BolehVPN: Freedom Through Security

TM has posted another announcement that there is another submarine cable circuit fault on the AAG:

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) wishes to announce that there has been a disruption of its Internet services due to circuit faults on the Asian American Gateway (AAG) submarine cable network at Lantau in China and at the domestic international link at Genting Sempah, Pahang, linking Malaysia to the United States (US) and Hong Kong.

Due to this, customers using Internet services may now experience slow browsing while accessing content hosted in the U.S. and Hong Kong. In addition, customers using other IP services such as Virtual Private Network (VPN) and other critical business applications linked to the U.S. and Hong Kong may also experience some service degradation.

To alleviate the problem, some of the links have been rerouted to alternate routes to ease the congestion.

During the restoration process, traffic to Northern America and Hong Kong may experience minor degradation while traffic to other countries is not affected. TM will make further announcements on the progress of the restoration works.

TM wishes to assure its customers that it is undertaking all necessary measures to restore communications services for its customers as soon as possible.

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In a recent Twitter post, TM has removed the bandwidth cap on HSBB @ UniFi for now. With so much invested in making available HSBB and TM eager to get new subscriptions it is of course worried when the general feedback from the public was outrage at the bandwidth caps. After all, how are they going to get new subscribers if there’s so much negative press? There have been some calls that this was due to the power of social media, but I also have a feeling that it has a lot to do with the press’ decision to vocalize these opinions (see TheStar’s report).

However I suspect that this is not the end of the issue. TM is the company that installed P2P throttling devices despite public outcry. The fact is that there wasn’t a valid alternative provider and that’s why they could afford to do that. Its loss in revenue from pissed off customers (who probably couldn’t afford to cancel in any case) were offset by the massive savings in bandwidth. Now who’s to say they won’t slap the bandwidth cap back on once HSBB has a higher take-up rate and you’re already bound with your 12-24 months with them? What are you going to do? Not pay and  be internet-less in protest? Good luck with that.

It’s also worth nothing that TM can’t even get their UniFi site together. It refuses to display on Firefox despite updating to the latest Flash player.

Note the additional 's' at the bottom

Even on IE8, although it loads, it shows a code error and clicking in the Packages does not seem to do anything!

Love the boy's expression

Launch day wasn’t that much better:

Let’s see a year or two down the line how this pans out. For now, I’ll be still trying to get my damn 4mbps…

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Just went to the TM site and noticed a countdown happening:

Clicking on it brings you to the HSBB teaser site which really doesn’t tease much since it’s just a bunch of text but lends us to believe that either HSBB is going to be launched then OR that HSBB’s details will be finalized then:

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I have now submitted a MCMC complaint via their online complaint centre.

Apparently this does get their attention. I’m crossing my fingers to hope for a speedy resolution.

I suggest others who are facing connectivity issues to international websites, do the same to put pressure on TM.

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I’ll let my correspondence to them do the talking:

I have recently upgraded my account from 1 mbit RM88/mo to the 4 mbit package.

Mr X came a few days ago to my home fix the connection and performed the upgrade and reported that everything was complete.

However when I did a speedtest, it was still at the old speed of 1.5 mbit.

I do not believe this is a line or normal speed quality issue as the speedtest returns a consistent 1.5 mbit or (1400+ kilobits/sec) which was the exact same speed I got before the upgrade.

I have called 100 for a total of 7 times. Each time they will first tell me:

1) There is no problem with my account and that it’s at 4 mbit

2) When I tell them I’m still getting only 1.5, they then tell me that one of their systems show me that I’m still on the old 1 mbit package

3) They do not know the status of my reports as there has been no note left

4) They do not know how to process my TR ID: XXXX and that the report number that they have is XYXYXY

5) I received a total of 1 follow up call who called to confirm the problem and was told that he would call yesterday night (19 Feb) but I received no such call.

6) They told me that there was nothing I could do but wait for 24 hours (everytime I wait, there is no improvement)

7) The last time I called (12.10 PM 20 Feb 09), explained the whole problem again and then I was put on hold. After a few minutes of waiting, the line suddenly changed to an engaged tone!!

