Eight Telecom discussion thread

[BBCWatcher]

Signed up with Eight a couple of days ago. Signup was easy. Porting in my number was also super easy. However.... I have no internet (yes the apn is correct and my phone shows 4G connected on their partner network in Malaysia) and I cannot make or receive calls. Weirdly, I can receive SMS. Support is basically non existent if you are out of Singapore and hence looking to port out already! Has anybody done this? Was it smooth?

You might need to be in Singapore (or close enough to Singapore) to connect to a StarHub tower before roaming internationally. Some phones need a "kick" to get the right configuration loaded. In the meantime, you can try manually switching from Maxis to U-Mobile or from U-Mobile to Maxis, as the case may be. You may get better results with Eight's other roaming partner. Also try switching off 5G and see if that helps. If it's an iPhone try going into Settings → About and see if there's a carrier update that's triggered. If so, load that, restart the phone, and see if you get better results.

Thank for your feedback, my basement carpark at Pinnacle@Duxton, not sure if same carpark haha...

I've tried both Eight (StarHub 4G) and SIMBA a few times in that location. Whenever you're in any "deep interior" location the low bands (700/800/900 MHz) will be the most important. If anything gets through it'll be the low bands. SIMBA uses Band 8 for that purpose, but some phones might try to hang onto a higher band even if it has a weaker signal. You can try disabling 5G to see if your phone does any better; sometimes that helps.

My anecdotal experience is that SIMBA was quite weak in that particular location (particularly in the lift at the lowest level) but has significantly improved there. StarHub 4G is as good as anything, but you'll get better results if your phone also supports Band 28 (which StarHub also uses). It almost certainly does. Band 8 and 28 are very common. I haven't found many LTE 4G capable phones that don't support both Band 8 and 28. That said, that location (the basement of Pinnacle@Duxton) is among the toughest for mobile carriers to serve. It's like a bunker in there! I suppose it's possible to install one or a few microcells in that location, but I'm not sure if any carriers do that.

As an aside, I visited the top of Pinnacle@Duxton and instead of connecting to a StarHub tower my phone switched to one of the Malaysian mobile carriers (Maxis I think). That was really weird...and weirdly impressive in a way. That's the only time I've ever seen such an oddity when so far away from Malaysia. I didn't observe that oddity on a SIMBA phone.

 

[armadilloshield]

You might need to be in Singapore (or close enough to Singapore) to connect to a StarHub tower before roaming internationally. Some phones need a "kick" to get the right configuration loaded. In the meantime, you can try manually switching from Maxis to U-Mobile or from U-Mobile to Maxis, as the case may be. You may get better results with Eight's other roaming partner. Also try switching off 5G and see if that helps. If it's an iPhone try going into Settings → About and see if there's a carrier update that's triggered. If so, load that, restart the phone, and see if you get better results.

I've tried both Eight (StarHub 4G) and SIMBA a few times in that location. Whenever you're in any "deep interior" location the low bands (700/800/900 MHz) will be the most important. If anything gets through it'll be the low bands. SIMBA uses Band 8 for that purpose, but some phones might try to hang onto a higher band even if it has a weaker signal. You can try disabling 5G to see if your phone does any better; sometimes that helps.

My anecdotal experience is that SIMBA was quite weak in that particular location (particularly in the lift at the lowest level) but has significantly improved there. StarHub 4G is as good as anything, but you'll get better results if your phone also supports Band 28 (which StarHub also uses). It almost certainly does. Band 8 and 28 are very common. I haven't found many LTE 4G capable phones that don't support both Band 8 and 28. That said, that location (the basement of Pinnacle@Duxton) is among the toughest for mobile carriers to serve. It's like a bunker in there! I suppose it's possible to install one or a few microcells in that location, but I'm not sure if any carriers do that.

As an aside, I visited the top of Pinnacle@Duxton and instead of connecting to a StarHub tower my phone switched to one of the Malaysian mobile carriers (Maxis I think). That was really weird...and weirdly impressive in a way. That's the only time I've ever seen such an oddity when so far away from Malaysia. I didn't observe that oddity on a SIMBA phone.

Thanks for the very detailed info.
My phone the default is 5G Auto, I tried to set LTE still no signal.
I'm not sure if my iphone 15 supports bands 8 & 28.
and you're right, even from home, above 30 floors, sometimes I suddenly connect to Indo Telco, I guess signal from Batam.
Last year at the Fullerton Hotel basement carpark, my SIMBA had no signal, but my friend Starhub had a full bar

 

[loganrunning]

I'm not sure if my iphone 15 supports bands 8 & 28.

