Comparison of SIM only plans

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lohsenglte

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Thanks, I can go with either M1 or Singtel (no Starhub for sure lol), but then again I do use NEL from time to time...

What prepaid cards should I take to test these out? Most of them seem expensive when it comes to data
If it's every few weeks or months, then avoiding the telco for that reason is pointless. Afterall, SingTel Mobile also have their problems.

SingTel - $15 hi!Card
M1 - $15 M Card

Use the $15 (SingTel) and $18 (M1) main balances to buy data plans.

Discuss in the "most valued prepaid card" thread. SIM-only and prepaid cards are separate, so try not to merge two up. :)

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darkarn

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Thanks, I go check and ask in the correct thread.

But meanwhile, what do you mean by Singtel having issues? I have the impression that they have the best coverage
 

lohsenglte

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Thanks, I go check and ask in the correct thread.

But meanwhile, what do you mean by Singtel having issues? I have the impression that they have the best coverage
I leave SingTel because of their sub-par 3G network compared to M1 a few years back.

Yes, SingTel network is greatly improved alr, but it is still not perfect. Any network also have dead spots somewhere, it's just whether a lot or not much.

A lot of people still say M1's network is the weakest of the 3 networks nationwide. Tbh, for many parts of the country, there's little difference between the two. In fact, StarHub Mobile is weaker than M1, and typically the slowest among the three.

Also, data roaming for SingTel is much more expensive than the other two carriers.

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renfred89

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Thanks, I go check and ask in the correct thread.

But meanwhile, what do you mean by Singtel having issues? I have the impression that they have the best coverage

Singtel has a better coverage than the other telcos in my opinion, and also having a better 4G speed out of the rest. There will be places where some telcos outperform another but it shouldn't be viewed as an indicator of performance bah.

lohsenglte mentioned a more expensive data roaming charges, well i beg to differ. There is no one size fits all data roaming package and i believe M1 is offering something different, be it one-off charges or roaming packages. Generally you have to choose what suits you the most.

While we are in a sim only plan, singtel wifi is also applicable as a free vas thus far, and is unlimited usage thus far as well, which m1 and starhub doesn't have..
 

lohsenglte

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Singtel has a better coverage than the other telcos in my opinion, and also having a better 4G speed out of the rest. There will be places where some telcos outperform another but it shouldn't be viewed as an indicator of performance bah.

lohsenglte mentioned a more expensive data roaming charges, well i beg to differ. There is no one size fits all data roaming package and i believe M1 is offering something different, be it one-off charges or roaming packages. Generally you have to choose what suits you the most.

While we are in a sim only plan, singtel wifi is also applicable as a free vas thus far, and is unlimited usage thus far as well, which m1 and starhub doesn't have..

Erm I'm actually not saying about speedtest results. I'm saying day to day usage, like social media, web browsing and video streaming etc. SingTel and M1 most of the time is similar in this regard, sometimes SingTel edging out while M1 also have some strength to balance out too.

As I said, getting a prepaid SIM to test is always the best, as it reflects on your usage and not based on word-of-mouth.

Ya data roaming packages are kind of argumentative, and it depends on usage too. But with exception of a few countries, the M1 Data Passport is typically cheaper than SingTel ReadyRoam package, unless you're visiting a few countries at once.

However, when you travel to few countries, you are bound to use lots of data too. The cost per GB comparison is back again, but let's don't talk about it there.

Yes, you're getting the 2GB SingTel WiFi (unlimited for now), but no contract SIM-only plans on SingTel is still relatively expensive. Yes there's no need for SMS for many, but voice calls is still kind of needed. Therefore, most would have to pay $5.35 for 200mins outgoing calls.

SingTel WiFi is faster than Wireless@SG, but it still depends on the user, if he is willing to on WiFi all the time to connect to the limited coverage of SingTel WiFi or not.

(Limited coverage is compared to 4G coverage, not saying that you can't find anywhere.)

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renfred89

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Ya data roaming packages are kind of argumentative, and it depends on usage too. But with exception of a few countries, the M1 Data Passport is typically cheaper than SingTel ReadyRoam package, unless you're visiting a few countries at once.

However, when you travel to few countries, you are bound to use lots of data too. The cost per GB comparison is back again, but let's don't talk about it there.

Yes, you're getting the 2GB SingTel WiFi (unlimited for now), but no contract SIM-only plans on SingTel is still relatively expensive. Yes there's no need for SMS for many, but voice calls is still kind of needed. Therefore, most would have to pay $5.35 for 200mins outgoing calls.

