IMDA to probe Singtel's island-wide landline outage of 8 October
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) is investigating Singtel's island-wide landline outage on 8 October, emphasising its commitment to thoroughly examining any public telecommunications service interruption. A Singtel spokesperson described the outage as an "isolated incident," adding that there is "no evidence to suggest it is a cyber-related event."
On 8 October 2024, a significant landline outage affected Singtel customers across the island.
According to Lianhe Zaobao, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) stated that it takes any public telecommunications service interruption seriously and will investigate the incident thoroughly.
In a Facebook update at 8:25 PM on the same day, Singtel announced that its fixed voice services had been fully restored.
The telecommunications provider expressed its apologies for the disruption and the inconvenience caused to customers.
Earlier, the disruption also impacted emergency call services, affecting both the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF).
Members of the public experiencing difficulties reaching emergency numbers 995 or 999 were advised to send an SMS to SCDF at 70995 or SPF at 70999.
Both SPF and SCDF later reported on 7PM that the earlier disruption affecting the 995 and 999 emergency hotlines has been resolved.
The authorities assured the public that they could resume using these hotlines for emergencies and expressed gratitude for the public’s understanding during the outage.
Earlier that day, around noon, multiple users reported difficulties making calls through landlines on Singtel’s official Facebook page and X (formerly Twitter), including problems with office lines.
A check on Downdetector revealed a surge in outage reports for Singtel beginning around 2 PM, peaking at 2,781 complaints. By 5 PM, the number of reports had decreased to over 500.
According to the feedback on Downdetector, most of the problems faced by users pertain to landlines, which matches the responses from netizens on social media platforms.
Major institutions were also affected by the outage. KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH), the National Cancer Centre, and Changi General Hospital (CGH), all under SingHealth, alerted the public to the disruption.
By approximately 6:30 PM, all three institutions confirmed that their telephone services had been restored.
Additionally, Singapore’s three local banks—DBS, UOB, and OCBC—reported similar issues with their customer service hotlines during the outage.
According to CNA, a spokesperson from Singtel described the outage as an "isolated incident" and stated that there is "no evidence to suggest it is a cyber-related event."
