I live, commute and work in the Klang Valley, not in some remote corner of Malaysia. Yet in 2026, in the heart of our “advanced” capital region, I struggle to complete a single phone conversation without it dropping.
For me, call drop is not an occasional annoyance. It is almost 100% in every call.
This is not an exaggeration or a personal technical problem. Friends, family and colleagues on Maxis, Celcom and U Mobile are all complaining about the same thing. This was never the case before. Somewhere along the way, while we were being sold the promise of 5G, the basic experience of making a call-in urban Malaysia quietly fell apart.
From Damansara to Puchong, Brickfields to Petaling Jaya, Klang to Port Klang, and across Kepong, basic mobile connectivity has become a gamble. You start a call on 5G and within minutes it tumbles down to 4G, then to stutters, echoes and sudden silence. Try driving along the Federal Highway or ELITE with a colleague or an international guest in your car. Watch their call die mid‑sentence while your phone proudly shows a 5G icon that no longer inspires any confidence.
And if you dare enter the Penchala Tunnel or the SMART Tunnel, you might as well switch your phone off. You are cut off from civilisation almost instantly, and only re‑connected when you exit. In 2026, in Greater Kuala Lumpur, this should not be acceptable.
5G promised, frustration delivered
We were promised a new era of connectivity: ultra‑fast 5G, seamless calls, smart cities and a digital economy that would power Malaysia’s future. Instead, many of us feel something closer to a bait‑and‑switch.
We pay for 5G‑enabled plans but spend most of our time stuck on 4G.
We see the 5G icon, but calls and data behave worse than they did a few years ago.
We drive through major urban corridors and tunnels with coverage that would shame a developing country a decade ago.
This is not a mere inconvenience. It affects work, safety and daily dignity. When you cannot hold a stable call in the central region of the country, something is fundamentally wrong with how the network is being designed, maintained and overseen.
Urban users feel like collateral damage
We often hear about the need to connect rural communities and bridge the digital divide. That goal is important and deserves support. No one is arguing against giving rural Malaysians the connectivity they deserve.
But while the government and telcos celebrate “coverage percentages” and headline targets, urban users are paying premium prices for a service that has clearly deteriorated. Our apartments, offices, shopping malls, congested roads and vital tunnels have turned into blind spots. The urban network is treated as if it can absorb endless compromise, as long as the maps look good on slides.
It feels as if the priority has become checking boxes on a coverage report rather than ensuring that people in Petaling Jaya, Klang or Brickfields can hold a decent, uninterrupted call in a moving car.
Talking about 6G when 5G barely works
We are already starting to hear talk of 6G and futuristic use cases, with slogans about “smart everything” and “future‑ready Malaysia”. But these buzzwords ring hollow when the basics do not work.
How can we get excited about 6G when:
Calls drop the moment we enter key tunnels or even a ride on any roads in the Klang Valley.
Data collapses when traffic gets heavy or the weather turns.
The network keeps switching between 5G and 4G mid‑conversation, turning every call into a gamble.
People are not asking for science fiction. They are asking for a phone network that behaves like a reliable utility. Until that happens, the constant promotion of the next “G” feels less like ambition and more like a distraction.
Telcos must confront the quality issue honestly
To be fair, building and upgrading networks is complex and costly. But customers have the right to expect transparency and accountability.
When users across multiple providers all report the same problems, dropped calls, unstable connections, sudden 5G‑to‑4G switches, the explanation cannot simply be “restart your phone” or “we’re doing optimisation”. These may be valid technical steps in isolated cases, but they do not explain a pattern of degradation felt by users across the Klang Valley.
If telcos are facing congestion, coverage gaps or technical limitations, they should say so plainly, explain what they are doing to address it and provide realistic timelines. Urban users are not unreasonable; we just want honesty and visible progress. What we have instead is silence or generic responses, while our daily experience gets worse.
A constructive role for the regulator
The communications regulator has an important role, and criticism should be fair as well as firm. This is not about attacking any institution, but about asking for more active stewardship of a critical public service.
There are a few constructive steps the regulator could champion:
Put quality of service front and centre.
Beyond coverage maps, publish and monitor clear standards for call drop rates, minimum urban data speeds and continuity along major highways and key tunnels. Make these standards public so users know what to expect.
Encourage transparent reporting
Require operators to share regular, area‑based performance information, not just national averages. If a certain stretch of highway or a particular neighbourhood consistently underperforms, the public should know that it is recognised and being addressed.
Prioritise known problem areas
Tunnels like Penchala and SMART, and notorious dead spots along Federal Highway and ELITE, are too important to be treated as minor issues. Coordinated efforts between operators, concessionaires and authorities should target these areas with clear deadlines for improvement.
These steps are not about “pointing fingers”; they are about making sure that everyone, providers, regulators, policymakers and users, is looking at the same reality and rowing in the same direction.
Respecting the everyday user
At its core, this is about respect for the everyday Malaysian who depends on their phone, not as a luxury, but as a lifeline.
Respect for the worker who needs to join an urgent call while stuck in traffic.
Respect for the small business owner trying to close a deal on the move.
Respect for the parent checking on a child or elderly relative.
Respect for the country’s image when foreign visitors experience our network first‑hand.
Right now, that respect feels missing. We are paying customers, but too often we are treated like unpaid testers for an unstable product.
I am tired of watching the signal icon dance between 5G and 4G while my voice disappears into nothing. I am tired of every journey through a tunnel feeling like a forced disconnection from the modern world. I am tired of being told that everything is fine when my experience, and that of many others, says otherwise.
This is a call, not for blame, but for urgency.
To the telcos: acknowledge the problem and show us, clearly, how you plan to fix it.
To the regulator and policymakers: help set the standards, create the transparency and coordinate the solutions.
To fellow users: keep speaking up, document your experience and demand better.
If Malaysia truly wants to be a digital nation, we can start with something very simple: a phone call that actually stays connected. - May 18, 2026
***Ravindran Raman Kutty is a Award-winning PR practioner
The post 5G in name only: Why urban Malaysians are struggling to make a simple phone call – Ravindran Raman Kutty appeared first on Scoop.
