KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — Telekom Malaysia (TM) is upgrading the SaveME999 smartphone application that allows people with disabilities direct access to emergency services, even as confusion continues to surround its eventual availability to the general public.

The telecommunications giant is planning to raise the service’s existing capacity of 15 alerts per second as well as the ability to deal with the three to 15 alerts received each day.

“... we are currently conducting tests and upgrading the SaveME999 infrastructure to ensure that it is able to cater to the expected increase in the number of alerts received from PwDs (People with Disabilities),” said TM’s executive vice president of the government sector, Datuk Kairul Annuar Mohamed Zamzam in the email response.

Kairul also indicated that there are plans to extend SaveME999 services for visually-impaired smartphone users, saying that TM is ready to upgrade it as soon as the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia announces the extension.

But Kairul declined to comment on the confusion surrounding the availability to the app, after police announced that SaveMe999 would be made available to the general public following the discontinuation of the MyDistress app.

“TM as the contractor of the MERS 999 project will execute the implementation / extension of the SaveME 999 application to the public once we receive the instruction from the (Communication and Multimedia) Ministry,” he said.

MyDistress, an application that had allowed users to contact police in emergencies and broadcast their location using global positioning system (GPS), had been open to all classes of users but was limited only to Selangor.  It was, however, suspended in November.

Bukit Aman Logistics director Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah subsequently said that SaveMe999 would be used in place of MyDistress.

Minister of Communication and Multimedia Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek later insisted the SaveME999 service would continue to be limited to the disabled to avoid “congestion”, but also expressed the government’s willingness to eventually open it up to the public.

Attempts to obtain clarification from the police have so far been unsuccessful.

SaveME999 application was initially developed to allow those with hearing and speech disabilities to send out distress alert and already has nearly 4,200 registered users since its September launch, TM said.

Developed at a cost of RM1 billion, SaveME999 sends distress alerts at the touch of a button to the MERS 999 Response Centre, with their requests also filtered before being sent to one of five agencies - the police, hospitals, civil defence, fire and rescue department and the maritime enforcement agency.

The general public can still, however, contact MERS 999 emergency services via phone calls.