SingTel telephone land lines in parts of Bukit Panjang down since Tuesday

SINGAPORE: SingTel telephone lines in some areas in Bukit Panjang have been down since late Tuesday afternoon.

SingTel said the lines will be progressively restored from 10am Thursday.

It said its fibre and copper infrastructure in the area was damaged by a contractor, working on the Land Transport Authority’s Downtown Line 2.

This affected some voice and broadband services in the area.

Broadband services were restored early Wednesday morning.

But its spokesperson said the land lines will take some time to be restored.

This is due to the difficult working conditions at the construction site where the cable damage occurred.

Earlier, callers to MediaCorp News hotline said they have not been able to make calls from their telephones since Tuesday.

The callers’ residences included Petir, Pending and Cashew Roads — all within Bukit Panjang.

The callers said their broadband lines are not affected.

Viewer Peiling told Channel NewsAsia she was disappointed with SingTel.

She’s concerned that SingTel did not keep its customers informed via its website or Facebook page.

Hotline caller Tony Tan said he noticed the disruption at 6pm on Tuesday.

Mr Tan is a resident in Pending Road.

The 58—year—old said the disruption caused inconvenience to his wife, who does not own a mobile phone and is dependent on the phone line at home.

Mr Tan said he contacted SingTel twice — at 3pm and 5pm on Wednesday — and was told it was working on the issue.

As of 7.30pm, his phone line was still not connected.

But some residents did not mind the disruption.

Thirty—four—year—old William Chua, a resident in Petir Road, said three of his four family members own a mobile phone, which kept them contactable.

— CNA/ck