M1’s Disruption Was For a Full 24 Hours As They Even Did a Maintenance at 3:30am This Morning

On 15 April, Starhub customers were losing their minds after Starhub’s internet services went down for over 9 hours.

They apologised, and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) gave them a warning.

See, an internet disruption would be a little nuisance in any other situation, but given that many of us are working from home and having important meetings over Zoom, a stable connection is vital, and any disruptions could be disastrous.

Just ask M1 customers right now.

M1’s Disruption Was For a Full 24 Hours As They Even Did a Maintenance at 3:30am This Morning

Since around 5am yesterday (12 May), complaints from M1 customers started pouring in on social media about internet disruptions.

M1 responded on Twitter, saying that customers may experience difficulties in accessing fibre services in “some parts of Singapore”.

[1st update] Customers may experience difficulties in accessing fibre services in some parts of Singapore. Our engineers are working hard to resolve the issue. We apologise for the inconvenience and will provide updates as soon as possible. Thank you for your kind understanding.

— M1 (@M1Singapore) May 11, 2020

While their engineers worked hard to resolve the issue, people vented their frustrations on Twitter.

Yo, my class is a 3 hour class, 9-12, i missed the ENTIRE 3 hour class because of this, i doubt its a SPECIFIC grp of people, ITS ALMOST THE ENTIRE SINGAPORE even after class NOW the wifi is not working

— Zentrius Ong (@ZentriusOng) May 12, 2020

Super frustrating! Working and studying from home affected! M1 has the cheek to say that it only affect a specific group of people and most customers are able to connect to the fiber broadband. Having a small group of people affected do not justify why it can be down for hours!

— Sandra (@Sandra31441848) May 12, 2020

A few hours after the original post on Facebook, M1 posted an update, saying only a “specific group of customers” were experiencing disruptions.

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But an outage map on the Down Detector site yesterday said otherwise.

And the problem was not easily solved.

At 3.30am today (13 May), M1 posted an update saying they had started maintenance on their fibre system.

Later at 6am, they said the maintenance was completed and that all fibre Internet services were “fully restored.”

An outage lasting 24 hours is inexcusable but at least they solved the issue, right?

Right?

Some Customers Stil Having Internet Issues

Over 24 hours after their internet service went down, some M1 customers are still having issues connecting to their fibre broadband.

@M1Singapore
Location: Marine Parade
I cannot to connect to wifi since YESTERDAY 0080. It has been over 24 hours. I did reboot MOD and router a few times, but to no avail. Currently, I am still unable to have internet connection and it is affecting my family and work severely.

— Jo Ng (@JoNg07564140) May 13, 2020

Hi M1, it hasn't been restored. There's still no internet connection

— Wee Ling (@WeeLing16) May 13, 2020

Router restarted, off and on the power several time, still no WiFi. @M1Singapore @IMDAsg, Bedok

— Tiago Tian Hui (@elimoqi) May 13, 2020

Fake news. Still not working. Unless your definition of few is different from what's in the dictionary

— Randolph (@Randolp53812691) May 12, 2020

In the same Facebook post, M1 posted an update at 10.30am today, saying “some customers” are still unable to connect to their fibre broadband.

According to Down Detector, however, many areas are still affected and it only looks slightly better than yesterday:

The number of reports of users facing problems with M1 also hit a high of 2,231 at 9.12am today:

According to The Straits Times, M1 told users to switch off and on their optical network terminals and routers to reconnect their devices if they can’t connect to their fibre broadband services.

That’s their genius solution? Switch it off and on?

At the time of writing, with users still experiencing problems, M1’s internet has been down for over 31 hours.

Forget getting fired from one’s job or missing online lessons, how are we supposed to survive for so long without watching videos on YouTube, shows on Netflix, or most importantly, memes?

And it’s not just customers who are upset about the outage.

IMDA Responds

Last month, when Starhub’s internet services went down for around 9 hours, IMDA warned them on Facebook, saying it would investigate Starhub and would not “hesitate to take strong enforcement action should there be any lapses on StarHub’s part.”

Now, they’re back to give M1 a strict talking-to.

In case you can’t see it, the post says:

“IMDA takes a serious view of any service disruption to public telecommunications, especially during the circuit breaker period, where many are working and studying from home. We have directed M1 to restore the affected services quickly, and to keep its subscribers updated of the progress.

IMDA has commenced investigations into the disruption to M1’s Internet services, and will not hesitate to take strong enforcement action should there be any lapses on M1’s part.”

It’s virtually identical to the warning given to Starhub, but given the fact that M1’s outage lasted three times as long as Starhub’s, IMDA might just take enforcement action this time.

And M1 will certainly have to do a lot more for their customers than offer a simple rebate to gain their trust back.

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