"network signal guru" can show the connected bands.

Last year at the Fullerton Hotel basement carpark, my SIMBA had no signal, but my friend Starhub had a full bar

eight is on starhub, so that may be a glimmer of hope

 

[tanchoo1]

Thanks for the very detailed info.
My phone the default is 5G Auto, I tried to set LTE still no signal.
I'm not sure if my iphone 15 supports bands 8 & 28.
and you're right, even from home, above 30 floors, sometimes I suddenly connect to Indo Telco, I guess signal from Batam.
Last year at the Fullerton Hotel basement carpark, my SIMBA had no signal, but my friend Starhub had a full bar

Hi,

You may wish to double-check the following:

1. Do you have an active plan? Login to your Eight account at https://account.eight.com.sg/login to confirm.
2. Eight is 4G only with VoLTE, so the best setting is to set your network to connect to 4G only. Ensure that VoLTE is enabled as well.

After doing so, please restart your phone and try again.

 

[BBCWatcher]

I'm not sure if my iphone 15 supports bands 8 & 28.

All iPhone 15 models, no matter where they're purchased, support LTE 4G bands 8 and 28.

and you're right, even from home, above 30 floors, sometimes I suddenly connect to Indo Telco, I guess signal from Batam.

Interesting! You might be able to prevent that by disabling roaming.

Last year at the Fullerton Hotel basement carpark, my SIMBA had no signal, but my friend Starhub had a full bar

Every mobile carrier will have weak or dead spots. SIMBA had more weak or dead spots while they were building out their network, but they've gotten pretty good now. SIMBA could actually be the best overall carrier aboard MRT trains now, for example.

Note that network coverage can be very dynamic. You might have a decent signal in a particular location on a Friday at 8:38 PM then not get a signal in the same spot 3 days or 3 hours later.

FWIW WhistleOut (based on OpenSignal data) thinks StarHub had the best network overall in Singapore in December, 2024. Eight Telecom operates over StarHub's network. But your experience can definitely vary.

 

[froztheart]

You might need to be in Singapore (or close enough to Singapore) to connect to a StarHub tower before roaming internationally. Some phones need a "kick" to get the right configuration loaded. In the meantime, you can try manually switching from Maxis to U-Mobile or from U-Mobile to Maxis, as the case may be. You may get better results with Eight's other roaming partner. Also try switching off 5G and see if that helps. If it's an iPhone try going into Settings → About and see if there's a carrier update that's triggered. If so, load that, restart the phone, and see if you get better results.

I've tried both Eight (StarHub 4G) and SIMBA a few times in that location. Whenever you're in any "deep interior" location the low bands (700/800/900 MHz) will be the most important. If anything gets through it'll be the low bands. SIMBA uses Band 8 for that purpose, but some phones might try to hang onto a higher band even if it has a weaker signal. You can try disabling 5G to see if your phone does any better; sometimes that helps.

My anecdotal experience is that SIMBA was quite weak in that particular location (particularly in the lift at the lowest level) but has significantly improved there. StarHub 4G is as good as anything, but you'll get better results if your phone also supports Band 28 (which StarHub also uses). It almost certainly does. Band 8 and 28 are very common. I haven't found many LTE 4G capable phones that don't support both Band 8 and 28. That said, that location (the basement of Pinnacle@Duxton) is among the toughest for mobile carriers to serve. It's like a bunker in there! I suppose it's possible to install one or a few microcells in that location, but I'm not sure if any carriers do that.

As an aside, I visited the top of Pinnacle@Duxton and instead of connecting to a StarHub tower my phone switched to one of the Malaysian mobile carriers (Maxis I think). That was really weird...and weirdly impressive in a way. That's the only time I've ever seen such an oddity when so far away from Malaysia. I didn't observe that oddity on a SIMBA phone.

Managed to connect to Maxis at Pinnacle?!

 

[armadilloshield]

Managed to connect to Maxis at Pinnacle?!

for me I can't see Maxis network, but I can connect to IND TELKOMSEL

 

[froztheart]

for me I can't see Maxis network, but I can connect to IND TELKOMSEL

Seems like if want to test roaming in neighbouring countries can to head over to Pinnacle.

