Singtel landline down for many, 999 & 995 emergency hotlines affected

A widespread service outage of Singtel services was reported by Singapore users on Oct. 8.

The outage occurred around 2pm to 4pm.

Customers experienced difficulties reaching hospitals, banks, and other businesses on their service lines.

Those affected included the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), Singapore Police Force (SPF), and KK Women's and Children's Hospital.

Banks, hospitals, and public services affected

SCDF said at 4:22pm a disruption to hotlines had occurred.

It advised members of the public who are experiencing difficulties calling 995 or 999 to message SCDF at 70995 or SPF at 70999 instead.

KK Women's and Children's Hospital also stated that all its phone lines were down due to a technical fault and requested customers to email their company address for appointment matters.

It also apologised for any inconvenience caused.

Banks, including DBS Bank, also appeared to have been affected by the outage.

DBS stated on its app that it was informed by its telco provider it is experiencing an "industry-wide technical issue that is impacting its customer care hotlines".

"We are working closely with them to resolve this issue as soon as possible," said DBS.

UOB and Standard Chartered also informed customers of a similar "telco service disruption" on their apps.

Sintel outages appeared to begin at 1:51pm

According to DownDetector, a spike in Singtel outages appeared to begin at 1:51pm, with 2,681 reports confirmed by 3:21pm.

Most reported problems pertained to landline phone service.

As of 4:29pm, Singtel posted an update on its Facebook stating its engineers are working urgently to deploy workaround measures as it tries to resolve its fixed voice service issue.

The telecommunications apologised for the inconvenience caused and added all mobile and broadband services remain unaffected.

When Mothership tried calling with a tourist Singtel SIM card around 4:37pm, the mobile line worked as normal.

At 5:06pm, Singtel said on X: "Our engineers have isolated the problem affecting our fixed voice services. Recovery measures are being rapidly deployed and services are progressively being restored."

Users express frustration at disruption

Users took to the internet to express frustration as the service disruption continued.

Top image via Google Maps.