Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel) has clarified that the software upgrades conducted by Singtel Internet Exchange (STiX) were not the root cause that triggered the widespread outage by Optus.
STiX is one of Optus’ international networks that connects to the global internet. It conducts software upgrades for its infrastructure from time to time. One of these upgrades took place at 1am on Nov 8. Singtel said that it had already given prior notice to its customers including Optus and other telcos.
“During the upgrade, data traffic was routed to other points of presence on the STiX network, and back into customers’ networks. The STiX upgrade was completed within 20 minutes, and all its customers’ routers that were connected to it, including Optus’, were up and running,” Singtel explains in its Nov 16 statement.
“We are aware that Optus experienced a network outage after the upgrade when a significant increase in addresses being propagated through their network triggered preset failsafes. However, the upgrade was not the root cause,” it adds.
As at 4.51pm, shares in Singtel are trading 1 cent lower or 0.42% down at $2.37.