Circles.Life Discussion Thread

[froztx]

Fwah, for those that signed up with dealers/ABS etc. if the payment method is e.g. Airwallex, you are pretty much stuck with it and need to visit the dealer to "top-up" or bank transfer to CL monthly otherwise, cancel the line all together since there's no way to change the payment method.

Then what's these platform fees with introduction of AI etc. for, when such simple features/functions isn't available/working....

 

[keenklee]

Fwah, for those that signed up with dealers/ABS etc. if the payment method is e.g. Airwallex, you are pretty much stuck with it and need to visit the dealer to "top-up" or bank transfer to CL monthly otherwise, cancel the line all together since there's no way to change the payment method.

Then what's these platform fees with introduction of AI etc. for, when such simple features/functions isn't available/working....

IMHO.
How come so complex. Is it cheaper initially ?

 

[firesong]

Seems like there's new promo code offer

https://activate-shop.circles.life/circles1/sa_delivery?esim=true&locale=en&ps=true&reset=true

UWAL8

Looks tempting. Need to ask.

Does anyone have experience with Eight and can give a sense of comparison? Am considering porting to CL/M1 due to 5G. Eight's getting worse for me, some places no data even with full bar. I had situations where I couldn't contact clients.

I have $16 left on Eight credits that I am willing to forego (balance from the past promotion) if 5G reception on CL is better than 4G Eight/SH. Not gonna keep a line that doesn't work for me when I need it.

 

[xiaofan]

Looks tempting. Need to ask.

Does anyone have experience with Eight and can give a sense of comparison? Am considering porting to CL/M1 due to 5G. Eight's getting worse for me, some places no data even with full bar. I had situations where I couldn't contact clients.

I have $16 left on Eight credits that I am willing to forego (balance from the past promotion) if 5G reception on CL is better than 4G Eight/SH. Not gonna keep a line that doesn't work for me when I need it.

CL 5G is for sure much better than eight 4G S$8 plan for local usage. It is very much similar to M1 Maxx 5G.

I tested CL 5G for 2 months plus because of the free trial (promotion no longer exists).

 

[firesong]

CL 5G is for sure much better than eight 4G S$8 plan. It is very much similar to M1 Maxx 5G.

I tested CL 5G for 2 months plus because of the free trial (promotion no longer exists).

Better in terms of throughput? How about coverage?

I've had a really poor experience with M1 4G before.

 

[xiaofan]

Better in terms of throughput? How about coverage?

I've had a really poor experience with M1 4G before.

Better in terms of speed and less congestion.

Major problem with eight 4G is congestion.

My tests shows StarHub/M1 5G network has pretty decent coverage, almost on par with SingTel 5G network. I have StarHub Prepaid S plan 5G now (migrated from StarHub Happy Prepai Card). I used M1 Maxx 5G for about one month and CL 5G for two months plus.

Occasionally you may need to use the airplane trick to get 5G connection (same for CL 5G and M1 Max 5G) If not, somehow it may stick to M1 4G network.

My experience with StarHub Prepaid S plan (5G) is pretty positive now.

Take note I do not take MRT during peak hours. So my experiences may not cover that type of use cases. Even then I can see eight 4G got severe congestion issues during peak hours.

 

[Mancunian2]

Looks tempting. Need to ask.

Does anyone have experience with Eight and can give a sense of comparison? Am considering porting to CL/M1 due to 5G. Eight's getting worse for me, some places no data even with full bar. I had situations where I couldn't contact clients.

I have $16 left on Eight credits that I am willing to forego (balance from the past promotion) if 5G reception on CL is better than 4G Eight/SH. Not gonna keep a line that doesn't work for me when I need it.

I've been using CL5G and Eight 4G on the same phone since January
of course 5G on CL will be miles better than eight 4G
but when it drops to CL4G, eight 4G is usually better(provided it is not congested)

Currently don't have Eight5G but when I tested in Dec last year, I felt it was slightly better than CL5G

 

[Mancunian2]

Better in terms of speed and less congestion.

