Switch to backup system failed during Singtel outage on Oct 8: Janil Puthucheary
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Calls to emergency services and healthcare institutions, as well as as banks and businesses, were disrupted in the Oct 8 landline outage.
ST PHOTO: GIN TAY
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SINGAPORE – A backup system did not kick in as planned when an unprecedented Singtel outage occurred on Oct 8, causing intermittent service disruption that lasted several hours, said Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information Janil Puthucheary on Nov 11.
On Oct 8, calls to emergency services and healthcare institutions, as well as banks and businesses, were disrupted in the landline outage.
According to preliminary findings, a network component in one of the two systems supporting Singtel’s fixed line voice service experienced a technical issue, said Dr Janil, who was responding to several questions raised by MPs in Parliament.
“The two systems, located in separate telephone exchanges, are designed to immediately take over the full load of the other when one system malfunctions,” he said.
“However, in this instance, the failover did not happen seamlessly, which caused the intermittent service disruption.”
All services were progressively restored over a four-hour time period from the start of the incident, he said, adding that half of all calls made could still be connected.
He said there is no evidence to suggest that the incident was related to sabotage or cyber attack.
“IMDA takes a serious view of this incident and is investigating the cause of this disruption and whether Singtel’s incident response was adequate,” said Dr Janil, adding that investigations are continuing.
Singtel is held to a “high level of reliability” in the Government’s regulatory framework, he said, and noted that the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will not hesitate to take strong action under the Telecommunications Act, including imposing financial penalties should any lapses be identified.
Singtel previously said the disruption was an “isolated incident”.
Five MPs had asked about what could have caused the Oct 8 landline disruption, how such an incident could be prevented in future, and whether any action will be taken against Singtel.
Dr Tan Wu Meng (Jurong GRC), Ms Tin Pei Ling (MacPherson) and Mr Yip Hon Weng (Yio Chu Kang) had asked the Ministry of Digital Development and Information (MDDI) what the root causes of the disruption were, and whether operational continuity plans are adequate for instances where a telco supports essential hotlines.
Dr Tan also asked the Ministry of Home Affairs whether critical landline hotlines such as 995 and 999 can be protected in the event of a single telco failure. Singtel is currently the only service provider for both hotlines.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling weighed in, saying that the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and police are working with IMDA to consider additional resiliency measures for their hotlines, including considering the “feasibility of telco diversity for our emergency hotlines”.
Ms Sun added there was no public feedback about the SCDF or the police failing to respond to any urgent or life-threatening incident as a result of the disruption.
In a separate written response, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said the outage did not disrupt patient care services in public healthcare institutions.
However, it disrupted around 2,300 calls – or about 10 to 30 per cent of daily calls – to the three public healthcare clusters’ contact centres. Such centres typically handle the re-scheduling, booking and cancellation of appointments.
Mr Ong added that patients were able to use alternative channels such as the HealthHub app, live chats and e-mail during the outage.
In a supplementary question, Progress Singapore Party Non-Constituency MP Hazel Poa asked how many people used the alternative SMS numbers to contact the emergency services, and about the public’s awareness of these alternatives.
During the outage, the SCDF and police had urged members of the public to use SMS – 70995 for SCDF and 70999 for the police – to contact them instead.
Ms Sun said she did not have the specific numbers, noting that the SMS numbers “are not new”. But following the outage, the ministry will be “even more enthusiastic” about putting out the numbers, she said.
