Though it’s nothing compared to the $6 million Singtel had to cough out in 2014 for a blaze that disrupted mobile and broadband services islandwide, the telco was recently slapped with a $150,000 fine for the disruption of landline telephone services in Ang Mo Kio back in 2015.
The Straits Times reported that Singtel was found to be responsible for leaving some 7,400 of its customers unable to make and receive calls for about five hours due to a service disruption triggered during a planned upgrade of their digital network.
Investigations conducted by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) revealed that Singtel had more than doubled the number of equipment upgraded, but didn’t adjust appropriately the limit on the calls customers could make. The limit set on Singtel’s network switch was not able to process extra traffic from customers, thus causing the disruption.
“Singtel had not established to the satisfaction of IMDA that the incident was not within Singtel’s control,” IMDA noted to ST.
In response to the fine, Singtel expressed its regret over the “localised disruption” and have since revised the processes to ensure “minimal impact” the next time it’s planning upgrades.
ST also noted that the telco has been hit with a total of $350,000 in fines for fixed-line telephone service breakdowns so far this year.
Reader Interactions