SINGAPORE: The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has imposed a ₹6.2 crore (S$1 million) fine on Singtel for a severe fixed-voice service disruption in October 2024 that affected over 500,000 residential and corporate users for more than four hours.
The incident on October 8, 2024, disrupted access to emergency numbers, government agency helplines, and customer service lines of major banks and healthcare organisations. IMDA classified the incident as “significant”, warning that its potential impact on public safety and emergency services could have been serious.
Investigation Finds Outage Caused by Singtel’s Technical Fault
An IMDA investigation, supported by independent technical consultants, found that the outage resulted from technical mismanagement within Singtel and not from a cyberattack.
Investigators discovered that Singtel hosted two virtualised firewall systems — one for its fixed-line voice network and another for broadband monitoring and pay-TV operations — on the same hardware, sharing memory resources.
When the monitoring system experienced heavy traffic, inadequate security filters caused the hardware memory to overload, leading both firewalls to malfunction. As a result, the voice network repeatedly failed, and calls were dropped intermittently.
Service was restored only after Singtel migrated all voice traffic to an unaffected system.
Singtel Accepts Responsibility, Issues Public Apology
Ng Tian Chong, CEO of Singtel Singapore, accepted IMDA’s findings and the penalty, acknowledging the seriousness of the disruption.
“We recognise the gravity of the outage last October and sincerely apologise to all our customers for the inconvenience caused,” he said.
Ng stated that Singtel has since enhanced its network design, hardware configuration, and monitoring processes to prevent recurrence. The company is also working with major clients to strengthen hotline resilience and ensure uninterrupted connectivity during emergencies.
IMDA Warns Telecom Operators on Service Reliability
IMDA cautioned that telecom operators such as Singtel — designated as critical national service providers — must uphold high standards of reliability and network resilience.
“IMDA will not hesitate to take strong action under the Telecommunications Act,” the authority said, adding that the law allows fines of up to ₹6.2 crore (S$1 million) or 10% of a company’s annual turnover, depending on the severity of the breach.
The fine, IMDA said, reflects the scale, duration, and impact of the disruption as well as the time taken to restore services.
Recent Setbacks Add Pressure on Singtel
The penalty adds to a series of operational setbacks for Singtel and its Australian subsidiary Optus. In September 2025, a major Optus network outage in Australia was linked to three fatalities, followed by a Singtel mobile outage in Singapore on November 18, which generated over 1,600 outage reports.
Despite these issues, Singtel’s financial performance improved in the 2025 fiscal year ending March, with revenue of ₹86,000 crore (S$14.1 billion) and a net profit of ₹17,000 crore (S$2.8 billion) in the second half.
Singtel shares fell 0.4% to S$4.56 on Thursday before the penalty announcement.
Stronger Oversight and Network Reforms Ahead
Singtel said it is reviewing its network infrastructure, monitoring systems, and disaster recovery plans to prevent future outages.
Industry analysts said the fine signals IMDA’s intent to enforce accountability and strengthen network resilience across Singapore’s telecom sector. Experts predict the regulator will soon introduce stricter reliability audits and compliance standards for all major operators.
Singtel reaffirmed its commitment to providing high-quality, dependable services, stating that it will continue investing in network upgrades to “maintain public confidence and prevent recurrence of such incidents.”
