updated Mandatory Standards for Quality of Service (MSQoS) will not affect current plans offered by telecommunications companies, says the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

The new standard is aimed at enhancing the overall quality of wireless broadband services, with telcos only mandated to deliver a minimum download throughput Quality of Service (QoS) of 7.7Mbps, it said.

However, this will not have any impact on their mobile packages once the revised standard goes into effect, even if their current speed is below 7.7Mbps, the regulatory body said in a statement to The Star.

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“Consumer plans below 7.7Mbps will not change after April 1. This is because (it is) a mandatory standard on QoS (quality of service), and does not impact product offerings,” it added.

The MCMC said the MSQoS serves as a set of key performance indicators for service providers aimed at monitoring, enforcing and improving the country’s wireless broadband data delivery systems.

“Service providers are required to submit network performance reports based on random on-field measurements to simulate user experience.

“They are also required to monitor network utilisation and network availability to ensure that any issues on the network that might affect consumers’ experience are proactively monitored and rectified,” it said.

The commission said it also performs its own on-field measurements at random locations, complaint locations, and areas of public interest alongside the reports received from service providers.

The MCMC, however, said users can expect more consistent and reliable Internet access with the updated standards.

On the possibility of regulating mobile data plans to ensure a mandatory minimum speed, it said it is important to offer various tiers of service to cater to diverse consumer needs.

“The minimum speed provided by service providers is governed (by its) terms of network performance.

“The products offered are not regulated because this entails a variety of uses, such as personal use, voice calls only, IoT (the Internet of Things), wearable devices, wireless CCTV, etc,” it added.

The threshold is set to increase to 10Mbps in January as part of the MCMC’s commitment to improving broadband quality, it said.