8) I received no return call after this.

9) Nobody seems to know what the issue is and I am getting more and more agitated and being asked to call the installer, go to the TM centre or call TM and it seems that I am just being pushed around.

10) Several of the technicians had the nerve to ask me to try that ‘unplug your modem and replug it back in’ old story when it’s obviously nothing to do with it (I have done it several times and am familiar with how it works).

I have also gone to the TMNet customer point in person for a total of 3 times. They too inform me that the work report is ‘in progress’ but don’t know what’s the status but told me they will ‘monitor it’. Got a sms from FOCus saying that my TR ID is XXXX

I have also spoken to Mr X 4x who has confirmed that he has done all that he can on his side and that my phone line is set properly to 4 mbits and that there is nothing more for him to do. He was very friendly however and said that he will try to follow up in KL when he goes over for a meeting there on Monday…

Now I have spent a lot of time trying to get an answer on this or at least an acknowledgement that some work is actually being done on my problem rather than having to repeat my problem for the 7th or 8th time. I just want to know several basic things:

1) What is the status of my report, has someone been assigned to it?

2) What is the time frame for resolution? Please do not say 24 hours as I have already waited for more than that with constant reassurances that the system will fix itself in 24 hours.

3) What is the problem and who is the appropriate person to contact regarding this matter?

I hope to receive a reply on this as soon as possible and I can be contacted via my mobile at XXX. I am extremely frustrated and hope this matter can be dealt with in an expedient manner.

Then their ridiculous reply:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for contacting TM. Firstly, we would like to apologise for the late reply.

Referring to your e-mail dated 20th February 2009 on slow connection issue, we regret that your Streamyx connection still does not function to the expected level of efficiency. However, upon verfiying in our system, we are able to track down your reports XXXX that you had lodged pertaining this issue. Please be informed that this report is still in the midst of investigation and rectification by our Technical Department.

We acknowledged that your urgency towards this issue. However, we regret to inform that we are unable to provide you with the specific time frame of the service restoration time. Please note that our technical team is currently working on it and we will do our level best to rectify the problem occurred. Should you need to check your report status, kindly contact our Technical Department at 100 and select “Internet Services”.

For further assistance or feedback, kindly e-mail us at help@tm.com.my.

Alternatively, you can also contact TM at 100 and select “Internet Services”.

Regards,

Che Ashaliana Che Deraman

Customer Care Support, Internet Services,

Customer Service Management,

TM Retail.

www.tm.com.my

(ICOMS#8979308-561503)

Sometime on Friday, my line was magically reporting 4 mbit on speedtest. I called the tech guy who installed my line and told him everything was in order albeit the international slowdown which he can do nothing.

So there I was…yes still upset that my 4 mbit line could not even surf Facebook but took solace that the whole tech fiasco was over and all I had to do was wait for TM to fix their lines.

Then lo and behold…got a call in the morning and this was really the icing on the cake

“Hello, Reuben speaking”

“Hi, I’m calling from TM Customer Care”

“Ah yes.”

“Regarding your complaint, the technician has informed me that 4 mbit is currently not supported in your area”

“What! But I’m getting 4 mbit now!”

$*#&$8$&#*$(@#$#&(&#$!

In short and from our other users’ experiences from upgrading their line:

1. 4 mbit does not improve surfing
2. 4 mbit works at 4 mbit on local sites. International sites….hit and miss (with miss being more)
3. Be prepared for several weeks of no internet (I’ve received reports that in W. Malaysia they cut off your line pending the upgrade)
4. Be prepared to be locked to an IP range (I now cannot get any other IP range besides 115.x.x so if that sucks, I’m screwed)
5. Be prepared for LOTS of frustration in dealing with Tech Support should your upgrade not proceed smoothly
6. 4 mbit Premier Support just means that your Premier Support Assistant can now no longer speak English
7. Be told a 100x that you need to power on and power off your modem first by an automated message then by the human technician (what’s the difference!)

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