Eight Telecom discussion thread

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hereiam7788

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xiaofan said:
Are you using Eight 5G or Eight 4G?

I admit I have not been to Malaysia for very long already. I do not like to take long distance bus/car trip due to motion sickness.
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eight 4G.

roaming will get both 4G and 5G as long as the roaming partners does provide it regardless ur plan is 4G or 5G.

this happens to vivifi also.
 
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Cedric7

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xiaofan said:
That is probably location dependant.

So far I seldom encounter such issues with Singtel SIM Only and M1 Maxx.

Most of the time I can get 5G SA or 5G NSA. On in a few places it will fall back to 4G LTE. And rarely there would be no signals at all (eg: in some lifts).

So most of the time I have to force my phone to use 4G to really compare 4G speed with 5G speed. And most of the time 5G speed is faster than 4G.

I may change my Eight 4G to Eight 5G for one month in Jan 2026 to check if Eight 5G is really so bad. I don't think so based on my experience with M1 Maxx since Eight 5G is using the same 5G networks as M1 Maxx.
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Will be porting out by this week and can see the difference from there
 
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xiaofan

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hereiam7788 said:
eight 4G.

roaming will get both 4G and 5G as long as the roaming partners does provide it regardless ur plan is 4G or 5G.

this happens to vivifi also.
Click to expand...

Nice, I will test roaming in China during my short trip next month. I am using Eight 4G (S$8 plan). I will compare the roaming performance of Eight 4G versus M1 Maxx S$10 plan. Maybe I will check out SIMBA S$12 plan as well.

I will see if I can get 5G or 4G from Eight partner network (China Mobile, with VoLTE support).
https://www.eight.com.sg/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/eight-Roaming-Destinations.pdf
 
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xiaofan

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galvin said:
If i buy roaming data for use in China on my eight sim, can i still use WhatsApp and Facebook in China?
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Basically roaming is the best way to bypass the Great Firewall (GFW) in China, especially for short term visit.

More detailed info here.
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/threads/go-hk-and-china-what-sim-card-to-get.7165769/page-4

xiaofan said:
Indeed using foreign SIM/eSIM card is one effective way to bypass the Great Firewall (GFW).

Common VPNs do not work well in general (eg: Nord VPN, Surfshark VPN, ExpressVPN, etc) despite some fake sponsored reviews.

Setting up a VPN Server like WireGuard on the home router in Singapore may serve as a usable VPN to bypass the GFW but may not work well after a few days. I have tried this myself.

Then there are many websites teaching people how to set up servers on the VPS to bypass GFW (need to buy a domain name and a VPS package). Last time I tried using free Oracle VPS instance (Seattle) but the speed was a bit slow.

Or buy the so called "airport机场" service if one needs to stay in China for longer duration.

To most of the people here, I think roaming is still the best, especially for infrequent visit.

But it is good to maintain a China mobile number if you need to visit China from time to time. Then if possible, it is also good to set up a local bank account to link to WeChat Pay or AliPay. Top up the bank account using cash or other method during your visits.
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A7997A

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hereiam7788 said:
eight 4G.

roaming will get both 4G and 5G as long as the roaming partners does provide it regardless ur plan is 4G or 5G.

this happens to vivifi also.
Click to expand...
Maxx and z1 did get 5G in Taiwan Chunghwa (z1 taiwan mobie as well), but eight 4G plan remains stuck on 4G, not once was 5G observed. This is tested on 2 diff phones,both with 5G preferred selected, the result is consisent.

Don't have eight 5G so can't comment if it is an issue with eight in general or eight 4G.
 
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cherynsq

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to be honest, i feel that 8's 4g now is more reliable than the past. previously was bad.

anyway i bought the 5g zero1 to try out as i have 2 phones now, 1 for own and 1 for work. so looking forward to the 5G as the 5g m1 maxx really cmi. im clocking 400mbps on speedtest but when i launch carousell, or even hwz, its very slow
 
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im heading to shanghai end of this year for disneyland with my bestie .

1 will be bringing 8's $8 plan and zero1 5g plan.

all in all i should have 10gb + 20gb = 30gb for the 1 week china trip

regards to IDD calls, meaning outgoing calls say for didi or food delivery app, should i use the one from 8? since zero1 dont seems to have IDD in their streamo freedom plan
 
napster79

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cherynsq said:
im heading to shanghai end of this year for disneyland with my bestie .

1 will be bringing 8's $8 plan and zero1 5g plan.

all in all i should have 10gb + 20gb = 30gb for the 1 week china trip

regards to IDD calls, meaning outgoing calls say for didi or food delivery app, should i use the one from 8? since zero1 dont seems to have IDD in their streamo freedom plan
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Your eight's $8 plan only has 2GB of china data - china falls under the global category.

As for IDD calls, just use eight. Whether you call china local number or singapore, it will be deducted from your free IDD call mins.
 
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xiaofan

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napster79 said:
Your eight's $8 plan only has 2GB of china data - china falls under the global category.

As for IDD calls, just use eight. Whether you call china local number or singapore, it will be deducted from your free IDD call mins.
Click to expand...

Good point.

cherynsq said:
regards to IDD calls, meaning outgoing calls say for didi or food delivery app, should i use the one from 8? since zero1 dont seems to have IDD in their streamo freedom plan
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If you want to try Zero1, prepare to pay a fortune.

Only SIMBA, Eight and new Starhub 5G Unlimited+ (not including 5G Lite plan) and 5G Platinum plans will support free voice roaming. But those StarHub's plans are expensive, from S$38 per month onwards.

A7997A said:
There are basically 3 ways roaming voice call are handled :

1) Free : only Simba & eight

2) Pay per use - you pay through the roof to answer a call :
All MNO except Simba,
Singtel based MVNO that are not directly owned by Singtel,
Starhub based MVNO that are not directly owned by Starhub
Circle.Life

If you do not intend to answer & pay for incoming calls while roaming using this group of providers, recommend enabling redirect ALL calls to another number that can either answer for free or can ring without concern.

3) Roaming calls are blocked, there is no option to receive a roaming call :
MVNO owned direct by Traffic light telco (except eight) - Gomo/Heya, Giga,Maxx,
Changi Mobile & Geenet.

Gomo FAQ did mentioned that (pay per use ?) roaming on 3G is still available, it is unclear if that applies to Heya/Giga/Maxx.
Click to expand...
 
cherynsq

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when i was signing up ZERO1, i opt for the NO INTERNATIONAL CALL / SMS.

but is there anyway to check that they have set it correctly? I dont want endup having to bankrupt my bank just because people call me while im overseas
 
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cherynsq said:
when i was signing up ZERO1, i opt for the NO INTERNATIONAL CALL / SMS.
but is there anyway to check that they have set it correctly? I dont want endup having to bankrupt my bank just because people call me while im overseas
Click to expand...

check in z1 thread ? should show in the app under service management
 
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