 

[BBCWatcher]

Managed to connect to Maxis at Pinnacle?!

Seems like if want to test roaming in neighbouring countries can to head over to Pinnacle.

Pinnacle@Duxton's upper observation desk is about 150 meters up. Cellmapper.net indicates Maxis uses a couple towers physically located on Singaporean territory, near the Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints. They both support low band LTE. The line of sight between Pinnacle@Duxton and Tuas is particularly clear and unobstructed, so maybe that's the tower my phone selected. That tower supposedly uses LTE Band 5 (850 MHz), and I don't think any of the carriers in Singapore use that band. My hunch (only that) is that my phone decided at that moment that a "clean" connection to a LTE Band 5 tower was better than a "messy" swarm of StarHub towers.

 

[kitkat2]

Pinnacle@Duxton's upper observation desk is about 150 meters up. Cellmapper.net indicates Maxis uses a couple towers physically located on Singaporean territory, near the Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints. They both support low band LTE. The line of sight between Pinnacle@Duxton and Tuas is particularly clear and unobstructed, so maybe that's the tower my phone selected. That tower supposedly uses LTE Band 5 (850 MHz), and I don't think any of the carriers in Singapore use that band. My hunch (only that) is that my phone decided at that moment that a "clean" connection to a LTE Band 5 tower was better than a "messy" swarm of StarHub towers.

AFAIK, Maxis doesn't have LTE Band 5. Only Unifi offers LTE Band 5 mainly for rural access due to its wide coverage.

 

[BBCWatcher]

AFAIK, Maxis doesn't have LTE Band 5. Only Unifi offers LTE Band 5 mainly for rural access due to its wide coverage.

I can't swear it was Maxis, but that's my recollection.

Cellmapper.net might not be correct, but FWIW they have a tower that Maxis uses depicted at that location with LTE Band 5. It certainly could be a Unifi (Telekom Malaysia) tower that they roam onto perhaps as a special case.

I have no idea which tower my phone roamed onto at that odd moment. I'm just looking at the closest tower that might've been involved, but that's pure speculation. There are other towers that are almost as close.

 

[globalcookie]

my guess (not tested roaming in Indonesia yet) is if no VoLTE roaming -==> no voice calls in/out.
probably also no non-VoLTE calls either (more expensive so unlikely eight will pay for this and give us for free)

me going to JKT in Apr, so will test it out -- prepared for no roaming calls, but not a big deal.

Optimistic (hopeful) case: maybe it works but PDF not updated.


let us know the result on your next visit to Indonesia

A friend used Eight in Jakarta, no problem with data. Can call out/in with WhatsApp. Not sure about calls with phone line.

 

[loganrunning]

A friend used Eight in Jakarta, no problem with data. Can call out/in with WhatsApp. Not sure about calls with phone line.

yup, the above is consistent with roaming data, but still not known for VoLTE calls
if not able to call (via phone), then it is confirmed per eight's FAQ.

 

[jase07]

I just ported in because of CNY deal. Just wondering how's the roaming in Malaysia? Good?

 

[kitkat2]

I just ported in because of CNY deal. Just wondering how's the roaming in Malaysia? Good?

pretty usable. ping latency around 120ms. let see how it perform during weekend when singaporeans flock across the border 🫣

 

[kennycai]

Anyone transferring to Eight plan with port in number have problem receiving the OTP?

Is the OTP sent to your email or SMS?

I tried numerous times but still can't receive the OTP hmm,anyone can help?

 

[froztheart]

Anyone transferring to Eight plan with port in number have problem receiving the OTP?

Is the OTP sent to your email or SMS?

I tried numerous times but still can't receive the OTP hmm,anyone can help?

Just port over to Eight?
If yes, usually porting need give a few days minimum so that all the services are done most of the time.

 

[kennycai]

Today is Sat,signed up on Last Mon,received the Sim card on Wed,delayed the activation till today hmm

 

[DenOOO]

Applied on Sunday 2nd Feb, letterbox still empty... got chance lost mail ...?

Email them or wait for their FAQ 7 working days ?

Anybody kena before ?

*Received

 

[froztheart]

Applied on Sunday 2nd Feb, letterbox still empty... got chance lost mail ...?

Email them or wait for their FAQ 7 working days ?

Anybody kena before ?

Suggest to contact ST to clarify.
Singpost is their partner so chance of losing it is....