StarHub internet outage reported in several areas; nearly 7,000 reports on Downdetector

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Internet outages were reported by StarHub customers in various areas across Singapore on May 30, 2024.

Internet outages were reported by StarHub customers in various areas across Singapore on May 30, 2024.

ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH

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SINGAPORE - StarHub customers on May 30 complained of a service outage that lasted at least six hours for some, leaving them unable to access the internet.

The telco attributed the outage to hardware failure, which it said it had addressed and rectified, with all services fully operational by 2pm. However, around 6.30pm, some customers reported that they were still unable to access the internet.

According to comments on StarHub’s Facebook page, customers initially reported outages in various areas across Singapore, including Punggol, Sengkang, Hougang, Yishun and Ang Mo Kio, with some complaining on StarHub’s social media pages that it had disrupted their work from home.

Outage monitoring site Downdetector registered about 993 reports at 11.31am on May 30, peaking at 6,987 reports at 11.46am. As at 6.16pm, there were still 74 reports registered.

Downdetector said it “monitors and analyses signals from platforms in real time to automatically detect incidents and service disruptions in their very early stages”.

A screengrab from monitoring site Downdetector, taken at 1pm on May 30, showing StarHub outage reports.

PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM DOWNDETECTOR.SG

“I was in a work meeting call halfway when the Wi-Fi went down. Seriously speechless,” said Facebook user Kamichi Ko at 12.20pm.

At 12.16pm, StarHub said in a Facebook post that it was rectifying the issue with its fixed broadband services, and apologised for the inconvenience.

In an update at 2.10pm, StarHub stated that its fixed broadband services had been “fully restored”.

It added that “for users who are still experiencing difficulty connecting to network, please power off and on your ONT and router devices”. ONT, or Optical Network Terminal, is a device that works in tandem with a router to connect devices to the internet.

Despite this, some commenters still reported that their outages had not been resolved, even after they had tried repeatedly restarting their devices.

Facebook user Adelyn Sim reported being unable to connect to the internet in Sengkang at 6.28pm, while user Akakie Afdah said services were still down in Yishun at 6.36pm. Others from areas such as Hougang and Chinatown said they still could not access the internet, more than seven hours on.

Several commenters said they had tried to call StarHub’s customer service hotline for help but were unable to get through or had their calls cut while waiting, detailing their experiences on StarHub’s Facebook post. StarHub said that they would have to continue waiting due to the high call volume it was experiencing.

In response to queries from The Straits Times, StarHub said it received reports of fixed broadband service disruption at about noon on May 30 affecting some users in parts of Singapore.

“Our engineers and recovery team were immediately activated, and the issue was resolved with service progressively reinstated. By 2pm, all services were fully operational,” said a StarHub spokesperson.

“The incident was caused by hardware failure, which we have since addressed and rectified. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our users and thank them for their patience and understanding.”

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