Study calls for better mobile services in M'sia

The survey, conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres, revealed this finding although mobile users gave an average of 7.1 points out of a possible 10 in terms of their satisfaction with current services.

Nonetheless, the survey did not provide detailed analysis on all the seven service providers in the country and bypassed Time Cel, Celcom 010 and Mobikom as these services only accounted for 4 percent of the users polled.

To date, Maxis has the highest penetration rate, followed by Celcom, DIGI and TM Touch.

All mobile operators with the exception of Maxis needed to improve on their nationwide coverage, the survey said.

On fixed line coverage and related services, users polled gave Telekom Malaysia a 7.4 rating.

But users were not too pleased with Telekom's application process for a new phone, adding that it was too slow. The same concerns were raised over its often slow installation time and late repair works.

In terms of Internet access services, the surveyed showed Jaring to have the best offering so far for Malaysian consumers, even though it has only a 24 percent market share of home users.

The combined Internet market penetration for Maxis Net, TM Net and Celcom Net is less than 5 percent.

Consumers gave Jaring a 7.4 rating, with TM Net getting a lowly 6.6. Users feel TM Net needs to buck up in many areas including easier log-in, customer service and reliability of its Internet line. Jaring meanwhile, the public said, needs to offer a more flexible pricing plan for its service.

The survey also said the PC penetration rate in local households is about 18 percent, with only half of this number connected to the Internet.

It cost RM500,000 to conduct this survey, which was carried out with a random sample of 2001 households, targeting only residential consumers and not business users.