IMDA to probe MyRepublic for potential regulatory breaches after broadband outage

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) will investigate MyRepublic’s fibre broadband outage to determine if the telco has breached any regulations.

“Telecom operators such as MyRepublic must provide adequate redundancy, backups and diversity arrangements within their networks,” said IMDA on Wednesday (Oct 2) in an e-mail response to The Business Times. This comes two days after MyRepublic’s fibre broadband customers suffered a fourth outage in three months.

Outage tracking website Downdetector had shown that there were more than 200 reports of issues faced by customers since 2 pm on Monday. Two hours later that afternoon, MyRepublic said on its website that it was aware of a “potential network broadband connectivity issue” affecting some customers in the north-eastern area.

On Tuesday, the telco noted that connections were being fixed in stages and that the situation seemed “under control”. However, data from Downdetector revealed that customers were still filing reports of problems, though the number of reports was down from Monday. A MyRepublic spokesperson also told BT on Tuesday that the telco recently undertook a “partial back-end migration” and was proactively working on issues that arose from that exercise.

MyRepublic reported an issue on Sep 29 similar to the one on Monday; it appeared to have been resolved in three hours. Its fibre broadband service was previously down on Sep 11 and Jul 21.

MyRepublic: Connections being fixed in stages; StarHub: Monday’s glitch came from ‘temporary congestion’

Following apparent disruptions in the fibre broadband service experienced by the customers of MyRepublic and StarHub on Monday (Sep 30), spokespersons of the two telcos issued separate statements on Tuesday.

MyRepublic said the glitch was being fixed “progressively”, and that the situation seemed “under control”. StarHub reframed Monday’s situation as a “temporary congestion” rather than an “outage”.

Meanwhile, data from outage tracking website Downdetector showed on Tuesday that MyRepublic customers were still filing reports of problems, though the number of reports was down from the peak at about 3 pm on Monday.

Data from Downdetector also showed that among StarHub users, the number of complaints had peaked at 5 pm on Monday and again at 3 am on Tuesday. 

When connections started dropping on Monday, Downdetector indicated that more than 2,000 reports of issues were made by MyRepublic and StarHub customers from around 2 pm. 

Two hours later that afternoon, MyRepublic said on its website that it was aware of a “potential network broadband connectivity issue affecting some customers in north-east Singapore. 

StarHub customers also took to the company’s Facebook page with posts on the disruptions they were facing. Responding, StarHub then advised them to restart their devices, including their optical network terminals and network routers. 

At 4 pm on Tuesday, the MyRepublic spokesperson who told The Business Times that the situation seemed “under control” added that the company recently undertook a “partial backend migration” and was proactively working on issues that arose from that exercise. 

“Pending results from the ongoing investigation, we will explore proactive measures that can be put in place to prevent this from happening again” said the spokesperson. 

A StarHub spokesperson, responding to BT’s queries, clarified that its services did not experience an outage.

“A brief surge in our Internet exchange caused temporary congestion, which was resolved in under 30 minutes through swift traffic rerouting to alternate sites.” 

StarHub completed the acquisition of a 50.1 per cent stake in MyRepublic in March 2022. 

MyRepublic had reported an issue on Sep 29 similar to the one on Monday; it appeared to have been resolved in three hours.

Its fibre broadband service company had previously gone down on Sep 11 and Jul 21.

The telco’s consumer vice-president Terry Williams said the Jul 21 outage was caused by an upstream equipment provider whic was carrying out maintenance as part of network upgrading works. 

Source: Business Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

MOM meets with Dyson over layoffs as union calls for conciliation High Court to sentence former transport minister Iswaran on Oct 3