Major problem with eight 4G is congestion.

My tests shows StarHub/M1 5G network has pretty decent coverage, almost on par with SingTel 5G network. I have StarHub Prepaid S plan 5G now (migrated from StarHub Happy Prepai Card). I used M1 Maxx 5G for about one month and CL 5G for two months plus.

Occasionally you may need to use the airplane trick to get 5G connection (same for CL 5G and M1 Max 5G) If not, somehow it may stick to M1 4G network.

My experience with StarHub Prepaid S plan (5G) is pretty positive now.

Take note I do not take MRT during peak hours. So my experiences may not cover that type of use cases. Even then I can see eight 4G got severe congestion issues during peak hours.

eight 4G gets congestion even during off peak hour
e.g. AMK central, eight 4G is often unusable during weekends and sometimes weekday evenings

 

[keenklee]

Better in terms of speed and less congestion.

Major problem with eight 4G is congestion.

My tests shows StarHub/M1 5G network has pretty decent coverage, almost on par with SingTel 5G network. I have StarHub Prepaid S plan 5G now (migrated from StarHub Happy Prepai Card). I used M1 Maxx 5G for about one month and CL 5G for two months plus.

Occasionally you may need to use the airplane trick to get 5G connection (same for CL 5G and M1 Max 5G) If not, somehow it may stick to M1 4G network.

My experience with StarHub Prepaid S plan (5G) is pretty positive now.

Take note I do not take MRT during peak hours. So my experiences may not cover that type of use cases. Even then I can see eight 4G got severe congestion issues during peak hours.

IMHO.
I suspect eight 4G congestions is due the the poorer 5G coverage.
My eight 5G seems to like to switch to 4G with every opportunity.
No experience with M1 4G because most of the time my M1 Maxx 5G (previously) hangs onto 5G.

 

[xiaofan]

IMHO.
I suspect eight 4G congestions is due the the poorer 5G coverage.
My eight 5G seems to like to switch to 4G with every opportunity.
No experience with M1 4G because most of the time my M1 Maxx 5G (previously) hangs onto 5G.

No, I am using eight 4G S$8 plan, so eight 5G coverage does not matter here. Often the signal is pretty okay, which means the coverage of Starhub 4G network is not bad, probably better than M1 4G network. One the other hand, M1 4G network has less congestion issues.

If your M1 Maxx 5G network coverage is okay, it will be the same for eight 5G coverage. But eight 5G may have congestion issue as well -- lower priority compared to Starhub 5G plans.

Coverage -- more on the signal strength, related to cell tower
Good signal but no or poor data connection -- congestion (eg: too many users)

 

[keenklee]

No, I am using eight 4G S$8 plan, so eight 5G coverage does not matter here. Often the signal is pretty okay, which means the coverage of Starhub 4G network is not bad, probably better than M1 4G network. One the other hand, M1 4G network has less congestion issues.

If your M1 Maxx 5G network coverage is okay, it will be the same for eight 5G coverage. But eight 5G may have congestion issue as well -- lower priority compared to Starhub 5G plans.

Coverage -- more on the signal strength, related to cell tower
Good signal but no or poor data connection -- congestion (eg: too many users)

IMHO.
I am saying because of the poorer 5G coverage, 5G users fall back to 4G, so affect the 4G users.

 

[firesong]

Better in terms of speed and less congestion.

Major problem with eight 4G is congestion.

My tests shows StarHub/M1 5G network has pretty decent coverage, almost on par with SingTel 5G network. I have StarHub Prepaid S plan 5G now (migrated from StarHub Happy Prepai Card). I used M1 Maxx 5G for about one month and CL 5G for two months plus.

Occasionally you may need to use the airplane trick to get 5G connection (same for CL 5G and M1 Max 5G) If not, somehow it may stick to M1 4G network.

My experience with StarHub Prepaid S plan (5G) is pretty positive now.

Take note I do not take MRT during peak hours. So my experiences may not cover that type of use cases. Even then I can see eight 4G got severe congestion issues during peak hours.

