Circles.Life Discussion Thread

[xiaofan]

update:

conctacted live chat, they said that my $5.30 1tb plan is a "unlimited plan", so any access data usage is capped at a fair use policy of 1024GB.

then i told them i couldnt even use calls and sms because my line shows emergency calls only, they tried to fix it and gave me extra 250gb data, but it didnt fix the no signal issue. Asked me contact them later to see if the problem is still there.

lol going in circles already, haha my turn to experience it now. phone as of now shows emergency calls only and in the app shows 509gb left of 1.5tb but cannot be used at all.

So you are not using it as a replacement of Fibre Internet yet you are able to consume 1024GB, that is really a high data usage.

You are supposed to be at 125 Kbps managed speed after that. You may still be able to browse some simple websites and use WhatsApp to send text messages.

Good that they give you extra data.

The stop of calls and SMS looks like a bug in their backend.

 

[xiaofan]

Circles.Life article comparing different "unlimited" data plans. It will of course not mention the S$5.3 "hidden" plan but only the 300GB (1TB 5G rollover) plan at S$30.36 per month.
https://www.circles.life/sg/blog/is-unlimited-data-really-unlimited/

With the new Singtel 5G+ Enhanced Core plan at S$40 with Unlimited local data, and StarHub 5G Unlimited+ Core plan at S$38 (unlimited local data, unlimited local calls and IDD calls, unlimited roaming calls), I do not think it makes sense to go with the above plan at S$30.36 per month.

But then Circles.Life may have promotions like the S$5.3 for 1TB 4G plan for those who need large amount of local data.

From A7997A for CL 5G offer:
S$9.90 for one year - 5G 0.98TB with 8GB roaming PRT1TB990OO3YK/PRT1TB9904T84Q

From A7997A for CL 4G offer:
This is a better code : PRT1TBX5NOICS, 1TB 4G forever for $5.30

 

[OutBreak]

update:

conctacted live chat, they said that my $5.30 1tb plan is a "unlimited plan", so any access data usage is capped at a fair use policy of 1024GB.

then i told them i couldnt even use calls and sms because my line shows emergency calls only, they tried to fix it and gave me extra 250gb data, but it didnt fix the no signal issue. Asked me contact them later to see if the problem is still there.

lol going in circles already, haha my turn to experience it now. phone as of now shows emergency calls only and in the app shows 509gb left of 1.5tb but cannot be used at all.

Thanks for testing for us. Just kidding..

 

[JAYSCS]

my data stopped completely at 259gb/1.3tb.

my christmas present was not real

I have no objection of the unfair use of data policy. But it should be the case whereby one exceeds daily usage instead of exceeding monthly usage. If it applies to monthly usage, what is the point of giving 250GB Christmas promo to 1TB plan?!

 

[JAYSCS]

my bad habits haha leaving the video playing, it is partially my fault. somemore how much i paying only.

anyway hopefully soneone dont exceed 1tb because you wont get any signal after that.

they contacted me via email again but their solution was to buy a $3.03 5GB boost and asked me to request a free waiver when i am charged. because it is hard to bypass their system

I wonder why adding 5G boost will work? The system should detect your total data usage exceeded the fair use quota, regardless 4G or 5G right? Do update here whether it works?

 

[guyz92]

Not the $7.06 5G add on. the +5gb $3.03 local data add on will be charged immediately then waived in the upcoming bill, maybe january bill, maybe feburary bill, who knows maybe even never. i didnt want to do that so now i still have no signal

anyway i have a second circles $3.30 plan + my eight line to tide me over this 5 days before next reset so not the end of the world. the no signal line was my spare data line. im willing to forfeit the remaing data since it was said free in the first place. just a little dissapointed that i cant use it and have to work around by paying extra then later maybe waived to get it working.

Your $5.30 CL sim card is installed on what device?

If you are not getting any signal, your phone may be blocked from making the data connectivity because the 'ia' (Initial Attach) APN is pointing to "sunsurf" which was blocked from Making any Data Connection because you burst the data limit.

You can try pointing the Initial Attach to "IMS" APN.

IMS APN is used for VoLTE, can also be used for Initial Attach.
This way at least you can get SMS and VoLTE working.

If is Android, you can try to create a new APN:
APN Name = ims
APN Value= ims
APN Type= ims,ia

 

[xiaofan]

you know whats even weirder, i tried your suggestion and my 4G signal came back suddenly, but with no 4G data icon. I reset the APN, it shows emergency calls only.

