950 Households in Yishun Were Without Wi-Fi Yesterday Regardless of Telcos

Singtel is better. Way better than M1 or Starhub. 

No! M1 is way better, please. As long as you’re under the sun, you’ll have coverage.

Please, nothing can beat Starhub. Green is good for your eyes, so it’s good for your house as well.

Sounds familiar? Every time you get a new home, a fibre-broadband is a necessity. After all, how else can you keep your data bundle from bursting like my handsome colleague’s cheesy pickup lines?

And every two years, you’d agonise over which telco to sign with.

Well, yesterday, in Yishun, it doesn’t matter what telco people are signed with. Their internet connection was screwed up just the same.

Equality is such a great thing, isn’t it?

Here’s what happened. 

NetLink Trust, Singapore’s national fibre operator, said that about 950 households in Yishun might’ve had their fibre broadband services disrupted on 26 Jun.

They received reports of network disruption at around 3.37 pm. It was discovered that the matter arose due to a third party’s contractor.

They were conducting earthworks at Ang Mo Kio St 13 and accidentally ‘severed’ the fibre cables.

The company deployed a service recovery team and worked together with the relevant telco to get the network in the area up and running as soon as possible.

The network was eventually restored at 4 am today (27 Jun) and NetLink Trust directed all affected customers to refer to their service providers should they require further assistance.

Unfortunately for people who’ve signed up for the World Cup package, it’s probably too late to catch the World Cup Spain vs Morocco and Portugal vs Iran matches.

Yup, if you stayed in Yishun, you’d have missed Christiano Ronaldo’s missed penalty shot and his amazing performance.

Both matches ended in a draw, by the way.

Singtel, M1 and Starhub users could be seen complaining about the disruption to their respective service providers.

But this episode serves to remind us of our reliance on mobile broadband.

I mean, with no Fibre, your Singtel TV (including normal channels), your internet and your house phone (Mio Voice) all goes down at the same time.

This isn’t the first time something like this happened in 2018

For those who are thinking…

It’s not. Okay…maybe it’s not.

Because back in Mar 2018, the same thing happened at Jurong.

On 21 Mar, NetLink Trust received reports about fibre service interruption at about 5.52 pm. It was subsequently discovered that a third party’s contractor accidentally cut a fibre cable at Boon Lay Drive.

The end result of one snip? Around 700 end-users were affected.

A service recovery team was deployed and the company managed to bring the network back to normal at 4 am the next day.

And apparently, such incidents aren’t unheard of.

Back in Apr 2017, another third party contractor cut the wrong thing at Boon Lay Ave. Around 3,500 users at Boon Lay, Jurong West and Corporation Road were affected.

Since Jun 2015, there were 7 reported disruptions due to fibre cable cutting in Singapore. So it’s not just Yishun.

Now you know what Singaporeans are talking about today; do check back tomorrow for another piece of news of the day!