- Kyle Chua
M1, Singtel, StarHub Users Welcome Lunar New Year With Broadband Service Outages
Customers of Singtel, StarHub and M1, three of Singapore’s leading telecommunication firms, reported disruptions in their fixed broadband services on Tuesday, 1 February. The issue has since been resolved, with network connections being restored shortly after the firms confirmed the reports.
Downdetector, an online platform that checks the status of services in real-time, showed that the disruptions for M1 started around 6 p.m. and peaked at 7 p.m. when there were more than 11,000 reports, according to reports. The platform also showed Singtel and StarHub similarly suffering service failures during the same period, reaching about 800 and 500 reports respectively.
While M1 has acknowledged the problem, Singtel and StarHub both said that they didn’t observe any service interruptions. "M1 has received reports that some customers may be experiencing difficulties in accessing fixed broadband services," the official Facebook of M1 posted. "We apologise for any inconvenience caused and will provide more updates as soon as possible."
The problems appeared to be island-wide, with customer complaints coming from different areas, such as Bukit Batok, Jurong and Marsiling, among others.
M1 at 8:50 p.m. posted again, saying that broadband services had been restored and that it would continue to monitor the situation.
If previous incidents are any indication, however, these firms could face some form of penalty or fine for the recent outages. The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) slapped M1 and StarHub with penalties amounting to S$400,000 and S$210,000 respectively in late-2020 for service disruptions.
M1 suffered a major outage in May 2020 and again on two separate occasions in December of the same year. Singtel dealt with the same problem in June and July of last year. StarHub also faced service interruptions in April 2020.
M1, Singtel and StarHub customers reported disruptions to their broadband service on the evening of Tuesday, 1 February.
M1 confirmed the reports, announcing that it would investigate the issue, while Singtel and StarHub said that they didn't see anything from their end.
The broadband service has since been restored, with M1 noting that they'll continue to monitor the situation.