After this incident, IDA is having more pressure on OpenNet acquisition by NetLink Trust. It is more likely SingTel needs to dispose NetLink earlier than I previously expected...
IDA begins probe into SingTel disruption
SINGAPORE — Three days after a fire caused massive disruption to telecommunication services islandwide, some customers yesterday were still having problems with fibre broadband services and SingTel mioTV set-top boxes, as the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) initiated a “full investigation” into the cause of the incident.
This is despite SingTel saying that it had connected all damaged fibre cable lines by 7.15am yesterday. It explained that “there may be a need for limited network adjustments, which may affect service performance for some customers”.
...
Issuing a statement yesterday, the IDA said that while the operators and affected parties were able to “pull together resources in a concerted effort to restore services, this is nevertheless a serious incident affecting many consumers and businesses”.
The Telecommunication Service Resiliency Code requires operators to ensure their networks and services are resilient, and when outages do occur, to restore the services “expeditiously”. The IDA added that it has “launched a full investigation into the incident to find out the cause and will take appropriate action to prevent it from happening again”.
Under IDA’s service resiliency code, SingTel may be subjected to a financial penalty.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/ida...disruption
The PR game on-going...The CEO Yuen is not a push-over...
SingTel criticises StarHub for not properly communicating connectivity problems
SINGAPORE — Telecommunications company SingTel yesterday accused its rival StarHub of not properly communicating problems related to the outage caused by last Wednesday’s fire at SingTel’s Bukit Panjang building. Instead, StarHub has turned to the media to advance its agenda, SingTel said.
Referring to a press statement issued by StarHub on Sunday evening which said over 600 customers remained affected by the outage, SingTel Consumer Singapore CEO Yuen Kuan Moon yesterday said SingTel only received the information at 3.30am yesterday morning from StarHub.
“I’m very surprised that they choose to use the media to communicate that. They said that they’ve got 600 customers still affected, but the last batch of faults they sent to us was at 3.30am today. So, how are we able to resolve and help them if they claim they got so many customers and they tell us so late?” Mr Yuen said.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/sin...y-problems
SingTel's answer to public concern on the fire...
SingTel Board sets up Committee of Inquiry into Bukit Panjang fire
SINGAPORE — The SingTel Board has set up an independent Board Committee of Inquiry (BCOI) to investigate the Oct 9 fire at the telco’s Bukit Panjang facility.
Other than investigating the facts and circumstances leading to the fire, the BCOI will review the effectiveness of SingTel’s incident management and response, and recommend improvements.
The BCOI will also benchmark current network design and contingency processes against international best practices and standards, and recommend appropriate improvements to prevent future occurrences and strengthen network resilience.
The findings and recommendations will be made public.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/sin...njang-fire
As quoted from SingTel Facebook page
- Affected mio TV customers will have free open access to all channels for 1 month.
- Home telephone line customers whose services were disrupted will have free local calls for 1 month.
- Affected broadband customers will receive a free 3-month speed upgrade of their current service.
Think it's a whole bunch of useless (if not worthless) compensation... Not good for PR. Then again, what choice do Singaporeans have? The consequences if something similar happened to Optus would've been so different ^^
IDA is doing the right thing, the finger-pointing statement via news media is confusing to users.
IDA urges telcos to focus on restoring all services
SINGAPORE — The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has urged local telcos to work together to restore all services affected by SingTel’s Bukit Panjang Exchange fire on Oct 9.
In a statement this evening (Oct 16), IDA said it had written to SingTel, StarHub and M1 to focus their efforts on identifying problems their end users may still be experiencing.
It said the telcos should resolve them immediately, rather than “issuing statements to assign blame, as this is neither helpful nor constructive”.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/ida...l-services
(17-10-2013, 02:42 PM)CityFarmer Wrote: [ -> ]IDA is doing the right thing, the finger-pointing statement via news media is confusing to users.
IDA urges telcos to focus on restoring all services
SINGAPORE — The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) has urged local telcos to work together to restore all services affected by SingTel’s Bukit Panjang Exchange fire on Oct 9.
In a statement this evening (Oct 16), IDA said it had written to SingTel, StarHub and M1 to focus their efforts on identifying problems their end users may still be experiencing.
It said the telcos should resolve them immediately, rather than “issuing statements to assign blame, as this is neither helpful nor constructive”.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/ida...l-services
This reminds me of how the non co-operative behavior of the oil super majors after the Deepwater Horizon incident led to a moratorium on offshore drilling. Similarly, the behavior of financial firms during the 2008 meltdown also contributed to the new financial regulations in the US. Companies operating in tightly regulated industries should look at the big picture and not spoil the market for themselves.
Is this be disclosed by SingTel? I might miss it.
----------
Mayaram also said the FIPB approved a foreign direct investment proposal by a unit of SingTel, but did not elaborate.
The SingTel unit wants to increase its stake to 100% in a long-distance phone business in India by buying out stakes held by its local minority partners, after the government removed a 74% foreign holding cap in telecom companies.
Ref:
http://www.theedgesingapore.com/the-dail...plans.html
The fiber networks owned by the two telcos are mainly leased line business, which only a small fraction, relative to consumer network business, as far as I know...
StarHub, M1 not 100 per cent reliant on SingTel
SINGAPORE — Where it is economically viable, StarHub has built its own fibre optic network, as part of its efforts to increase network resilience, the telco said yesterday.
Responding to the Infocomm Development Authority’s (IDA) comments on Wednesday that over-reliance on SingTel’s infrastructure can be mitigated by the other telcos building their own, StarHub said it has built its own fibre network directly connecting some commercial buildings “mainly in the central business district” to serve its corporate customers.
The IDA had stepped in on Wednesday to stress that Singapore’s telecommunications infrastructure was sound, after a fire at SingTel’s Bukit Panjang Exchange earlier this month that crippled telecommunications in parts of Singapore left many in doubt over whether the infrastructure here was robust enough.
Yesterday, both StarHub and M1 stated that they build and own some of their own infrastructure.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/sta...nt-singtel
SingTel releases preliminary findings on cause of fire at the Bukit Panjang Exchange
http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/NR-20131...eID=262929
Why is there an unauthorised blowtorch in the premise? Unless instructed, or had been seen done before, why would someone use a blowtorch during maintenance?
(06-11-2013, 05:48 PM)NTL Wrote: [ -> ]SingTel releases preliminary findings on cause of fire at the Bukit Panjang Exchange
http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/NR-20131...eID=262929
Why is there an unauthorised blowtorch in the premise? Unless instructed, or had been seen done before, why would someone use a blowtorch during maintenance?
The key words is "unauthorised blowtorch". May be there are legitimate maintenance works required blowtorch.