SIMBA Fibre Broadband

[HiHelloBye]

 

[weiess]

2.5Gbps not yet stable launching 10Gbps soon !

what the?!!
2.5gbps @$20
Now 10gbps @$29.99 (for $9.99 more ,no brainer?!)

 

[hkchew03]

what the?!!
2.5gbps @$20
Now 10gbps @$29.99 (for $9.99 more ,no brainer?!)

Only if you are able to make use of the extra 7.5gbps which most people probably don't.

 

[hwsstx]

what the?!!
2.5gbps @$20
Now 10gbps @$29.99 (for $9.99 more ,no brainer?!)

Yes, you are right...my brain says the $20 one.

 

[twosix]

Only if you are able to make use of the extra 7.5gbps which most people probably don't.

Waste $9.90 per month lor. Haha.

 

[Vanyel]

my current router is AX-11000, should i sign for the simba?

 

[pearl_ml]

For guys who have used Simba 2.5Gbps for a few months, how do you find the service? Any issues so far? I'm considering joining the wagon. Just a normal user here, only using it to surf the net and watch Netflix and YouTube.

 

[twosix]

For guys who have used Simba 2.5Gbps for a few months, how do you find the service? Any issues so far? I'm considering joining the wagon. Just a normal user here, only using it to surf the net and watch Netflix and YouTube.

So u join for the price and not the speed? Take note the setup costs is high.

 

[pearl_ml]

So u join for the price and not the speed? Take note the setup costs is high.

yes , for the price. im aware of the setup fee. but long term wise, it is more savings. so far, any issues with Simba bb?

 

[morimorimori]

Is a heng suay thing. As mentioned above if you demand 99% reliability go with the established providers.

 

[Mach3.2]

yes , for the price. im aware of the setup fee. but long term wise, it is more savings. so far, any issues with Simba bb?

They only have a point of presence at SGIX and 2 upstream IP transit providers (Orange and Hurricane Electric). Hurricane Electric isn't known for being the quality option, but as the budget option (like Cogent).
Might experience in less than optimal routing depending on what content you consume, but local content should be fine for the most part due to their presence at SGIX.

Only way to know is sign up and test for yourself.


Reliability and uptime wise, they should improve over time. After all they just started out, so pang chance?

My take would be they are fine if you have another WAN connection for backup, or if you're using them as the backup.
If I die die need internet, I'll stick with the more established providers for the time being.

 

[HiHelloBye]

They only have a point of presence at SGIX and 2 upstream IP transit providers (Orange and Hurricane Electric). Hurricane Electric isn't known for being the quality option, but as the budget option (like Cogent).
Might experience in less than optimal routing depending on what content you consume, but local content should be fine for the most part due to their presence at SGIX.

Only way to know is sign up and test for yourself.


Reliability and uptime wise, they should improve over time. After all they just started out, so pang chance?

My take would be they are fine if you have another WAN connection for backup, or if you're using them as the backup.
If I die die need internet, I'll stick with the more established providers for the time being.

thanks for the heads-up! i'm also considering to have another ISP just for redundancy sake

 

[ngbc]

yes , for the price. im aware of the setup fee. but long term wise, it is more savings. so far, any issues with Simba bb?

Yes long term wise but SIMBA didn't say what's the price when 12 months is over ...

 

[Henry Ng]

Yes, you are right...my brain says the $20 one.

Actually 2.5Gbps is quite fast.

 

[Alphas]

Most sites cannot provide 10 gbps downloads speed. If you just using it for streaming, gaming, and surfing web, 1 gbps is more than sufficient.

 

[twosix]

Most sites cannot provide 10 gbps downloads speed. If you just using it for streaming, gaming, and surfing web, 1 gbps is more than sufficient.

even 500mbps is enough. i was on that for the last year. no difference with 1gbps. and there are multiple users at home too.

 

[r3mark]

I am on SIMBA broadband now for a couple of days.

The good:
- Speed. No glitches/outages. ping -n 100 reliable and fast
- Support response time (via their site and support ticketing system) usually within hours.
- SIMBA ONT installation: Calls ahead on the day. Small dedicated box. Done in 10-15 min and works.

The bad:
- NLT appointment was scheduled but never happened. Technician was able to self-service. No appointment call or anything. I only came to know by asking SIMBA that there is no home visit. You are left in the blind whether NLT visits or not.
- No IPv6!?
- CG-NAT (i.e. shared dynamic IPv4 with others)
- "My account" feature for broadband does not exist yet. You have essentially no way of managing your account other than using the Support ticketing system.
- You prepay the whole 1 year contract
- I was not able to choose the 3 month contract during signup (had to go for 1 year)
- The email to support@simba.sg is responded with "not monitored", even though it is advertised as contact mechanism. All your initial requests need to go through their Support Ticketing site.

Cheap, simple, works, not fancy. However I would have really liked IPv6 coming with it, if you do CG-NAT.

An update to my experience, so far (1 week in).

