Singtel fined $90k for pay-TV disruption
PUBLISHED ONJuly 29, 2015 9:00 AMByIrene Tham
The Media Development Authority has fined Singtel $90,000 for a pay-TV disruption earlier this year that affected 11,000 subscribers.
The two-hour disruption, its second in two years, started at about 10pm on Feb 3. Those affected were unable to boot up their set-top boxes or access on-demand content, the MDA said in a statement after the market closed yesterday.
Investigations revealed that Singtel was first alerted to the screen-freeze by customers calling its hotline.
Failure of a hard disk controller card caused the backend computer server it was housed in to become unstable, affecting the distribution of signals to four other computer servers that carry content. In a statement yesterday, Singtel apologised and said it has taken "the necessary steps to prevent a recurrence".
The biggest penalty ever meted out by the regulator for a pay-TV problem was $220,000 for a nine-hour TV disruption on May 15, 2013. About 26,000 Singtel subscribers could not start up their set-top boxes owing to a glitch.
It was previously fined $180,000 for a pay-TV breakdown on May 13, 2012, and $80,000 for two disruptions in October and November 2011.
This article was first published on July 29, 2015.
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