Eight Telecom discussion thread

[sango65]

Yes, that is the intention.

But I agree that this is not the best combination. I put it at #3 position. I tend to think it will still be better than #4 and #5 (combination including SIMBA).

1) eight S$14.8 5G + Singtel MVNOs 5G at around S$15

2) M1 Maxx S$12 5G + Singtel MVNOs 5G at around S$15

3) M1 Maxx S$12 5G + eight S$14.8 5G

4) M1 Maxx S$12 5G + SIMBA S$12 5G

5) eight S$14.8 5G + SIMBA S$12 5G

3) M1 Maxx S$12 5G + eight S$14.8 5G

This option is very ideal especially you can play around as follow: -

- m1 Maxx fall back to base plan after 1 month, wait for eight 5G to have 88 days promo and port to eight 5G
- the other eight 5G line port to m1 Maxx thereafter and fall back to base plan
- rinse and repeat

 

[Habrosus]

half of singapore overseas

The other half at home using WiFi.

 

[kitkat2]

guys my eight 4G like not lag anymore previously super lag but now like okay not sure what changed

to have real sense of how Eight perform during high load, better cross bridge and test in Jaybee where most Singaporeans are at right now.

 

[JAYSCS]

Yes, that is the intention.

But I agree that this is not the best combination. I put it at #3 position. I tend to think it will still be better than #4 and #5 (combination including SIMBA).

1) eight S$14.8 5G + Singtel MVNOs 5G at around S$15

2) M1 Maxx S$12 5G + Singtel MVNOs 5G at around S$15

3) M1 Maxx S$12 5G + eight S$14.8 5G

4) M1 Maxx S$12 5G + SIMBA S$12 5G

5) eight S$14.8 5G + SIMBA S$12 5G

There's also a Singtel MVNO 5G+SIMBA 5G combination.

But Simba 5G is NSA right? After 31 Dec 25, it will be left with 4G, so any consideration of 5G network should eliminate Simba as an option i supposed.

 

[xiaofan]

But Simba 5G is NSA right? After 31 Dec 25, it will be left with 4G, so any consideration of 5G network should eliminate Simba as an option i supposed.

No, SIMBA is exempted from the 31 Dec 2025 IMDA directive to shutdown 5G NSA network.

Even for SingTel, I think it cannot meet the target date of 31 Dec 2025 and it will need to extend further to 31 Jan 2026 or even later. I believe 31 Dec 2025 date is not a hard limit.

 

[BBCWatcher]

But Simba 5G is NSA right? After 31 Dec 25, it will be left with 4G, so any consideration of 5G network should eliminate Simba as an option i supposed.

Nope. SIMBA is not currently subject to the 5G NSA deadline. SIMBA didn’t get the spectrum allocation to make a 5G NSA retirement deadline viable.

 

[BBCWatcher]

It’d be nice to have a domestic, Google Fi-style MVNO that aggregates all 4 LTE and all 3 5G networks into one virtual network. Maybe with monthly prices starting at $19. Some people would like that sort of deal.

 

[Honda_typeR]

Basically for local usage, I will stick to my SingTel S$15.28 per month SIM Only Plan (recontract offer, not for new users, not for port-in).

Then for roaming, I will use eight S$8 plan and maybe Shopee data eSIM when necessary.

eight S$8 plan is also a good backup in certain locations for my SingTel main line.

If you got the recent S$88 one to one top-up offer (you can even top up multiple of S$88), then eight S$14.8 per month 5G plan will have the effective price of S$7.4 per month for the durations the top-up can last.

BTW, ST MVNOs had the 50% OFF offer (three months or six months) recently for the S$15-ish 5G plan (and S$10-ish 4G plan with 180 days 5G Access). Quite some M1 Maxx users jumped ship to those plans (Zym, Zero1, VIVIFI and CMLink). Now this offer is over and they start to throw in more roaming data for the Christmas offer with one time extra 50 GB (365 days validity) for Japan, South Korea and Australia.

Initially wanted to port to Zym or Z1.

Then 8 got the $88 promo, so consider half price. I am on the $14.80 plan so guess am stuck for about a year.

 

[vsvs24]

I suggest everyone feedback to IMDA about the signal on MRT since basically all Telcos and MNVO have issues.

Every quarter they passed the Telcos meeting 99% coverage. Don't know which stations they test and timing.