1. Some worldwide connectivity was initially not good (europe/Austria e.g. 0.2MBit down, 2 MBit up), but it has gotten better of the past days (50 down, 200 up). This was confirmed on both SIMBA Broadband and SIMBA LTE (I am on both)
2. The support follows procedure rather than attempt to help (see 1, which could have been confirmed easily by them at that time, but they insisted on me jumping through hoops to isolate the issue). The issue was not with me. I had all default settings and local and US connections were fast, so it does not even make sense to start isolating speed tests on my side, since it is a routing/speed issue on their side.
3. The support has some cases it does not respond to, even though they are important
4. The only way of communication with the support is through initial ticket system (see FAQ page, scroll down, see link) or through follow-up email when receiving the response. There is no chat and no phone AFAIK. So if you are not getting anywhere you feel helpless tbh
5. They advertise 2.5GBit, but forget it. The ONT installation by the technician (where he also does a speedtest.net against CTCSCI TECH LTD) revealed max 1GBit down and 1.5GBit up best case to local SG server. In practice, when you route this through your infra with good cables and reasonable router you end up with 600MBit down and 1GBit up.

Overall, I can still recommend SIMBA broadband, although their support (the only lifeline you have) is responding reasonably fasts but the response is not that good.

 

[hkchew03]

An update to my experience, so far (1 week in).

1. Some worldwide connectivity was initially not good (europe/Austria e.g. 0.2MBit down, 2 MBit up), but it has gotten better of the past days (50 down, 200 up). This was confirmed on both SIMBA Broadband and SIMBA LTE (I am on both)
2. The support follows procedure rather than attempt to help (see 1, which could have been confirmed easily by them at that time, but they insisted on me jumping through hoops to isolate the issue). The issue was not with me. I had all default settings and local and US connections were fast, so it does not even make sense to start isolating speed tests on my side, since it is a routing/speed issue on their side.
3. The support has some cases it does not respond to, even though they are important
4. The only way of communication with the support is through initial ticket system (see FAQ page, scroll down, see link) or through follow-up email when receiving the response. There is no chat and no phone AFAIK. So if you are not getting anywhere you feel helpless tbh
5. They advertise 2.5GBit, but forget it. The ONT installation by the technician (where he also does a speedtest.net against CTCSCI TECH LTD) revealed max 1GBit down and 1.5GBit up best case to local SG server. In practice, when you route this through your infra with good cables and reasonable router you end up with 600MBit down and 1GBit up.

Overall, I can still recommend SIMBA broadband, although their support (the only lifeline you have) is responding reasonably fasts but the response is not that good.

I think that was another thread on some fiber to Europe was broken causing the slow down.

 

[laokorkor]

2. The support follows procedure rather than attempt to help (see 1, which could have been confirmed easily by them at that time, but they insisted on me jumping through hoops to isolate the issue). The issue was not with me. I had all default settings and local and US connections were fast, so it does not even make sense to start isolating speed tests on my side, since it is a routing/speed issue on their side.
3. The support has some cases it does not respond to, even though they are important
4. The only way of communication with the support is through initial ticket system (see FAQ page, scroll down, see link) or through follow-up email when receiving the response. There is no chat and no phone AFAIK. So if you are not getting anywhere you feel helpless tbh

Whizcomms for the same price, has better support. It's online web-based chat page where you can communicate with a support staff in real time. I think I better stay put with Whizcomms until I hit on ONR technical limitation as the 2.5gbps/10gbps bandwidth by Simba is really merely academic. When Simba is done with its growing pain, then I'll consider. I really don't appreciate being a guinea pig replying endless email threads with Simba.

 

[alex22]

Just to update:
Since initial down time on the 2nd day of the activation (~1hr), so far the broadband seems to be pretty good and value for money for average users. Ignore the 100-200 Mbps that was probably due to my router, the average should be around 900+Mbps for me. The direct modem connection was around 1500-1600 Mbps (initial graph). The router is the bottle neck here as I am using very old Asus RT-AC88 which is only have 1Gbps port. The network card is 2.5Mbps from AliExpress, cpu AMD 5900x, 64GB ram.
If your tasks aren't critical and know some basic trouble shooting, I think it isn't that bad to switch. My Youtube is default at 1080, and have no issue 1440p50. The old M1 500Mbps was only able to 720p.

I don't know how long this would last, if it goes down then not much help options available. If it is working then it is great.

For those keen on Simba router, they are selling these:
"
Dear customer, should you require a 2.5G router that’s compatible to your SIMBA Broadband 2.5Gbps service, we have options for you!

1) TP-Link Router Archer AX55 Pro V2 2.5G (Compatible 2.5G Router)
(c/w 1 x 2.5G WAN port & 1 x 2.5G LAN port) @ $305.20 nett

2) Ruijie Router 3200 @ $216.91 nett
"
Of cos you can get those cheaper from the online platforms.

Weird when you say 500m m1 can only do 720p YouTube