Telcos may need to have back-up equipment at different location

SINGAPORE — Mobile operators may have to put in place at least two sets of network equipment at different locations of the island to ensure sufficient back-up in the event of an outage, Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim said in Parliament yesterday.

The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) is currently studying this option, following a review of the resiliency of the three mobile operators’ networks after M1 was fined a record S$1.5 million for a service outage in January that lasted up to 71 hours. It was the worst mobile network failure Singapore has experienced to date.

The IDA will also implement an audit framework by the second half of next year to regularly review the resilience of mobile networks, said Dr Yaacob.

Responding to questions tabled by Chua Chu Kang Member of Parliament (MP) Zaqy Mohamad and Non-Constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong on last month’s fire at the SingTel Bukit Panjang Exchange, which disrupted critical services across the island, Dr Yaacob said the authorities review policies and regulations to enhance resilience after every outage.

The Government intends to wait for the outcome of the IDA’s ongoing investigations into the Bukit Panjang fire before deciding if further policy measures are necessary, including having a similar audit framework for other networks.

“In the meantime, certain works have been suspended, pending a full review of various procedures,” said Dr Yaacob.

On M1’s outage in January, the IDA felt that further improvement could be made, even after it handed out a record fine.

For example, the authority will work with the mobile operators on implementing enhancements in areas such as network design, by minimising the number of single points of failure, upgrading network architecture to support full redundancy and implementing better business continuity planning.

As part of its enhancement work on network resiliency, M1 said it currently has geo-redundant operating centres at its main operating centre in Jurong East and regional operating centre in Aljunied, “with all major network elements replicated in each location”.

The telco has also implemented the advanced mobile switching centre pooling that “allows seamless handling of network traffic”.

SingTel said it constantly invests in its mobile network’s resiliency to ensure geographical diversity and redundancy for critical equipment nodes and infrastructure. “We are working closely with the IDA to study additional measures that can potentially make our network platforms and processes more robust,” added the SingTel spokesperson.

Meanwhile, StarHub pointed out that it is certified for business continuity management and “mindful” of the importance of business continuity. “We continually work to enhance network resilience and service quality for our customers,” added its spokesperson.