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Record S$6m fine for SingTel over Bukit Panjang fire

SINGAPORE — SingTel has been fined S$6 million — four times the previous record fine — for its role in the fire at its Bukit Panjang Internet exchange last October, with the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) calling the incident unprecedented in scale and preventable.

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SINGAPORE — SingTel has been fined S$6 million — four times the previous record fine — for its role in the fire at its Bukit Panjang Internet exchange last October, with the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) calling the incident unprecedented in scale and preventable.

In addition, the IDA has found OpenNet and its owner CityNet culpable as well and fined them S$200,000 and S$300,000 respectively for their roles in the blaze, which knocked out mobile and broadband services for hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Announcing the findings of its investigation into the incident yesterday, the IDA said all three telcos had not fulfilled their respective obligations, such as providing sufficiently resilient telecommunication systems and services, and restoring services to affected end users as quickly as possible after the disruption.

“This is a very serious service outage of a magnitude that is unprecedented, but more importantly, that could have been avoided. With increasing dependency of businesses and consumers on telecommunications, a strong signal must be sent to telecommunication operators that they must take network resilience very seriously and invest in necessary infrastructure, processes and training to prevent and minimise service outages,” said Mr Leong Keng Thai, IDA’s deputy chief executive.

CityNet, as the legal owner of the Bukit Panjang Exchange — SingTel is its tenant — was found to have procedural lapses. For instance, it approved SingTel’s application to carry out hot works, though the form was wrong and incomplete. It also did not physically check the area at or around the hot works to ensure it was safe to start the procedure.

However, SingTel was handed a far heavier fine as it was the party carrying out the main works that led to the fire. In its own investigation into the incident last year, SingTel found that a staff member had used an unauthorised blowtorch to seal a cable duct at the cable chamber, as he did not have a SingTel-issued one. Further, he failed to observe a full 30-minute fire watch after the procedure and left for a lunch break without reactivating the fire alarm. He has since been disciplined, said the telco.

As for OpenNet, the IDA said it could have expedited the service restoration and recovery process, though it did not directly contribute to the cause of the incident.

The maximum penalty the IDA can impose for contravening the Service Resiliency Code is S$1 million or 10 per cent of the annual turnover of a licensee, whichever is higher. In determining the size of SingTel’s fine, the IDA said it had considered mitigating factors such as the compensation it offered to users and the provision of alternative services during the outage.

The IDA’s investigations did not draw a different conclusion from SingTel’s, but other incriminating findings surfaced — combustible material, such as a small burnt piece of cardboard, was found in the vicinity, which is not allowed.

In response to queries, SingTel, OpenNet and CityNet said they accepted the fines. In a statement, SingTel said it has made good progress on improvements it undertook after the fire to prevent a recurrence. For instance, the replacement of all lead seals with a system that does not require heating via open fire will be completed by July, earlier than its year-end estimate.

It also said the fine would not have a material impact on its finances. SingTel’s net profit for the three months ended in December came in at S$872 million.

CityNet acting chief executive officer Jacqueline Ong said: “As the owner and manager responsible for the exchange, it is CityNet’s duty to exercise due diligence and care, and put in place the necessary systems and processes.” The company, which also owns six other SingTel Internet exchanges, will improve procedural controls such as stepping up the monitoring of maintenance works and enhancing fire safety measures.

Moving forward, the IDA’s review of the resilience of all critical parts of Singapore’s infocommunications infrastructure is expected to be completed in the second half of this year, Mr Leong said. Among the measures being considered is putting in place back-up systems at critical points of failure, such as wireless connections.

The regulator has also put in place operating procedures to improve inter-operator communications and coordination during major service disruptions.

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