M1 customers affected by service outage

update SINGAPORE-Mobile operator M1 said its communication services are "progressively being restored" and expects full service restoration shortly.

M1 issued the second press statement at 9.30 p.m. Wednesday, 12 hours after its mobile services were disrupted. It also thanked its subscribers for their patience while recovery work continues.

Earlier, the telco's spokeswoman Petrina Teoh said in its first press statement that the outage was due to "technical difficulty" on one of its customer management servers.

She said: "We are experiencing technical difficulty on one of our customer management servers, and mobile services to some of our customers are temporarily disrupted. We would like to express our deep apologies for the inconvenience caused. Please be assured that we are putting all available resources to promptly rectify this issue."

According to @JayneRendomm, a M1 subscriber ZDNet Asia got in touch with via Twitter, she experienced difficulties making calls out since 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. Other Twitter users revealed that they faced similar challenges sending SMS (short message service) out, too.

While the outage continues, irate consumers have taken to social media to vent their frustrations. Twitter user @gwenteo_, for one, lamented on the prolonged outage. She tweeted: "Seriously M1? 6 hours later your network is STILL down?

Some users have also complained of not being able to reach the telco's hotline.

The mobile operator has uploaded both press statements on its Facebook page, attracting more than 700 comments.