Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Alternative Telco Backup for Emergency Services’ Landline Hotlines

Question:

Dr Tan Wu Meng: To ask the Minister for Home Affairs (a) whether essential landline hotlines such as 995 and 999 have a hot-swappable alternative telco backup contingency to address the possibility of a single telco failure such as the 8 October 2024 disruption to Singtel’s telecommunications network; (b) if not, why not; and (c) whether there will be a comprehensive after-action review to harden Singapore’s hotlines robustness for emergency services against telco disruptions due to technical failures or cyber sabotage.

Answer:

Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law:

1. Currently, the 995 and 999 hotlines are connected to multiple Singtel telephone exchanges for system reliability and resilience. However, they do not have the ability to ‘hot-swap’ to an alternative telecommunications company.

2. During the Singtel service outage, both 995 and 999 continued to receive around one in two calls. When the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) and Singapore Police Force (SPF) learnt of the technical difficulties faced by some callers, the public was informed to contact SCDF via short message service (SMS) 70995, and SPF via SMS 70999. They could also report incidents via the SGSecure application.

3. SCDF and SPF are conducting a comprehensive review with Infocomm Media Development Authority to evaluate additional resiliency measures including the feasibility of telecommunications company diversity for our emergency hotlines.