SINGAPORE – About 5,000 users of broadband services in central and north-east Singapore were affected by a fibre service outage on April 18 caused by a contractor damaging cables during construction work.
Singapore’s three major telcos – Singtel, StarHub and M1 – were impacted during the outage, which lasted about 20 hours and was resolved at 7am on April 19.
The authorities are looking into the disruption, which was caused by “contiguous bored pile works” for the North-South Corridor project. Such works involve drilling large vertical holes into the ground and filling them with concrete to form a protective wall for excavation.
Cable provider NetLink Trust (NLT) said on April 18 that it takes a serious view of the service disruption “caused by errant contractors and will not hesitate to take necessary actions against the errant party”.
In a 2022 parliamentary reply, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo said an average of 570 end users were affected by such incidents between 2019 and 2022.
She said the Infocomm Media Development Authority takes a serious view of service disruptions that occur due to construction activity, and cited regulations put in place in 2019 which mandate a nine-step process that contractors must comply with when working on areas with such cables.
The process includes getting service layout plans from telcos and engaging a licensed person to carry out cable detection work.
Mrs Teo also gave statistics on the number of incidents in that period: 12 in 2019, four in 2020, seven in 2021, and eight in 2022 (as at September that year).
A previous parliamentary reply from 2016 showed that there were seven such cases in 2015, and four each in 2014 and 2013.
ST looks at some recent incidents and their outcomes.
In 2019, a subcontractor known as 2K International was engaged for a PUB project that involved deep excavation.
The area that it was meant to work on contained telecommunication cables belonging to both NLT and Singtel. PUB, the national water agency, had provided 2K International and the main contractor, Sheng Keong Construction, plans showing where these cables lay.
On Sept 28, 2019, 2K International started work at the junction of Seletar Road and Yio Chu Kang Road without applying for and submitting the needed paperwork or checking for the cables.
The works ended up damaging 10 NLT cables and 13 of Singtel’s cables, which resulted in the disruption of telecommunication services for about 19 hours, and affected 5,595 users in Punggol, Sengkang and Jalan Kayu.
2K International and Sheng Keong Construction were prosecuted for the incident. In January 2026, 2K International was fined a total of $314,000 for various violations under the Telecommunications Act, while the main contractor was earlier fined $130,000 under the same law.
In 2018, Eng Lam Contractors was engaged by PUB for improvement works in Sungei Tampines at a spot also containing cables belonging to NLT and Singtel.
Eng Lam had been given plans detailing the presence of these cables, but on Nov 14, 2018, it started work at the junction of Tampines Avenue 9 and Tampines Avenue 12 without complying with requirements or checking the cables’ location.
The firm ended up damaging 15 of Singtel’s cables and 18 of NLT’s cables, which resulted in the disruption of telecommunication services for more than 19 hours and affected 23,419 users.
Eng Lam was prosecuted under the Telecommunications Act and fined a total of $350,000 in 2023.
In April 2017, Jian Man Construction started road and drainage works at the junction of Corporation Road and Jurong West Avenue 2 without first waiting to receive a response from Singtel to its submission of a notice for the start of works.
It did not comply with Singtel and NLT’s requirements, and did not check where cables belonging to the two companies were.
While working on the Housing Board project, it damaged two of Singtel’s and eight of NLT’s telecommunication cables, which resulted in the disruption of telecommunication services for about 29 hours and affected 5,294 users in Jurong West, Jurong East, Boon Lay and Bukit Batok.
Jian Man – a subcontractor for another project subcontractor known as Altivo – was prosecuted for this and fined $200,000. Altivo was fined $100,000.
The outage affected internet and fixed voice lines, and service restoration was impeded by heavy rain.