Photo: Tang Yan Song / Shutterstock.com
Singapore’s largest communications provider, Singtel, faced a major disruption on October 8, leaving numerous businesses and public services grappling with intermittent voice service issues. The outage, affecting Singtel’s Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), impacted several customer service hotlines, including emergency services and healthcare institutions, causing widespread frustration and inconvenience across the country.
Singtel first acknowledged the issue in a social media post, noting that its engineers were urgently working to isolate and resolve the problem. At 5:05 PM, Singtel updated customers, confirming that recovery measures were being deployed and services were being restored.
The Singapore Civil Defense Force (SCDF) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) reported difficulties with emergency hotlines 995 and 999, prompting them to advise the public to use alternative methods to reach emergency responders, reports CNA.
In a Facebook post, the SCDF instructed individuals to send SMS messages to 70995 or 70999, ensuring access to vital emergency services despite the outage. Both agencies emphasised their commitment to resolving the issue swiftly while prioritising public safety.

Public services and businesses, including Singapore’s largest banks, were also affected. DBS, United Overseas Bank (UOB), and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) informed customers via social media that their hotlines were experiencing intermittent disruptions.
Healthcare institutions under SingHealth, including Changi General Hospital (CGH) and KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH), were similarly affected. Patients could not reach appointment lines, forcing the hospital to direct them to alternative communication channels like email or the SingHealth Buddy app.
SingHealth reassured patients that clinical services remained unaffected but urged them to use digital solutions for appointment bookings and queries.
The outage had a ripple effect across public transport ticketing service SimplyGo and payment provider NETS. SimplyGo encouraged users to submit queries through its website, while NETS acknowledged that some payment transactions might be impacted. This highlights the critical role Singtel’s ISDN service plays in Singapore’s daily operations.
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