By DANSON CHONG

TWO weeks ago, Manchester United fan Ng Qi You got up at 3.45am to watch his team play AC Milan in the Champions League.

But the 26-year-old civil servant saw a black screen with a big cross in the middle when he turned on his mio TV set-top box.

After 45 minutes trying to fix the problem, Mr Ng gave up and watched the match online.

He told The New Paper: "This has happened to me more than 10 times. How can SingTel say mio TV is state-of-the-art technology when it is in such a state of inconvenience?"

Mr Ng was among 17 subscribers, mostly in Woodlands, Yishun and Sembawang, who complained to The New Paper since Monday when SingTel's pay-television service had technical problems.

For some, Monday's down time might just be the straw that broke the camel's back.

Technician Abdul Rahim, 35, said: "If things stay the same, I will cancel my subscription."

He recounted five instances over the past year when his programmes could not load.

The New Paper has also received complaints about poor reception, distortion, freezing and jammed technical hotlines since last November.

Viewers have discussed their dissatisfaction on popular online forums like Stomp and Hardware Zone.

Some subscribers told The New Paper they were annoyed that SingTel does not seem to be able to solve these problems, although there are others like tour guide Woo Keng Ghee, 56, who has had no problems with his mio TV.

On Wednesday, SingTel cited a "suspected software bug" as the culprit for Monday's breakdown, which affected about 6 per cent, or nearly 10,000, of its subscribers.

The telco has since rectified the problem.

As a goodwill gesture, it will give all mio TV customers access to 72 hours of round-the-clock free viewing of all broadcast channels from 19-21 Mar during the school holidays.

Old wiring

A SingTel spokesman said that problems like distortion and freezing video might be due to a variety of reasons.

For one, the wiring in these homes might be old.

Some mio TV customers wondered if they could cancel their contract with SingTel without penalties if such problems persist.

When asked about this, the spokesman said: "We would advise them to get in touch with us so we can help solve their problems."

The New Paper asked Associate Professor David Siew of NTU's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering to cast more light on the problems.

He said: "The data is transmitted in "packets". It operates under the same principles as traffic. If there are too many packets, there will be a jam."

"This would result in the distortions that the viewer would experience on his end."

Mr Adeel Najam, an industry analyst at market analysis firm Frost & Sullivan, said the quality of the wiring between your home and the telephone exchange, also known as the local loop, was a factor.

"It boils down to the quality of the local loop, which might consist of optic fibre, copper wires or a hybrid of both," he said.

He estimates that it would take about a year to smooth out these issues.

The situation will improve as the fibre-to-the-home technology (FFTH) is rolled out progressively to homes islandwide.

FTTH makes use of light signals instead of electrical pulses to transmit data, offering almost infinite speed boosts over current broadband networks.

"In the long term, the quality will be better than cable TV," said Mr Adeel.