NetLink Trust halts installation work after 4 of contractor's staff test positive for Covid-19
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
NetLink Trust's suspension of all installation works requiring home and office visits will last until tomorrow. It said yesterday that it is working with its contractor to assist the Ministry of Health in contact tracing efforts to reach all those who may have come into contact with the infected workers.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
Lester Wong
New sign-ups and those who have switched broadband operators will have to wait till Monday at the earliest to get their fibre broadband connection set up, after fibre network operator NetLink Trust (NLT) suspended all installation works that require visits to homes and offices.
The suspension, which will last until tomorrow, was instituted after four workers from one of its contractors tested positive for Covid-19 last week.
Two of the workers visited 34 homes for installation work between April 1 and April 14, while the other two were not involved in works requiring home or office visits. None of the workers have had contact with NLT staff in the last 14 days.
NLT said yesterday that it is working with its contractor to assist the Ministry of Health in contact tracing efforts to reach all those who may have come into contact with the workers.
NLT's contractors have to activate fibre links before Internet service providers such as Singtel, StarHub, M1, ViewQwest and MyRepublic - which resell NLT's services - can get their customers connected to the Internet.
"We are also reaching out to affected parties with current service orders to inform them of the suspension," NLT said, without specifying how many customers are affected.
"This temporary suspension will be lifted after a review of the existing precautionary measures and appropriate enhancements are implemented. We apologise for any inconvenience caused (and) seek your understanding in this difficult time."
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) confirmed in a statement that it has directed NLT to suspend all service orders for homes and offices until tomorrow.
"IMDA's priority is to ensure the safety of the public and workers as well as the continued availability of essential services," an IMDA spokesman said.
NLT is the sole network builder here and runs the government-backed ultra-high-speed Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network.
The suspension of installation orders by NLT follows intermittent outage issues faced by StarHub's Internet service on Wednesday, causing disruption to subscribers working and studying at home during Singapore's circuit breaker period, and leading to thousands of complaints surfacing on social media.
-
34
Number of homes visited between April 1 and 14 by two of the four workers who tested positive for Covid-19 last week.
StarHub said on Thursday that it would offer customers affected by the disruptions a 20 per cent rebate on their monthly home broadband fees.
