Singtel disruption: Telco working with vendors through night to isolate problem; mobile data charges for Saturday waived

The Singtel Comcentre at Somerset. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

SINGAPORE - Singtel offered to waive mobile data charges for customers after its broadband services were disrupted on Saturday (Dec 3).

In an update on its Facebook page at 7.50pm on Saturday, the telco said its engineers have been working "tirelessly since this morning to resolve our fibre broadband issues".

It would work with its vendors "throughout the evening and overnight" to fix the issue, it said, adding that it was still investigating why its servers were unable to sign IP addresses to customers' modems to enable broadband connectivity.

Singtel has ruled out a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack but is considering other possible causes.

The telco advised its postpaid mobile subscribers to use their mobile broadband as charges will be waived, and added that its TV, mobile and fixed-line services are not affected.

As of 4.30pm, fibre broadband services were still down. In a statement at 4.20pm, Singtel said that the service disruption started at about 8.45am.

"Our engineers and specialists have been onsite since and are still working to resolve the issue," it said in the update. "In the meantime, we are offering local mobile data waivers for today to affected customers who are also Singtel postpaid mobile customers."

On Saturday morning, Singtel posted a notice on its Facebook page: "Some customers may be experiencing difficulties accessing their fibre broadband services.

"Our engineers are working to resolve the problem. Thank you for your patience."

Singtel updated at 11.55am that fibre broadband service was still down and their engineers are still investigating the cause.

At 1.30pm, the outage was still not resolved. Singtel said it will waive mobile data charges for Saturday.

It said in an update on Facebook: "As our engineers continue working to resolve our fibre broadband outage issues, we advise affected customers who are also Singtel postpaid mobile subscribers to use their Singtel mobile broadband in the meantime.

"We will waive their Singtel mobile data charges for today. We apologise for the disruption and thank you once again for your patience."

The extent of the disruption was still unclear, but users commenting on the post gave feedback that service in their areas were down.

They mentioned areas from all parts of the island including Telok Blangah, West Coast, MacPherson, Yishun, Bedok and Jurong West.

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