SingTel WiFi is faster than Wireless@SG, but it still depends on the user, if he is willing to on WiFi all the time to connect to the limited coverage of SingTel WiFi or not.

(Limited coverage is compared to 4G coverage, not saying that you can't find anywhere.)

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well i wouldn't say limited singtel wifi coverage. it has already expanded quite a lot covering most mrt stations, macdonalds and shopping malls. vivocity is one with complete mall coverage, and also food republic foodcourts. at least for myself, i feel its such a good VAS when i use it for mainly updating apps and syncing documents with the cloud. I could easily save a few hundreds of megabytes each time when i'm on wifi than on 4G.. :D

Places where you are likely to sit and chill will have wifi, and thats the point of wifi right? if you walk around and changes location every minute, then its 4G liao.
 

lohsenglte

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well i wouldn't say limited singtel wifi coverage. it has already expanded quite a lot covering most mrt stations, macdonalds and shopping malls. vivocity is one with complete mall coverage, and also food republic foodcourts. at least for myself, i feel its such a good VAS when i use it for mainly updating apps and syncing documents with the cloud. I could easily save a few hundreds of megabytes each time when i'm on wifi than on 4G.. :D

Places where you are likely to sit and chill will have wifi, and thats the point of wifi right? if you walk around and changes location every minute, then its 4G liao.
I doubt many would update their apps over mobile network and pay the overages :s22:

Yes, get the SingTel WiFi and stream videos over it because it is "free", but how often you get to relax as a working adult? Only the weekends? Maybe even lesser?
Most of the time you would be busy doing other things at home too, and therefore likelihood of truly relaxing is once a week or lesser.

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darkarn

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I leave SingTel because of their sub-par 3G network compared to M1 a few years back.

Yes, SingTel network is greatly improved alr, but it is still not perfect. Any network also have dead spots somewhere, it's just whether a lot or not much.

A lot of people still say M1's network is the weakest of the 3 networks nationwide. Tbh, for many parts of the country, there's little difference between the two. In fact, StarHub Mobile is weaker than M1, and typically the slowest among the three.

Also, data roaming for SingTel is much more expensive than the other two carriers.

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It's precisely due to what I notice unusually bad 4G service compared to my friends (or even my family members who also use Starhub but iPhones!) and various other communication issues that made me want to shift to other telcos and also a SIM only plan.

I not worried about data roaming though; I prefer to buy the native SIM cards there (e.g. Japan's DoCoMo cards)

Singtel has a better coverage than the other telcos in my opinion, and also having a better 4G speed out of the rest. There will be places where some telcos outperform another but it shouldn't be viewed as an indicator of performance bah.

lohsenglte mentioned a more expensive data roaming charges, well i beg to differ. There is no one size fits all data roaming package and i believe M1 is offering something different, be it one-off charges or roaming packages. Generally you have to choose what suits you the most.

While we are in a sim only plan, singtel wifi is also applicable as a free vas thus far, and is unlimited usage thus far as well, which m1 and starhub doesn't have..

Hmm, does this mean Singtel has less deadspots? Also, Singtel Wifi is not exactly free in the future right?
 

darkarn

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I doubt many would update their apps over mobile network and pay the overages :s22:

Yes, get the SingTel WiFi and stream videos over it because it is "free", but how often you get to relax as a working adult? Only the weekends? Maybe even lesser?
Most of the time you would be busy doing other things at home too, and therefore likelihood of truly relaxing is once a week or lesser.

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Sighs, just started working full-time a few months back, starting to see this :(

If anything, the amount of income allowed me to make this move though; when I didn't have that much of a monthly salary, it was impossible to buy a phone without contract and therefore shift to different telcos or at least have a SIM only plan that allow easy moving between telcos :s13:
 

darkarn

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And yes, my use case is setting up my Xperia XZs as a hotspot so that I can play games on my iPad (or just play on my XZs directly), web surfing and social media. Videos no cos I watch at home or at least I watch those that I already transferred.

Weekdays: Morning travel via EWL or CCL or even direct bus, night time travel via CCL or EWL or NEL (I can avoid if need be) or 2 x direct bus.

Weekends: No specific lines, may even use NEL if need be. Or may just stay at home :o

What I need to investigate is why my phones all these years will sometimes go to 3G or 3G+ during hotspotting; I suspect Starhub signal too weak to be able to support hotspot while provide Internet to the phone itself too.