Thank you for sharing. Yes, the congestion can get wild at times. I was at JEM/Westgate/IMM a couple of times for dinner, and had encountered moments Eight just wouldn't load data . iPhone 15, so no slouch.

I've been using CL5G and Eight 4G on the same phone since January
of course 5G on CL will be miles better than eight 4G
but when it drops to CL4G, eight 4G is usually better(provided it is not congested)

Currently don't have Eight5G but when I tested in Dec last year, I felt it was slightly better than CL5G

Thank you. At the same $8 price point, it sounds like CL 5G is the better value proposition if I could only choose one.

Have applied for a SIM.

 

[firesong]

eight 4G gets congestion even during off peak hour
e.g. AMK central, eight 4G is often unusable during weekends and sometimes weekday evenings

Yes. I noticed this too. 2-3 weeks back, was near Clementi central to visit a client at around 3-4pm on a Tuesday, and at one point of time client couldn't WA thru. Eventually, even with a connection, WA call quality was really poor. After that visit, when I hit the peak period, the phone was unusable even for checking bus arrival timings.

I found myself wondering what kind of congestion was expected on a weekday off-peak period.

Hence, I am considering foregoing the credit because of increasing incidences like this. I cannot have a work phone that cannot be reached by clients when I am out.

 

[dexboi]

I also agree M1/Circles connection has been stable "faster than SIMBA" thus far.
No more crazy airplane mode like before Covid period.

Eight on the other hand, is getting heavily throttled.
Not sure if it's Starhub's Mgmt decision to get ppl to upgrade to their new Eight 5G plans.
Kinda bad ethics after they lock in so many ppl's $$$ and whine about not making enough profits.

 

[firesong]

I also agree M1/Circles connection has been stable "faster than SIMBA" thus far.
No more crazy airplane mode like before Covid period.

Eight on the other hand, is getting heavily throttled.
Not sure if it's Starhub's Mgmt decision to get ppl to upgrade to their new Eight 5G plans.
Kinda bad ethics after they lock in so many ppl's $$$ and whine about not making enough profits.

From asking around, I gather that there's also the effect of the 5G network. The joint venture with StarHub) to deploy 5G seems to have helped M1's coverage by a significant margin.

The Airplane toggles were observed more when it was 4G-only, or when your connection falls back to 4G.

 

[Jitter]

Huh? Circo is CL mascot ah?

 

[tuntun]

From asking around, I gather that there's also the effect of the 5G network. The joint venture with StarHub) to deploy 5G seems to have helped M1's coverage by a significant margin.

The Airplane toggles were observed more when it was 4G-only, or when your connection falls back to 4G.

Does this mean...if I am using starhub 5G plans, I can use M1 antenna APs if that area has no starhub AP and M1 also same can access StarHub 5G AP if no M1 AP areas?

 

[firesong]

Does this mean...if I am using starhub 5G plans, I can use M1 antenna APs if that area has no starhub AP and M1 also same can access StarHub 5G AP if no M1 AP areas?

This was announced right at the start of the 5G deployment. What the public knows is, StarHub and M1 jointly deployed the 5G network hardware - they both set up a joint venture named Antina for that, using Nokia hardware.
https://www.frontier-enterprise.com/m1-starhhub-jv-antina-taps-nokia-for-5g-network-in-singapore/

They also set up a 10y partnership with Nokia for this.
https://www.itnews.asia/news/antina-extends-nokia-partnership-for-10-years-591257

How they implement specifics, we are not privy to the details.

Singtel wholly owns their network, so their upfront investment is higher. We don't exactly know what the comparison is: whether SH+M1 = ST, or SH+M1 > ST. However, real-world testing results by OpenSignal over the past few years, along with anecdotal reports of user experience on the ground, suggests about equal performance for all 3, with Singtel apparently having a slight network performance edge somewhat. Simba is excluded.

In a sense, because of Antina, M1 users expect 5G performance to be on par with SH, at least in terms of coverage. Backend systems like routing and other parameters may also have an impact on the final user experience.