Celcom was the last Telco to launch a mobile app despite it being a leading Telco in Malaysia.

A friend in Celcom once told me that being last to do something means being able to things better. But I have to disagree with him when it comes to the MyCelcom Postpaid app.

My major problem with the app is—– its super slow to load on Celcom’s own network! Once I click to open the app, it takes almost a minute to load the 1st main page. If I click something (for example My Services), it takes about 20-40 seconds to load the pages within the app. I checked my speedtest, and the result is more than 10Mbps.

In some cases, loading the MyCelcom Postpaid app via WiFi is faster than loading it via Celcom 4G/3G network.

Its not just the app, even the Online Customer Service on Celcom website is slow. For example the “VAS under My Plans & Service” page takes forever to load. In the past, I have seen multiple errorr on the Celcom website as well.

Looks like I am not the only one having a bad experience. Below are the Telco app ratings on Google Play Store:

MyCelcom Postpaid App: 3.1
MyMaxis App: 3.8
MyDigi: 3.9
MyUMobile: 3.5
Tune Talk: 3.9
Xpax: 3.4
Hotlink RED: 4.2

Most of the recent complaints on the MyCelcom Postpaid Android app are related to login issues and slow loading.

Here’s another thing. These are the number of Installs for Android devices:

Hotlink: 5-10 million
MyMaxis: 1-5 million
MyDigi: 1-5 million
My U Mobile: 1-5 million
MyCelcom: 500k-1 million
Xpax: 500k-1 million

About 6 million Celcom subscribers are smartphone/data users.

Perhaps Celcom should learn something from the other Telcos. For example, Digi occasionally offers some exclusive Internet plans and freebies via the MyDigi app. The other Telcos offer rewards and privileges through the app. The latest U Mobile app allows you to switch to a different postpaid plan. In the past, Hotlink RED offered 1GB free Internet for users who downloaded the app.

I personally feel that Yoodo, Celcom’s own MVNO has a better mobile app.

The Celcom MyPostpaid app also appears to be missing Customer Service. There’s no form to fill up or Live Chat to contact Celcom customer service.

Clearly, Celcom has a lot to catch up.