The dual SIM function of the XZs will be very useful here (I got it at launch cos my Z3C dying + these issues), I will proceed with real-world tests with prepaid SIM cards, just that there's 300+ pages to read in that thread :s13:!
 

lohsenglte

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It's precisely due to what I notice unusually bad 4G service compared to my friends (or even my family members who also use Starhub but iPhones!) and various other communication issues that made me want to shift to other telcos and also a SIM only plan.

I not worried about data roaming though; I prefer to buy the native SIM cards there (e.g. Japan's DoCoMo cards)



Hmm, does this mean Singtel has less deadspots? Also, Singtel Wifi is not exactly free in the future right?
I used StarHub's network on iPhone 5, Redmi Note 4 and Sony Xperia M5. All have issues on the network, like stubbornly stuck on 3G after falling back from 4G outdoors, and data totally don't work at all.

Sometimes data roaming is actually cheaper than local Sims. Like Japan, getting SIM card there is more expensive than getting M1 Data Passport. $25/mth ($27 for first month), use your local bundle.

Less deadspots? It depends on where you use lol. Everyone's experience is different, all we can say is our own experience.
For me, SingTel and M1 network is neck-on-neck most of the time now, and the value proposition came into play because of that.

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lohsenglte

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And yes, my use case is setting up my Xperia XZs as a hotspot so that I can play games on my iPad (or just play on my XZs directly), web surfing and social media. Videos no cos I watch at home or at least I watch those that I already transferred.

Weekdays: Morning travel via EWL or CCL or even direct bus, night time travel via CCL or EWL or NEL (I can avoid if need be) or 2 x direct bus.

Weekends: No specific lines, may even use NEL if need be. Or may just stay at home :o

What I need to investigate is why my phones all these years will sometimes go to 3G or 3G+ during hotspotting; I suspect Starhub signal too weak to be able to support hotspot while provide Internet to the phone itself too.

The dual SIM function of the XZs will be very useful here (I got it at launch cos my Z3C dying + these issues), I will proceed with real-world tests with prepaid SIM cards, just that there's 300+ pages to read in that thread :s13:!
EWL both SingTel and M1 have their own set of problems in tunnels.
M1 dropping from LTE (4G) to HSPA+ (3G) a few times when the train is moving but data is still usable most of the time. Auto connect back to LTE after a short while (<1 min) most of the time.

SingTel along the Tanjong Pagar and Tiong Bahru stretch totally can't work for my friend frequently. Both LTE and HSPA.

Above ground tracks have no issues on both networks.

NEL M1 4G have a lot of issues, not reception but connectivity. Some says M1 3G can work fine though. SingTel is much better in this regard.

CCL both networks have no issues. Fast and reliable.

Erm dual-SIM 4G+3G, if fall back to 3G on the internet SIM, the network performance may drop as much as to just half the performance, and the dead spots will be much more significant.

I would recommend on dual-SIM mode, the internet line force LTE only mode, then the voice line WCDMA only mode.

*#*#4636#*#* -> Phone information 1/2 -> Change network type.

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SoggyBear

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changed from singtel to m1 my sim few months back, regretted i didn't check that m1 have terrible signal on NEL. Waiting for 1 year to be up before porting back :(
 

renfred89

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Lol whether free or not depends on Singtel lor. If not free I'll drop it :D

Now that Singtel Wifi is in place, don't forget there's voice over WiFi also.

That helps to eliminate dead spots with wifi calling.

So far wifi calling has been stable on Singtel Wifi while on wireless@sg,quality differs according to the quality of wifi..

It's precisely due to what I notice unusually bad 4G service compared to my friends (or even my family members who also use Starhub but iPhones!) and various other communication issues that made me want to shift to other telcos and also a SIM only plan.

I not worried about data roaming though; I prefer to buy the native SIM cards there (e.g. Japan's DoCoMo cards)



Hmm, does this mean Singtel has less deadspots? Also, Singtel Wifi is not exactly free in the future right?
 

darkarn

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I used StarHub's network on iPhone 5, Redmi Note 4 and Sony Xperia M5. All have issues on the network, like stubbornly stuck on 3G after falling back from 4G outdoors, and data totally don't work at all.

Sometimes data roaming is actually cheaper than local Sims. Like Japan, getting SIM card there is more expensive than getting M1 Data Passport. $25/mth ($27 for first month), use your local bundle.

Less deadspots? It depends on where you use lol. Everyone's experience is different, all we can say is our own experience.
For me, SingTel and M1 network is neck-on-neck most of the time now, and the value proposition came into play because of that.

