CelcomDigi users take to social media to air grief over unannounced network outage

KUALA LUMPUR, May 22 — Some users of Malaysia’s largest mobile telecommunications provider have been facing service disruptions since yesterday and are demanding answers from CelcomDigi.

The affected users across the country say they have not been able to launch mobile applications apart from WhatsApp and Telegram; this included the CelcomDigi’s Life mobile application, whereby users could check on connectivity status.

Taking to social media, some aggrieved users said they had to drive home to use the WiFi to resolve online payments.

A user on X with the handle @mypolitiko said he had to drive home to connect to his house WiFi to make some payment and then drive back out to his shop to pick up some delivery items.

Another user with the handle @algrrif said he was about to pay for his food using Maybank QR when he found he couldn’t open the app.

Initially, he thought it was his phone that had a problem, and restarted it 12 times, switched on and off the airplane mode for 19 times (this is trick commonly done by mobile users to reconnect to mobile network), but to no avail.

X user @algrrif had in a separate post called out to CelcomDigi saying the network provider should notify on any upcoming maintenances that would affect users, as the disruption had affect not only those wanted to use QR to pay for their meal, but also e-hailing services and the food delivery industry.

Similarly user @mushifreak was in the midst of paying for his meal and had waited 30 minutes before he had to resort to using the restaurant WiFi to connect the mobile banking application to pay payment.

X user @sugincharles said he could not launch the Waze mobile application to make his way home from Klang and suggested that CelcomDigi refund the phone bill payment to affected users each time the mobile service is out of order.

Several other X users have also questioned if the merger between Celcom and Digi has resulted in more frequent mobile service outages. An X user with the handle @MerzaDeRosta said he had never prayed for anyone’s divorce but had always prayed that Digi and Celcom will divorce as the “marriage” seemed to have made things worse.

An X user with the handle @apobangpolife wrote that Celcom is getting worse, there were so much complaints and the telecommunication provider is just keeping quiet, at least offer some refund.

Another user with the handle @hornovduduck wrote that he was stuck at the car service workshop and could not go home as he could not even call for a car via e-hailing.

During the outage yesterday, public online forum site lowyat.net reported that CelcomDigi had initially posted on its official X account noting that it is currently attempting to resolve the problem as soon as possible.

However at the time of writing, lowyat.net said the post had been deleted from the telecommunication network’s X account.

In the deleted post, CelcomDigi had urged its users to connect to WiFi networks instead for their connectivity needs while the issue is being resolved. It did not state how long the connectivity disruption would take.

In a timeline update, lowyat.net wrote that at 9.40pm yesterday, CelcomDigi had acknowledged the service disruption and was working on resolving its Celcom network.

At 9.47pm, CelcomDigi via its X account posted that it had restored all of its network channels. It however did not say what caused the disruption then went on for hours.

Malay Mail is reaching out to CelcomDigi for a comment on the service outage and has yet to receive a response.