SINGAPORE: A Singtel disruption on Tuesday (Oct 8) afternoon silenced landlines across Singapore, affecting emergency hotlines 999 and 995 as well as other essential services that rely on fixed voice services. The outage underscores the importance and continued relevance of good old-fashioned landlines in today’s society, despite a significant decrease in their usage due to the rise of mobile technologies and other communications channels. It has been a while since I have had to use a landline to reach contacts, friends and family members.
I am unable to think of anyone I know who still lists a home landline as a way to be contacted instead of a mobile phone number. But clearly, there are many that still depend on landlines - close to 3,000 reports were filed on tracking website Downdetector at the peak of the outage at about 3.30pm.
Hospitals and other healthcare institutions, banks and other businesses were among those affected. In some cases, payment services were also hit. Most worryingly, calls to emergency services provided by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and the Singapore Police Force (SPF) were also impacted.
MOBILE PHONES AND SOCIAL MEDIA While some have bemoaned the ubiquitous nature of mobile phone technology and the unhealthy relationship many of us have with our mobile devices, these have proved a boon in the latest disruption as mobile and broadband services were unaffected according to Singtel. Indeed, many institutions turned to these and even so.