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Thanks for the confirm on that Starhub issue, glad to hear that I am not the only one with such issues!

As for data roaming, good point. Starhub's offering is way too expensive than M1's, hence me having to use native SIM cards (and wanting to try other telcos).

EWL both SingTel and M1 have their own set of problems in tunnels.
M1 dropping from LTE (4G) to HSPA+ (3G) a few times when the train is moving but data is still usable most of the time. Auto connect back to LTE after a short while (<1 min) most of the time.

SingTel along the Tanjong Pagar and Tiong Bahru stretch totally can't work for my friend frequently. Both LTE and HSPA.

Above ground tracks have no issues on both networks.

NEL M1 4G have a lot of issues, not reception but connectivity. Some says M1 3G can work fine though. SingTel is much better in this regard.

CCL both networks have no issues. Fast and reliable.

Erm dual-SIM 4G+3G, if fall back to 3G on the internet SIM, the network performance may drop as much as to just half the performance, and the dead spots will be much more significant.

I would recommend on dual-SIM mode, the internet line force LTE only mode, then the voice line WCDMA only mode.

*#*#4636#*#* -> Phone information 1/2 -> Change network type.

Sent from Redmi Note 4 MTK using GAGT

Thanks for the info, time for some real-world testing using prepaid cards to see how these affect my usage.

But if my SIM 1 is on LTE only, won't there be problems if in 3G-only areas?

Lol whether free or not depends on Singtel lor. If not free I'll drop it :D

Now that Singtel Wifi is in place, don't forget there's voice over WiFi also.

That helps to eliminate dead spots with wifi calling.

So far wifi calling has been stable on Singtel Wifi while on wireless@sg,quality differs according to the quality of wifi..



I checked the website, they say unlimited until 30th September

Too bad this is only for postpaid customers, can't test it with their prepaid cards :s13:
 

lohsenglte

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Thanks for the confirm on that Starhub issue, glad to hear that I am not the only one with such issues!

As for data roaming, good point. Starhub's offering is way too expensive than M1's, hence me having to use native SIM cards (and wanting to try other telcos).



Thanks for the info, time for some real-world testing using prepaid cards to see how these affect my usage.

But if my SIM 1 is on LTE only, won't there be problems if in 3G-only areas?



I checked the website, they say unlimited until 30th September

Too bad this is only for postpaid customers, can't test it with their prepaid cards :s13:
You won't get any reception in 3G only areas. Typically tunnels and some (remote) parts of the country.

Actually, to be safe, you should use the Xperia Z3 on your StarHub Postpaid meanwhile, and XZs on the prepaid service (M1/SingTel). This, you would experience the real world performance, because on LTE only mode, you won't actually fall back to HSPA (3G) when the signal is low.

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darkarn

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You won't get any reception in 3G only areas. Typically tunnels and some (remote) parts of the country.

Actually, to be safe, you should use the Xperia Z3 on your StarHub Postpaid meanwhile, and XZs on the prepaid service (M1/SingTel). This, you would experience the real world performance, because on LTE only mode, you won't actually fall back to HSPA (3G) when the signal is low.

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Problem is... My Z3C traded away for the XZs liao :s13:
 

darkarn

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In that case, either you use other 3G phones at home, or completely don't use the postpaid line from time to time. :s22:

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I have to keep the postpaid line up at all times cos work :s13:

What I did was to simply switch off mobile data for my postpaid Starhub SIM, keep it for calls and SMSes, and keep my prepaid Singtel SIM (yes, I ran over to the nearest 7-11 during lunch to get it) in LTE only.

That should be fine but if got problem, I will just deploy the spare iPhone 5 in my house then!

But really, why would there be a performance issue for the 4G+3G slot if there is a change to 3G? This is the first time I am hearing about it
 

guyz92

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I have to keep the postpaid line up at all times cos work :s13:

What I did was to simply switch off mobile data for my postpaid Starhub SIM, keep it for calls and SMSes, and keep my prepaid Singtel SIM (yes, I ran over to the nearest 7-11 during lunch to get it) in LTE only.

That should be fine but if got problem, I will just deploy the spare iPhone 5 in my house then!

But really, why would there be a performance issue for the 4G+3G slot if there is a change to 3G? This is the first time I am hearing about it

I didn't face any issue with 3G+3G on my StarHub + Singtel.

Speed test on StarHub HSPA+ can reach 10Mbps with my Redmi Note 4 SD625.
 
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