After a rocky rollout, it appears that the government has rolled back its NG MERS 999 platform following complaints of slow responses and technical issues.
According to a report by MalaysiaKini, the Ministry of Health has temporarily rolled back to the old MERS 999 system for emergency calls and ambulance dispatch starting yesterday evening.
The MalaysiaKini report was based on a sighted memo which mentions that the rollback will be effective nationwide starting 10pm (20th November). It also mentions that all 21 Medical Emergency Coordination Centres (MECC) in Malaysia, including the Kota Bharu MECC, will be reactivated at 10pm.
It added that the use of NG MERS 999 will be suspended temporarily while the sessions will be carried out manually. MalaysiaKini says it has verified the information with a Ministry of Health officer.
We have reached out to TM for further clarification on the rollback to the old MERS 999 system.
The NG MERS 999 system by Telekom Malaysia (TM) went live on 16 November 2025 and it was meant to replace the previous MERS 999 system which has been operational for 17 years. TM was awarded the NG MERS 999 project amounting to RM1.25 billion for a period of 12 years.
TM shared yesterday that the 999 platform typically receives 50,000 calls per day. However, it received a sudden 40% surge with close to 70,000 calls received in a day after migrating to NG MERS 999. This surge is said to be the cause of performance degradation which resulted in technical issues and delayed responses. They also shared that only 5% of calls received were genuine emergencies, while the remaining calls were silent or prank calls.
To mitigate the issue, TM has increased its server capacity, optimising server configuration and mobilised additional resources at the call centres.
TM also reiterated that the 999 voice-call service for emergency is still operational as usual. Meanwhile, the SaveME 999 app only serves as an alternative channel.
As of yesterday evening, SaveME 999 app developed by Jabatan Digital Negara has received an appalling 1.5 star rating on the Apple App Store and 1.4 stars on the Google Play Store.
[ SOURCE, IMAGE SOURCE ]
