Fire at SingTel facility affected 60,000 fixed broadband lines

SINGAPORE – The fire that broke out today (Oct 9) at SingTel’s Bukit Panjang exchange impacted around 60,000 fixed broadband lines, 30,000 mio TV customers and 30,000 voice lines, said SingTel.

Restoration for all services affected by the fire is estimated to be completed by 6am tomorrow, said the telco, adding that it could only start restoration work after 6pm, when the Singapore Civil Defence Force gave the telco access to the area. A SCDF spokesman said that the 3-hour delay was to ensure that the building was safe before engineers could go in.

The telco tweeted at about 11pm, saying: "Damage to the fibre cables is extensive. Our engineers are doing their best to restore all affected services asap."

The fire started at about 2pm, damaging network infrastructure.

The telco said that 33 fibre cables were damaged due to the fire, and 100 mobile base stations were affected. Eight cables have been repaired as of 920pm.

Fixed services, such as fixed lines, broadband, mioTV and mioVoice services in Bukit Panjang, Upper Bukit Timah, Chua Chu Kang, Woodlands and Mandai, are affected by the fire said SingTel. Mobile services are affected in Woodlands, Marsiling and Kranji.

Data lines for some corporate customers were also affected.

A SingTel spokesperson said: “Some services have already been restored since the fire was extinguished at around 3pm. Our engineers will continue to work through the night to restore the remaining services as soon as possible.

“We apologise to affected customers for the inconvenience they have experienced and thank them for their patience. We are providing customers with regular updates via Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/singtel) and Twitter @singtelsupport.

“We are progressively restoring the services. We estimate restoration of all services to be completed by 6am.”