Then i try switching on my 5G (i activated the 2 months free trial earlier) and it was working perfectly. I switched back to 4G and the signal disappeared again.

its like i am barred from using the 4G signal. So now my 1tb line only can connect to 5G SA. Interesting....

That is possible because 5G SA and 4G use two different core network. The 4G core network blocks you but not the 5G core network.

You can carry out an experiment to see if my hypothesis is correct or not.

Enable 5G but disable SA to see if you can connect to 5G NSA or not.

If my hypothesis is correct, you will not be able to connect to 5G NSA either as it uses 5G Radio Access Network (same for 5G SA) but 4G core network (different for 5G SA).

 

[xiaofan]

turned off 5G SA, sure enough, no service.

turn it back on, 5G came back.

same as when i forced 4G/3G only.

looks like it is true, i am barred from using 4G for the rest of the month

i am kind of happy because at least i can kind of use the remaining data now. just that i have to use 5G instead.

It seems like was counting the 1024gb fair use usage as 4G data. i did some speedtest over 5G which kind of explains why the data was used over 1024gb

Great. Thanks a lot for the confirmation.

Now I feel that I am not wasting time watching some YouTube technical videos about the ABCs of 5G/4G/3G/2G mobile network architecture.

 

[xiaofan]

Another thing, unfortunately CL does not seem to support VoWiFi based on my own testing.

If CL supports VoWiFi, then you can use VoWiFi to use the remaining voice call entitlement even if your 4G data connection is not working.

 

[xiaofan]

CL 5G can be much faster than 4G.

My test at about 6 pm at Jurong Point KFC where I had issues with eight S$8 4G plan due to poor signal and probably also congestion of StarHub 4G network.

M1 4G network seems to be much less congested, compared to StarHub 4G network.

At Jurong Point KFC now, eight S$8 plan cannot be used at all, cannot even load HWZ forum.

I have to switch to Circles.Life to post this reply.

In this case, I think eight 4G has both weak signal level (-108 dBm, poor signal) and congestion problem.

Speedtest: two times failed, one time with 0.01 Mbps upload speed.

Circles.Life has very good signal. Both 4G and 5G have no issues. Speedtest is also very fast for 5G and decent for 4G.

eight 4G: two times failed to load the test, 3rd time with the following poor result.

CL 4G

CL 5G

 

[guyz92]

Another thing, unfortunately CL does not seem to support VoWiFi based on my own testing.

If CL supports VoWiFi, then you can use VoWiFi to use the remaining voice call entitlement even if your 4G data connection is not working.

Circles Life VoWifi is working when I tried it last time.

VoWiFi support is depending on the Phone Modem Firmware support.
The VoWiFi setting for M1 is not following the standard URL format.

This also applicable for other Telco as well.

My Poco M3 Pro 5G (MediaTek Dimensity 700) is able to get both M1 and Simba VoWifi to work.

While my higher end phone Poco F6 Pro (Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) M1 VoWifi Working and Simba VoWifi not working.

 

[Mancunian2]

Circles Life VoWifi is working when I tried it last time.

VoWiFi support is depending on the Phone Modem Firmware support.
The VoWiFi setting for M1 is not following the standard URL format.

This also applicable for other Telco as well.

My Poco M3 Pro 5G (MediaTek Dimensity 700) is able to get both M1 and Simba VoWifi to work.

While my higher end phone Poco F6 Pro (Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) M1 VoWifi Working and Simba VoWifi not working.

last time when I had the $0 circles plan, I could use vowifi

but it seems this feature has been removed in the recent newer plans

 

[xiaofan]

Circles Life VoWifi is working when I tried it last time.

VoWiFi support is depending on the Phone Modem Firmware support.
The VoWiFi setting for M1 is not following the standard URL format.

This also applicable for other Telco as well.

My Poco M3 Pro 5G (MediaTek Dimensity 700) is able to get both M1 and Simba VoWifi to work.

While my higher end phone Poco F6 Pro (Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) M1 VoWifi Working and Simba VoWifi not working.

Thanks for the info.

Tested Poco X6 Pro, X7 Pro and Poco C85, CL and SIMBA do not work at all with VoWiFi.

eight VoWiFi works on Poco C85 and Poco X7 Pro, but not Poco X6 Pro.

Singtel SIM Only and M1 Maxx VoWiFi work across all three phones.

