SINGAPORE football fans are fuming over yet another service breakdown by SingTel's mio TV during Wednesday morning's crucial English Premier League (EPL) match between Arsenal and Wigan.

Many complained that they could not get their set-top boxes to start up ahead of the 2.45am kick-off.

SingTel has issued an apology to those who were affected.

A spokesman said: "At about 1am this morning, less than 5,000 of our BPL customers experienced difficulty viewing their mio TV content after they switched on the power to their set-top boxes. Most customers had no issue as their boxes were already on standby mode.

"This was an isolated incident and the issue was fully resolved later in the morning. We are taking this matter very seriously and sincerely apologise to those affected.

"Our customer care team will be contacting all these customers individually."

A Media Development Authority spokesman confirmed that it is investigating the matter.

"We take a serious view of such incidents and will not hesitate to take firm action against service providers that breach their licensing conditions," he said.

Last season's EPL finale was marred when the television images froze during the title-deciding matches that featured Manchester City and Manchester United.

About 115,000 customers were affected during that fiasco. For last season's service disruption, the MDA fined SingTel $180,000 - the largest penalty meted out by the statutory board.