Government to study engaging telcos other than Singtel to provide emergency hotline services

THE government will consider engaging telcos’ services in addition to those of Singtel, which is the current service provider for emergency hotlines such as the Singapore Civil Defence Force’s (SCDF) 995 line and the police’s 999 line.

Both the SCDF and the police are working with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to consider additional resiliency measures for their hotlines, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said in response to parliamentary questions on Monday (Nov 11).

These include the “feasibility of telco diversity for our emergency hotlines”, she said.

She was replying to questions raised about an Oct 8 islandwide disruption to Singtel’s fixed line voice service.

The hotlines of public services – such as the 995 and 999 lines – as well as those of banks and public hospitals were disrupted.

Sun said that there was no public feedback about the SCDF or the police failing to respond to any urgent or life-threatening incident as a result of the disruption.

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In response to parliamentary questions, Senior Minister of State for Digital Development and Information Janil Puthucheary said that on Oct 8, all services were progressively restored over a four-hour time period from the start of the incident.

He said preliminary investigations showed that a technical issue led to a disruption in one of two systems that support Singtel’s fixed line voice service.

While the other system was designed to take the full load of the other system in case of a malfunction, this did not happen seamlessly. But half of all calls made could still be connected, he added.

There is no evidence to suggest that the incident resulted from a cyberattack or sabotage, he noted.

“IMDA will not hesitate to take strong action under the Telecommunications Act, including imposing financial penalties should any lapses be identified,” said the senior minister of state. He added that Singtel is held to a “high level of reliability” through the government’s regulatory framework.

Jurong GRC Member of Parliament Tan Wu Meng further asked how critical landlines like 995 and 999 can be protected from single telco failures.

In response, Sun said that the public can contact SCDF and the police through their respective SMS numbers, as well as through the SG Secure mobile app.