SingTel to compensate 60,000 customers hit by service disruption

SingTel to compensate 60,000 customers hit by service disruption

    By Vimita Mohandas
    POSTED: 14 Oct 2013 16:15
    UPDATED: 14 Oct 2013 23:17
 
SingTel has announced a compensation package for its 60,000 customers hit by service disruption after a fire broke out at its Bukit Panjang facility last Wednesday.

SINGAPORE: SingTel has announced a compensation package for its 60,000 residential customers hit by service disruption after a fire broke out at its Bukit Panjang facility last Wednesday.

It will be reaching out to business customers individually to work out compensation packages.

SingTel's broadband customers who were affected will get a three-month free speed boost.

For example, if they have been having 100 mbps fibre services, they would get a free upgrade to 200 mbps for the next three months.

mio TV subscribers will get a month's free viewing of all channels.

And subscribers of fixed voice services will get one month of free local calls.

Even though SingTel said repair works on damaged cables have been completed, other telcos like M1 and StarHub said their customers are still facing fibre broadband problems.

Two-thirds of the fibre-optic cables damaged in Wednesday's fire belong to OpenNet, which in turn sold fibre links to the affected telcos.

M1 said an estimated 300 fibre customers are still affected.

StarHub said about 500 of its fibre broadband customers are facing issues with their service as at 4pm on Monday, and it is working hard with OpenNet and SingTel to rectify connections that are still not properly reconnected.

SingTel said it hopes to work more closely with the Internet Service Providers to rectify the problems and stressed that it needed timely information in order to take action.

Yuen Kuan Moon, chief executive officer of Consumer Singapore at SingTel, said: "If the servers belong to SingTel, obviously SingTel can see those equipment, maintain those equipment and monitor those equipment and know whether it is working or not.

"For other service providers, we would rely on them to come back and tell us…if they don't tell us we would not be able to see, because we have no access to their equipment and we have no visibility of their end-user customer."

Since the fire, concerns have also been raised about the resilience of the network and back-up plans should similar incidents happen.

SingTel has stressed that it has a robust system in place which is in line with international standards, and its infrastructure is similar to developed markets like US, Japan and UK.

Last Wednesday, one of the three fibre chambers in SingTel’s Bukit Panjang facility caught fire, and traffic was diverted to the two unaffected chambers -- which helped restore 95 per cent of services within 36 hours.

SingTel plans to learn from this incident and further enhance its network.

Mr Yuen said: “We will be looking at better, more improved fire suppression capabilities at the chambers, fire detection capabilities as well as the spares of fibres that we carry within the three pipes.

“But for now, the telco's main focus is to identify affected customers and help troubleshoot their problems.”

- CNA/xq/nd

- wong chee tat :)