Telekom Malaysia Group’s fully owned subsidiary Dialog Telekom disconnects 36,000 essential Mobile Phones in Jaffna since 11th August 2006, sources from Jaffna said.Dialog GSM, which owns 90 % of the connections and Mobitel, a collaborative company of Sri Lankan Telecom, have their main relay station to the Jaffna Peninsula in the Palaly Military Base. Telekom Malaysia Chairman, Tan Sri Dato’ Ir. Muhammad Radzi bin Haji Mansor, was not available for immediate comments and no apology is available in the Mobile Operators website and customers are simple taken for a ride, an angry customer said.

More than 40,000 people who had mobile telephone facilities lost the facilities when the Sri Lankan Military cut-off the wireless services following the break out of fresh violence on 11 August. Sri Lanka Military consulted neither the wireless carriers nor the customers before suspending the services, according to sources.

Telekom Malaysia hasnt taken any legal actions against the illegal cut-off on behalf of  those 36,000 affected customers and raises serious questions about its commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Customer Service.

The affected customers are continued to be billed for their monthly charges and their basic human rights are violated by denying free communication, human rights activists said.

-Keeran