from newspaper
Users experience mio TV hiccups
Wed, Mar 03, 2010
my paper
By SIA LING XIN
UNHAPPY users of mio TV have expressed their frustrations on Stomp, Singapore Press Holdings' citizen-journalism website, about being unable to access the SingTel pay-TV service for at least 24 hours.
Users have also reported problems with their SingNet broadband Internet connections in the last few days.
SingTel offers a mio Home package that bundles mio TV with broadband and home phone-line services.
Marketing manager Sandra Ng, 43, said her mio TV service has been down for three days, disappointing her mother, who follows its drama serials.
At the same time, it has been taking Mrs Ng more than 10 minutes to load a Web page via SingNet broadband, when it used to take "just a few seconds".
She said: "It makes doing basic things like checking my e-mail such a hassle. I usually use the Internet for a couple of hours but, now, I get tired after waiting for just half an hour. We're paying for the service, so I really hope SingTel gets this fixed soon."
Bank executive Bobby Tan, 27, said his mio TV and Internet service have been down for the past two days, and he has "totally no idea why". He called the customer-support hotline but nobody picked up, he said.
When contacted yesterday, SingTel said: "Some customers may be encountering technical difficulties accessing their mio TV. Our engineers are currently rectifying the problem. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused and hope to resolve the issue shortly."
Its spokesman said the problem is "isolated to some mio TV customers", but declined to give the number affected.
It is unclear if the problems with mio TV and broadband are linked, she said.
At the end of last year, SingTel had 155,000 mio TV subscribers and 169,000 subscribers to SingTel bundle plans mio Home and mio Plan (which includes fixed-line, Internet and mobile services).