IMDA fines Singtel $1m over March service disruptions

It found a chiller failure overheated equipment at a Singtel exchange.

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has fined Singtel Mobile Singapore $1m over mobile service disruptions in March that affected about 720,000 subscribers.

IMDA found that the 16 March disruption was caused by a chiller system failure that led mobile network equipment at a Singtel exchange to overheat and shut down.

The failure occurred after a vendor did not reopen a manual valve controlling water flow following scheduled maintenance. Singtel also lacked active monitoring of the valves and water flow.

Disruptions on 18 and 19 March occurred after 5G traffic was redirected to another exchange. The increased traffic, a disabled network packet optimiser, and a software bug caused intermittent connectivity during the evenings.

IMDA’s investigation concluded that the incidents were preventable and not caused by a cyberattack.

In determining the penalty, IMDA considered the scale of the disruptions, Singtel’s cooperation with the investigation, and its efforts to restore services.

It also took into account goodwill rebates of $5 to $10 for affected customers, totalling about $8m for consumer and business subscribers.

Singtel has since strengthened chiller maintenance and monitoring, rectified systems at the other exchange, and conducted exercises to test its network failover systems to prevent a recurrence.