 

[A7997A]

Circles Life VoWifi is working when I tried it last time.

VoWiFi support is depending on the Phone Modem Firmware support.
The VoWiFi setting for M1 is not following the standard URL format.

This also applicable for other Telco as well.

My Poco M3 Pro 5G (MediaTek Dimensity 700) is able to get both M1 and Simba VoWifi to work.

While my higher end phone Poco F6 Pro (Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) M1 VoWifi Working and Simba VoWifi not working.

Do you remember when was that that you have CL VoWIfi working ? And with which phone ?

I wasn't able to get it working with 2 iPhone & 2 Samsung phones, including relatively recent S23+ & iPhone 14.
Moreover all of these were able to work with VoWifi for Maxx, which is also M1 based.

 

[JAYSCS]

Not the $7.06 5G add on. the +5gb $3.03 local data add on will be charged immediately then waived in the upcoming bill, maybe january bill, maybe feburary bill, who knows maybe even never. i didnt want to do that so now i still have no signal

anyway i have a second circles $3.30 plan + my eight line to tide me over this 5 days before next reset so not the end of the world. the no signal line was my spare data line. im willing to forfeit the remaing data since it was said "free" in the first place. just a little dissapointed that i cant use the remaining "free" data and have to work around by paying extra then later maybe waived to get it working.

Nevertheless, either add-on options, it seems to me it will not work as it is about data quota not type of network used.

Note: ignore my above statement as I did not read the above discussions that confirmed the data quota is indeed imposed on 4G network only. But then again, what is the logic of the system? It doesn't serve the purpose at all about fair usage as one can still get away with it?

 

[xiaofan]

Just want to double confirm if this is still the case or not.

It is not very clear from my Nov 2025 Circles.Life bill that it deducted two months of subscription fees as my plan is free three months 5G trial.

https://circlesasiasupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003837793-What-does-No-contract-mean

Circle Life straight away charged you two months of subscription fee upon sign up.
You are free to go after the minimum period, no penalty.

 

[FlyGuardX]

Just want to double confirm if this is still the case or not.

It is not very clear from my Nov 2025 Circles.Life bill that it deducted two months of subscription fees as my plan is free three months 5G trial.

I will know end of month. How about porting out to eight mobile to get that free 88 days?

 

[jayz89]

How long before I could port out of CL ?

just port in this morning. If nothing fails i could continue but if its bad then i guess i will be on my way out to 8. Lol

i chose esim but my number seems still not ported out yet. Ususally how long ?

 

[xiaofan]

How long before I could port out of CL ?

just port in this morning. If nothing fails i could continue but if its bad then i guess i will be on my way out to 8. Lol

i chose esim but my number seems still not ported out yet. Ususally how long ?

Port-in will usually take 1 to 3 working days. Most likely it will be okay for you tomorrow.

As per the following post, you can port out after two months. But the article was updated one year ago, not sure if there are any changes now (say can port out immediately but need to pay two months charges).

https://circlesasiasupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003837793-What-does-No-contract-mean

Circle Life straight away charged you two months of subscription fee upon sign up.
You are free to go after the minimum period, no penalty.

https://circlesasiasupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003837793-What-does-No-contract-mean

Unlike traditional telcos, we don't lock you in to two-year mobile plans. The minimum period you have to stay with us is only two months since our first bill immediately charge you for the first and second month, which gives you the freedom to try Circles.Life out. You should be able to schedule for termination as long as you pay your first bill with us.

If our services aren't meeting your mobile needs, you can cancel your plan after the minimum period. No fuss and no need to pull your hair out over two years because you're stuck in a contract with an unsatisfactory mobile plan.

What's even better, No-contract means you get to tweak your plan monthly, based on your mobile needs. We let your mobile plan grow with you and your changing needs.

 

[xiaofan]

Other no-contract SIM Only plans with port-out limitations I know of.

1. SIMBA
https://support.simba.sg/hc/en-us/sections/4416126079769-Porting
https://support.simba.sg/hc/en-us/articles/5020380241561-Is-there-a-fee-when-I-port-out-from-SIMBA

An activation fee of $30 is chargeable for port-out within 30 days of plan activation.
Porting out of lucky number? Please refer to the terms and conditions here.

2. Zym
https://zym.sg/faq/port-in/
You can terminate your plan and port out your number after 2 months, as per our Terms and Conditions (Minimal subscription for a non-contract plan is 2-month).