IMDA fines SingNet for Singtel TV disruptions

The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) of Singapore has imposed a combined financial penalty of S$145,000 on SingNet for two separate Singtel TV disruptions that occurred on 1 October 2015 and 5 January 2016.

As a Nationwide Subscription Television Service Licensee, SingNet must comply with licence conditions on quality of service (QoS). This requires SingNet to provide pay-TV services at reasonable quality that meets public expectations and is satisfactory to IMDA.

 The service difficulty on 1 October 2015 started at around 2.10am and lasted more than an hour. Around 100 Singtel TV subscribers islandwide experienced a complete loss of programmes on 11 channels. Investigations by IMDA revealed that the incident was initially caused by damage to a primary fibre cable. Such a situation would have normally triggered an automatic switchover to the secondary fibre to prevent a service disruption.

However, the switchover was unsuccessful due to a faulty fibreoptic receiver card on the secondary fibre. SingNet did not have a robust process to test that the receiver card was functional. IMDA thus finds SingNet to be in contravention of its QoS licence conditions, and imposes a financial penalty of S$55,000 for this service difficulty.

The second service difficulty occurred at around 6.15am on 5 January and lasted around three hours. Some 1,400 Singtel TV subscribers islandwide experienced intermittent pixelation on 15 channels. This service difficulty was caused by a failure to properly configure two line cards on a router at SingNet’s Bukit Timah headend in August 2015.

At the point of installation, the vendor was supposed to implement a router configuration that would increase the shared limit of the two line cards. However, as that was not carried out, intermittent pixelation resulted when data traffic on 5 January was exceeded. IMDA’s assessment is that SingNet should have ensured that its vendor carried out its work according to plan. IMDA thus finds SingNet to be in contravention of its QoS licence conditions, and imposes a financial penalty of S$90,000 for this service difficulty.

In determining the financial penalties, IMDA took into consideration factors such as SingNet's response to the incidents, the extent of the disruptions and its track record. IMDA notes that SingNet has committed to implementing the necessary measures to prevent future recurrences.