HDB residents in Puggol Edgefield Plains have to pay more for their mobile phone bills despite the poor coverage they are receiving.
The mobile phone reception of local telcos in block 672D was so weak that residents often unknowingly latched on to mobile phone networks of Malaysian telcos. Many residents were not aware that their phone network had auto-roamed into Malaysian networks and ended up making long-distance calls back to Singapore unknowingly that resulted in IDD charges.
One resident complained that relatives who visited him often ended up with extra IDD charges in their telco bills.
Another resident gave feedback that he was able to receive mobile coverage from Singapore networks in his living room but he "auto roamed" into Malaysian network while he was in his kitchen.
Apparantly, the issue affected all three local telcos.
The three telcos are currently in the process of adding more base stations into the area to improve the reception and the works are scheduled to complete in the next few months. In the meanwhile, residents are advised to configure their phone to lock on to Singapore mobile networks.
Do you think IDA should issue a warning to the three telcos? What do you think?