KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 — An anonymously started petition has been launched to demand Gobind Singh Deo’s resignation as communications and multimedia minister over his censure of Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) over its high subscription prices and poor customer satisfaction.
The petition was started by one “Concerned CITIZEN” who is likely linked to the government-linked corporation (GLC), based on the wording of the call.
Among others, the petition blames the minister for the decline in TM’s share price since the general election, which went from RM5.00 in May to RM2.26 currently.
It contrasted this with Maxis Bhd’s share price to suggest a bias towards the private firm, insisting that Gobind was also ignoring consumer complaints about Maxis and the related Astro pay-TV operator.
The petition denounced Gobind as criticising TM’s performance without offering solutions and maintained that he should be aware of the technical difficulties facing the GLC in its broadband push.
“There is also a rumour or speculation that it is a plan so that Maxis will be able to buy TM with the current prices and with that, Malaysia will lose one of it's GLC. Hence, we feel that this need to be stop to save Malaysia before it is too late.
“Therefore, we demand a minister that is unbiased and have adequate knowledge on telecomunication industry that will be better for the citizen of Malaysia,” the petition read.
The petition aims to secure 10,000 signatures and has over 8,000 this morning.
Gobind directed TM to reduce its broadband subscription prices and improve speeds for consumers shortly after being appointed minister and in accordance with Pakatan Harapan’s election manifesto.
The move hit the GLC’s share price as it had been price skimming the broadband market courtesy of its network monopoly. For example, it had been offering 30MBps broadband packages for around RM200 while competitor Time was providing up to 300MBps for cheaper.
Last week, the minister said TM must explain its high prices for the Streamyx digital subscriber line, which is slower than its unifi but offered at comparably priced packages.
On Monday, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) disclosed TM’s “alarming” levels of customer complaints, saying the firm must address the price and performance discrimination between its Streamyx and unifi offerings.
