Several telcos among online services hit by internet disruptions

Users reported service disruptions on Monday (March 23) afternoon, affecting both broadband and mobile services and applications, with Singtel facing the biggest surge. 

In posts shared on Reddit, users said that both broadband and 5G services appeared to be down simultaneously at around 3.40pm.

"Every website and messenger apps stopped working, but data still got through," one user wrote. 

Another said: "WiFi has been patchy for me since about 10 minutes ago. Downdetector also shows others having the same issue."

According to outage tracking website Downdetector, there were more than 9,700 reports from Singtel at the peak of the latest disruption. 

About half of the reports were related to broadband internet issues, while 29 per cent involved mobile internet problems.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Singtel said it was aware that some customers were experiencing connectivity issues and apologised for the inconvenience caused. 

"Our teams worked diligently to optimise our mobile network performance and addressed all the issues that led to the recent incidents. We also vigorously further tested our network over the past three days to ensure stability," said Singtel.

"During this initial adjustment period, we understand that some of our customers may have experienced some connectivity issues, and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused."

The telco said the issue on March 23, involved international traffic optimisation and was subsequently resolved within 15 minutes.

Apart from Singtel, reports of disruptions to other services peaked at between 50 and over 100 cases, up from the usual two to three, reported The Straits Times.

On March 16, it was reported that about 600,000 Singtel users faced mobile connectivity problems, after a mechanical fault occurred at one of its network facilities. 

Ng Tian Chong, CEO of Singtel Singapore, said the March 16 outage began at around 10.30am and required network reconfiguration, "which took time to fully take effect".

He added that 4G services for affected customers were restored by about 1.30pm, while full 5G services resumed at around 8pm.

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xingying.koh@asiaone.com