SINGAPORE - Households and offices in and around Bukit Merah, Outram, Tanjong Pagar, Tiong Bahru, Orchard and Bukit Panjang areas were affected by an Internet outage on Thursday.
Fibre network operator NetLink Trust - which provides the fibre infrastructure to Internet service providers (ISPs) Singtel, StarHub, M1 and MyRepublic - said in a statement that the disruption "was caused by Land Transport Authority (LTA) contractors who are involved in the MRT construction".
At about 9.20pm on Thursday, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) issued a statement on its Facebook page saying "At about 10.40am today, our contractor at the Thomson-East Coast Line's Great World station worksite damaged a section of the NetLink Trust's underground fibre optic cables while carrying out piling works.
"We will work with all relevant parties to investigate the incident."
It also "apologises to all fibre subscribers affected by this incident".
Earlier on Thursday afternoon, NetLink Trust said it detected a network outage affecting the vicinity around Bukit Merah, Outram, Tanjong Pagar and Tiong Bahru, which occurred at about 10.40am.
It added that restoration had commenced and service has been progressively restored.
All four ISPs took to Facebook to announce the disruption and update its customers.
In a Facebook post at 6.15pm, Singtel said "NetLink Trust estimates that services will be restored by midnight."
Earlier, Singtel said some of its customers in Bukit Merah and the surrounding areas may be experiencing difficulties accessing fibre broadband, TV and phone services.
Similarly, M1 added that some of its customers "in the Bukit Merah and nearby areas may experience difficulties in accessing fibre broadband and fixed voice services".
StarHub made a similar statement but did not specify which location is said to be experiencing problems.
MyRepublic said it was informed by Nucleus Connect that the Orchard network exchange (which serves network connections to areas in Orchard, Bukit Merah and Bukit Panjang) was currently facing technical issues.
All four ISPs have said they are monitoring the situation and will provide updates to customers.
In a Facebook post, the Infocomm Development Authority said it is currently monitoring the situation so as to ensure affected services are restored quickly.
