Singtel says mechanical fault, software bug behind outages; 600,000 affected

[SINGAPORE] Singtel’s outage on Monday (Mar 16) affected about 600,000 customers and was due to a mechanical fault at one of its network facilities, the telco said on Mar 19.Separately, about 2,000 customers experienced mobile connectivity problems on Mar 17 because of a software bug from a planned IT system upgrade, Singtel told The Straits Times, revealing details for the first time since the back-to-back outages started.“We know how important it is to stay connected and recognise the impact these incidents may have had on our customers. This should not have happened. We sincerely apologise,” said Singtel chief executive Ng Tian Chong.“We are committed to learning from these events and working with our vendors to further enhance our network resilience and improve recovery times.”For three days in a row, Singtel’s mobile customers faced problems connecting to its network. The eight-hour outage on March 16 caused customers to have “zero bars” of signal on their phones, and disrupted essential services in Singapore, including payments, ride-hailing and food delivery.Explaining the event on Mar 16, Mr Ng said: “Though multiple redundancy measures were in place to support seamless service continuity, our situation required reconfiguration, which took time to fully take effect.”Although 4G services were restored by around 1.30 pm and full 5G restoration was completed around 8 pm on the same day, some customers continued to have connection problems the next day.Explaining what happened on Mar 17, Mr Ng said the problem caused by the software bug was not immediately apparent as it occurred right after the Mar 16 disruption. “Once identified, our teams took immediate action and connectivity was progressively restored, with full restoration completed by around 4 pm on the same day.”On Mar 18, the telco said it had carried out some network reconfigurations to further stabilise and optimise network performance following the two disruptions. It encountered a brief spike in network traffic around 5.30 pm during the process, but the problem was resolved in about an hour.The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has started investigations into the mobile network disruptions between Mar 16 and 18.“IMDA takes these disruptions seriously and has commenced investigations, and will take firm action against Singtel should any lapses be identified,” said the sector regulator on Mar 19.Crisis communications experts who spoke to ST flagged a disconnect between Singtel’s earlier assurances and users’ actual experience on the ground.On the evening of Mar 16, for instance, Singtel said that its service had been restored, but some customers continued to face connectivity issues into the next day.“When customers are told that service has been restored but still can’t reconnect for hours, it creates a sense of confusion and erodes confidence,” said Dr Samer Elhajjar, a senior lecturer from the department of marketing at NUS Business School.Ms Christel Goh, founder of communications agency Grow Public Relations, pointed out that the only source of updates during the back-to-back outages was the telco’s Facebook page. Users who faced issues were also directed to call the telco’s hotline on 1688, but many complained of long wait times.“In a crisis, if customers cannot reach you, you must proactively reach them through frequent, real-time updates across multiple channels, whether through social media, e-mail or press statements,” said Ms Goh.On Mar 18, some Singtel users started experiencing intermittent connectivity from noon. The telco put out a Facebook post around 7.30 pm, describing their problems as “momentary connectivity issues” that had since been resolved.“This type of phrasing can sound dismissive when user reports are widespread and persistent,” Dr Elhajjar said.He added: “Understating the problem can unintentionally damage trust. A more effective approach would have been to acknowledge the feedback earlier, clarify the extent of the issue and outline what the technical teams were actively doing.”Ms Goh acknowledged Singtel’s detailed technical updates on Facebook, including restoration confirmations and engineering activities. But she said that it would have been good to also acknowledge customers’ frustrations as some livelihoods were affected.Moving forward, the telco could offer more transparent explanations after the incident and more empathetic and proactive messaging to rebuild confidence, she suggested.Mr Lars Voedisch, managing director at PRecious Communications, said that to rebuild public trust, Singtel could share what it has learnt from the outages and how it plans to change going forward.The last Singtel mobile outage happened in November 2025, lasting more than six hours.In October 2024, a Singtel fixed-line outage rendered hotlines for the Singapore Civil Defence Force and the police – along with those of hospitals and banks – unreachable. The telco was fined $1 million for the incident, which affected about 500,000 users for more than four hours. THE STRAITS TIMES