Singtel mobile services restored; outage unrelated to March 16 incident, unlikely to be cyberattack

SINGAPORE – Mobile connectivity has been restored for affected Singtel customers, the telco said, after some users experienced disruptions on the morning of March 17.

The March 17 incident – first made public by Singtel in a Facebook post at 11.30am – comes a day after an eight-hour disruption that affected thousands of the telco’s users.

The telco has said that the two disruptions are unrelated.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) said on March 17 that preliminary investigations for both incidents do not suggest that they are cyber-related.

IMDA added: “We take a serious view of any service disruptions and will investigate both incidents.

“We will not hesitate to take strong regulatory action against Singtel should any lapses be identified.”

Singtel said in an update on Facebook on March 17 that as at 5.08pm, mobile connectivity has been restored for affected customers. It added that anyone who is still experiencing issues can contact the telco on 1688.

It did not specify the cause of the latest disruption in its post, or how many people were affected.

In its earlier Facebook post on the morning of March 17, Singtel said it was aware that a “small number” of customers were facing issues.

“Our engineers are working urgently on resolving the matter as quickly as possible,” said the telco, apologising for the inconvenience caused.

At 6.50am on March 17, there were 31 reports of Singtel-related problems on Downdetector – a site that tracks service outages by collating status reports from a number of sources.

The number of reports jumped to 213 at 7.18am, spiking to 396 by 9.03am. At 11.20am, there were 309 reports.

The number of reports on Downdetector appeared to fall after 1pm, with the figure dipping to 99 by 2.24pm. There were still 62 reports at 5.16pm, according to the site.

On March 16, thousands of Singtel customers – including users of its no-frills, SIM-only GOMO plans – reported a service outage. Among those affected were gig workers doing ride-hailing and food delivery, whose ability to take on jobs was hit hard by the outage.

While Singtel did not disclose the cause of the disruption, it said there was no evidence to suggest it was a cyberattack.

The disruption – which started at around 10.30am – was restored only after more than eight hours, when Singtel said at around 7.10pm that 4G and 5G mobile services had been restored.

However, the telco later said in an 8.55pm update that some customers may still be experiencing issues, reiterating its advice for users to switch their devices to airplane mode and back, or restart their phones “a few times”.

It also said customers can call Singtel on 1688 for assistance.

It is unclear how many Singtel users were affected in total on March 16. Singtel commands half of the local telco market with its 4.5 million subscribers.