unifi Mobile suffers 4G Network Disruption for over 2 hours, violates MCMC Standards?

unifi mobile, the 4G mobile service from Telekom Malaysia (TM), suffered a massive network service disruption nationwide. It has over 1 million mobile subscribers, as of last year.

Based on connection logs, MalaysianWireless was able to trace the 4G network outage at 12.14 am on 24 September 2021, with the network coming back online at 2.47am today. Some users are still reporting issues at the time of writing this article at 3am.

The unifi Mobile 4G service disruption may have been related to a “system upgrade” that was scheduled on 21 September, affecting bill payment and purchase of data passes. The scheduled maintenance does not affect voice call, sms, and Internet services. FAQs of the “system upgrade” posted by unifi Mobile can be downloaded here[PDF] and here[PDF].

However, the “upgrade” did not go well and “is taking more time than expected” according to unifi on its Facebook page on 23 September at 9.17am. Following this, unifi Mobile customers posted on social media platforms that they stopped getting 4G signal on their devices around midnight. There are currently over 1.4k comments on that unifi Facebook posting alone.

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We are working very hard to serve you better.

The unifi Mobile system upgrade is taking more time than expected. The Credit Reloads Service for BEBAS users are still not fully functional.

Rest assured that we are working hard to get the process moving quickly. Find out more about this activity at i.unifi.my/FAQ.

This inconvenience is deeply regretted and we would like to thank you for your patience and understanding.

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At the time of publishing this article, unifi mobile and Telekom Malaysia (TM) did not provide any updates or explanation, specifically related to the 4G network service disruption.

The service provider may have also violated an obligation of service providers to notify the customers and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) within 90 minutes of each incident of service disruption.

In August 2021, the MCMC revised its Mandatory Standards for Quality of Customer Service. It said that “service providers shall notify the Commission and customers within 90 minutes from the occurrence of any single service disruption incident (including exclusions) if service outages lasted 60 minutes or more. ”

TM had earlier objected to the proposal to notify on service disruption incident unless all the following conditions are fulfilled:
a) it involves a totally ‘no service’ experience to customers;
b) it is network related;
c) it affects more than 300,000 customers for PCS and Wireless BAS

The unifi mobile 4G service disruption (no service) lasted around 2 hours (over 120 minutes) and may have affected over 1 million subscrbers.

Below are some screenshots of what Malaysians posted on social media regarding the disruption.

On Twitter:

unifi Facebook comments (click here for full view).

This article will be updated with a statement from Telekom Malaysa (TM), if any.