Debated in Parliament on 17 Feb 2014.
Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked the Minister for Communications and Information (a) what is the progress on the Ministry's ongoing initiative to ensure greater resiliency by mobile telecommunications providers following the recent service outage by M1; (b) how have the various mobile telecommunications providers performed according to IDA's service standards; and (c) how can business continuity be improved.
The latest M1 service disruption on 4 February 2014 caused great inconvenience and frustration to M1 customers. M1
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subsequently shared more information on the cause of the outage and announced that it will be appointing an independent expert to review its network architecture and further enhance its network performance. In addition to this, IDA is carrying out its own investigation and will share its findings in due course.
No network service is foolproof, particularly as the complexity of technologies and networks increases. Yet, operators must plan and design their networks with all necessary resiliency and business continuity measures to minimise service outages. IDA's Telecom Service Resiliency Code requires operators of key network infrastructure to invest in and enhance the resilience of their networks, and to have processes in place for quick service recovery in the event of a service disruption. IDA has penalised operators under the Code in instances where IDA believed operators could have prevented outages, or taken shorter time to restore service. For example, in October 2013, a fine of $1.5 million was imposed on M1 for the service outage in January 2013.
IDA has also been reviewing its policies and regulations to enhance resilience. International experts were brought in to conduct an in-depth review of the resiliency of the mobile operators' networks. While the review showed that the mobile operators’ networks met international standards, IDA has pressed ahead with further improvements that can be made.
This includes IDA's intention to implement an audit framework on the resiliency of mobile networks by the second half of 2014. In November last year, IDA held consultations with the mobile operators on the scope of the audit. The framework could cover areas, such as network design, technical processes, business continuity planning, as well as infrastructure and facilities to support the mobile networks. It also includes the possibility of implementing automatic failover for key network components, enhancing the mobile operators' network design to minimise the number of single points of failure, upgrading their network architecture to support full redundancy, and implementing better business continuity planning. IDA is assessing the responses from the consultation and intends to finalise the audit framework for implementation in the second half of 2014. IDA will continue to put in place relevant and up-to-date regulatory frameworks to ensure greater resiliency.
At the same time, we would also urge organisations to put in place business continuity plans that suit their needs. Businesses that require higher resiliency can adopt various strategies, such as purchasing services from different operators or using different technology platforms, for example, fibre and
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wireless, for broadband connectivity. As their needs vary, some businesses may need to work closely with their service providers in order to ensure that the service offered is well integrated into their enterprise systems.
We recognise the increasingly pervasive use of mobile services and devices, as well as heightened public expectation of the quality of mobile services. Hence, IDA's Quality of Standard (QoS) framework for 3G mobile services was enhanced in 2012, and the revised in-building service coverage indicator came into effect from 1 April 2013. The enhanced framework requires mobile operators to comply with the minimum standards set by IDA to ensure that consumers experience an acceptable level of service quality for the key telecommunication services.
The three mobile operators have improved their performance under the enhanced framework. In IDA's latest 3G QoS audit, all the mobile operators met the QoS standards for tunnel service coverage, and in-building service coverage for Q2 and Q3 2013. SingTel Mobile and StarHub Mobile also met the nationwide outdoor service coverage standard of more than 99% for the same two quarters. While M1 also showed improvement in its performance on this revised outdoor service coverage standard, it still fell short of the QoS standard of more than 99%, achieving 98.75%. Hence, IDA recently imposed a financial penalty of $25,000 on M1 for non-compliance with the outdoor service coverage indicator.
I would like to assure the House that IDA will continue to press ahead with improvements needed to enhance resilience in our telecommunications network as well as to review our policies, to ensure that they remain relevant, given the critical nature of our mobile services.
PAPERCUTS