Two As for the Covid-hit company: adapt quickly and announce more

Joan Ng

Published Tue, May 19, 2020 · 09:50 PM

A READER of The Business Times recently wrote to say he was surprised by an article in which Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) chief executive Tan Kiat How was quoted as saying that there has been a "slight degradation" of Internet services, but that "things are coming to normal".

At the time of writing, the reader had spent a frustrating two weeks trying to work from home with just a mobile Internet connection. His new apartment could not be connected because "circuit breaker" restrictions had limited the workforce available to the telcos. When he took his complaint to IMDA, he was told that "it is what it is".

The reader has since contacted BT to say that he has received an appointment date, possibly confirming that normalcy is returning to the telecoms industry. Some might argue that this BT reader had an unrealistic expectation of services during this pandemic period. In some parts of the developed world, a two-week waiting period would be standard even in the best of times…