In conjunction with the national level celebration of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) 2018 held at Pusat Sains Wilayah Utara organized by the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia, the Communications and Multimedia Consumer Forum of Malaysia (CFM) continues to be committed in empowering consumers through a knowledge sharing session called Gags & Coffee that is delivered in a more relaxed way to share information on telecommunications and multimedia issues with the locals in Kedah.
The interactions with the public through Gags & Coffee is the second edition organized by CFM after the inaugural one held in Sabah in March. This programme is one of the approaches by CFM to connect with local consumers to share telecommunication issues faced by consumers through comedy and humour delivered by local comedians, Ebbi Yus, and AG Hafiz.
“CFM takes the opportunity to approach consumers in Kedah by organizing a more relaxed programme that is easily understood by the audience but loaded with information and tips that consumers can use in their daily lives and making them an informed society,” said CFM Chairman, Mohamad Yusrizal Dato’ Yusoff.
Among the topics that will be shared in the session are on Network, Bill & Charge, and Service Delivery that make up the highest complaints categories reported to CFM by consumers in the northern region (Kedah, Perak, Perlis, Pulau Pinang).
The following are the top five (5) highest complaints received by CFM from consumers in northern region for the year 2017 and 2018.
| 2017 | NUMBER OF COMPLAINTS | 2018 | NUMBER OF COMPLAINTS | |
| 5 CATEGORIES OF THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY CFM | Network | 180 | Network | 128 |
| Bill & Charging | 47 | Bill & Charging | 31 | |
| Service Delivery | 36 | Service Delivery | 23 | |
| Unfair Practice | 12 | Unfair Practice | 11 | |
| Misrepresentation Of Service | 5 | Misrepresentation Of Service | 6 |
Other than the sharing of knowledge and tips through the Gags & Coffee sketch, CFM also advises consumers to lodge official complaints if they have problems with their service providers in order to get an effective solution by reporting their issues to the right channel.
This year’s theme for WTISD18 Celebration is Artificial Intelligence (AI). CFM supports the industry to utilize AI in infrastructure development and advises consumers to use AI to get the correct information that can be shared with others.
Mohamad Yusrizal added, AI is a remarkable advancement in technology that has been used widely today without us knowing that it can benefit many consumers in so many ways.
In the telecommunications industry, AI technology is able to help send notifications on the smartphone for consumers to know the remaining data quota that will help trigger consumers to activate the data saving mode by reducing download data and at the same time saving the phone battery.
With the advantages of AI technology, consumers can get 24/7 assistance from their service providers without having to wait for a long time. Service providers can also quickly identify issues, provide feedback with more suitable solutions and offers real-time help to consumers through intelligent digital interfaces like chatbots.
In addition, other benefits that smartphone users are currently experiencing with today’s AI technology are route suggestions to avoid traffic congestion that saves time, assisting consumers during online purchases by making the apps more user-friendly, as well as providing better safety features through facial recognition technology.
CFM is confident that AI technology is the key component to the creation of proactive applications that can be used to provide consumers with a better quality of life by upgrading various services such as communications, education, health, transport, finance, and other related services.