MCMC solved my Maxis fibre internet problem – Here’s how I did it

If you have been on queue for Maxis Fibre upgrade, the first thing that happens is that your older router will be exchanged with a new one. But that is not when you actually get your upgrade. In fact, it may even take up to 7 days before your internet actually gets updated. You can reach out to Maxis if you still did not get it after 7 days, but due to the nature of the massive roll out, we need to calm down and let Maxis roll it out. It WILL happen eventually. Now, what happens AFTER that, is what this story is all about.

Maxis offers their 100Mbps package that provides 100Mbps downlink and 50Mbps uplink for their updated package. Of course, for home internet, this is on best effort basis, and you would almost never get exactly the specified speed unless your area is a low density type. The question remains, what is the buffer before you actually lodge a complaint? I was using 30Mbps package before this upgrade so let’s keep that at the back of our minds.

You can pretty much tell which part was before and after the upgrade. But something feels off, no? Look at the dates too.

When I finally realized that things were noticeably faster than they should, I told myself, “this is it! It has happened!”. So, just like a typical internet samaritan, I run my first speedtest test and look at the glorified download speed clocking 94.5Mbps. However, the upload, which was expected to hit 50Mbps, barely made it there and sat around the range of the older upload speed. This is where I raised the question to myself, where do we define the fine line of best efforts?

That is how the subsequent steps actually came about. I discussed this with a friend and he advised that this is something that the Malaysian Communications And Multimedia Commission (MCMC) should be able to sort out. The next thing after reaching out to MCMC? I was told that MCMC representative will pay my premise a visit to test out the internet speed. While they’re at it, I can ask any questions that I may have and they will be more than happy to answer them. I won’t lie to you guys, I myself was a little surprised with this scenario because more often than not, the perception that we, the public have created towards MCMC has skewed a lot towards the negative side. I’m guilty myself too.

This test can take up to an hour, so make sure you take enough time off

So, exactly a week later, yesterday, a representative from MCMC appeared at my doorstep right on time as promised. He plugs in his network analyzing device and begins a long winded test that is about to take roughly an hour. I already have plenty of questions in mind, but suddenly, the doorbell rings. This time, a man introduces himself as Maxis technician appears. Okay, this wasn’t part of the plan? Or was it? Since he’s late, and the network analyzing tool is already running, he has to wait for his turn.

So a three way discussion started. The first question I threw, had to be what we all have in mind by now. According to the Maxis technician (which is an outsourced third party personnel, by the way), 30Mbps was “fine” because it’s “more than half”. However, the MCMC personnel disagreed. According to him, end-to-end fibre internet should guarantee north of 90% of service level which means, I am supposed to get at least 45Mbps on a full network test and 40Mbps would already be considered very bad. I don’t blame a third party technician for not knowing this, of course. But I think it’s my social responsibility to at least share this bit with my people.

After MCMC personnel is done with the test, whatever Maxis does will no longer reflect to the audited report.

He’s done with his test and turns out, he also got about 28Mbps on his test. Since I was using a third party router, the Maxis technician requested that he run a test using the one that was provided by them. I wasn’t worried about that at all. I was using an ASUS RT-AC5300 router, one of the most powerful commercial routers available in the market, in case you’re wondering. So naturally, he got a failed test too. The next bit gets even more interesting!

Apparently, when I contacted MCMC, the reason why they required a minimum 7 days before they diagnose my network, had nothing to do with their schedule. Instead, according to the MCMC personnel, upon receiving a complaint from the end user, MCMC will initiate a command to the respective Internet Service Provider (ISP), giving them a chance to perform their round of test if they wish and rectify the problem before MCMC themselves step in. Once MCMC steps in and run their tests, that would be deemed as the final audited test report. Failing this test will affect the ISP and eventually result in penalties. Maxis has introduced their “Maxperts” program, either it’s not working out, or they’re probably too caught up with the upgrade programs.

The MCMC personnel asked the Maxis technician to check on my internet profiling and turned out, indeed, that was where the problem was. While Maxis did set my download speed to 100Mbps, my upload speed was left at 30Mbps, untouched from the previous figure. The problem was identified rather quickly, because, apparently this was the 3rd case so far that had this problem. Looking at the scale of upgrades that are happening in Maxis right now, 3 cases can be safely considered as a careless mistake. Then again, if I was a non-technical user, I probably would have never found out about this problem. If its happening in your premise, you must know your rights and have it fixed. How do we do this?

Steps to file a report with MCMC

Before you bug MCMC, I strongly advise you to contact your ISP’s technical support to get things sorted out. Let’s not abuse the powers that are bestowed upon us and be the good samaritans that we are. If things get too frustrating, you can be assured that you have a supreme governing power that can sort out the problem for you.

What I am sharing is a public domain information and not behind the scenes thingy. Surprisingly, many people are not aware of it.

1. Run speedtests on your network at various times, in a span of a few days. Don’t just jump to conclusions and make sure you have a reproducible problem first. Importantly, test out the network with the router that was provided by the ISP because that is the one that is deemed as a legitimate test. If your third party router is not performing, and their test renders perfect, it would be embarrassing for you.
2. Once you have enough data that justifies for you, and that you were not able to get it resolved with the ISP, reach out to CFM using this page.
3. If you are still not satisfied and your service is not improved, you can reach out to MCMC’s complaint page. Refer to the link in the next line.

The whole process is explained elaborately on MCMC’s page. The complaint page can also be found here.

Please be patient! This is not a process that happens overnight. It involves a LOT of paperwork, processes and multiple parties. Being patient will reward at the end. If you have any questions, drop a comment below so we can advise you where necessary too. Again, do not abuse this. I just hope someone out there will get their internet woes resolved because I certainly know a lot of people who have problems with their internet.