If a certain stretch always have issues, note the stretch and timing, especially if it occurs consistently. Ask them to cover those stretch in their monitoring.

https://www.imda.gov.sg/regulations...ce-to-imda-standards/4g-services/apr-jun-2025

Tunnel Service Coverage
This indicator measures the service coverage for the 4G cellular mobile network within road and MRT tunnels. Tunnel service coverage measures the percentage of data points collected in a tunnel from a 4G cellular mobile network that achieve a minimum signal strength of at least -109dBm. The tunnel areas surveyed by IMDA include all road and MRT tunnels in Singapore. Under IMDA's 4G Service QoS framework, mobile operators are required to achieve a service coverage of > 99% for all road and MRT tunnels. In order to better reflect end users' experience, IMDA uses mobile phones to collect the signal strength data points.


IMDA Contact Centre 6377 3800 or write to info@imda.gov.sg to provide your feedback.

 

[lalachong]

Anybody's eight mobile is down now? Seems like no service....

Location Northpoint Yishun

 

[xiaofan]

Anybody's eight mobile is down now? Seems like no service....

Location Northpoint Yishun

On bus 178 (Woodlands Bus Interchange to Boon Lay Bus Interchange), typing the reply using eight S$8 plan.

Maybe the signal is weak or the congestion is bad at your location.

eight 4G plan may suffer from severe congestion issues at peak hours.

 

[caesium5]

Anybody's eight mobile is down now? Seems like no service....

Location Northpoint Yishun

Working, speedtest 66.9Mbps download at Jurong

 

[gapboy]

Anybody's eight mobile is down now? Seems like no service....

Location Northpoint Yishun

slow data likely cause

 

[xiaofan]

eight 4G plan may suffer from severe congestion issues at peak hours.

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

 

[BBCWatcher]

I suggest everyone feedback to IMDA about the signal on MRT since basically all Telcos and MNVO have issues.
Every quarter they passed the Telcos meeting 99% coverage. Don't know which stations they test and timing....

You posted IMDA's explanation. They test for coverage, i.e. whether there's a signal meeting certain minimum radio reception-related standards. Perhaps they don't test data throughput or network prioritization, or at least that's not what they mean when they report their coverage tests.

OpenSignal reports data throughput and other mobile experience-related metrics based on collected survey data. Their most recent report is from earlier this month. But they only report at the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) level. I don't think they have any data per MVNO or sub-brand.

 

[BBCWatcher]

At Jurong Point KFC now, eight S$8 plan cannot be used at all, cannot even load HWZ forum.
[...]
In this case, I think eight 4G has both weak signal level (-108 dBm, poor signal) and congestion problem.

Maybe, but phones can make weird decisions sometimes. Did you try power cycling the phone to check if that -108 dBm reading persisted?

A better test is two different phones — a Samsung phone and an Apple phone, for example.

Obviously it's possible StarHub has/had a cell site that's out of service in that area. Or more than one.

 

[xiaofan]

Maybe, but phones can make weird decisions sometimes. Did you try power cycling the phone to check if that -108 dBm reading persisted?

A better test is two different phones — a Samsung phone and an Apple phone, for example.

Obviously it's possible StarHub has/had a cell site that's out of service in that area. Or more than one.

I use the airplane trick and it does not help.

The airplane trick usually helps for M1 Maxx 5G plan and CL 5G plan, but not for eight 4G plan.

Unfortunately I do not use either iPhone or Samsung phones. I only use mid-range Android phones. I carried two Poco X7 Pro phones now (Singtel S$15.28 5G plan and SingTel hi! S$10 4G plan; eight S$8 plan and Circles.Life free 5G trial now). The SingTel hi! S$10 plan and Circles.Life 5G free trial plan are just for testing and they will be cancelled soon.

 

[xiaofan]

One of my colleagues just converted from StarHub giga S$15.28 5G plan to StarHub eight S$14.8 5G plan.

He told me the port-in process was super fast, only one hour, then his old number is already working with eight and not giga.

I was showing him the roaming benefits of eight over giga and he agreed that eight is much better for his use cases.

He did not consider the eight 4G plan and I agreed with him since he only wanted to have single line.

 

[BBCWatcher]

I use the airplane trick and it does not help.

That doesn't necessarily work. Try a power cycle if it's a single phone.

By the way, on an iPhone the StarHub 67.0 carrier update is the latest at this moment.

 

[xiaofan]

That doesn't necessarily work. Try a power cycle if it's a single phone.

By the way, on an iPhone the StarHub 67.0 carrier update is the latest at this moment.

Thanks for the tip.

Next time I will try to lower cycle but I do not think it will help.

I can tell you I encountered multiple such issues with eight S$8 plan (I am keeping it as a backup line and also for roaming) and SIMBA S$12 plan (cancelled).

I seldom have such issues with M1 Maxx S$10 5G plan (terminated) and CL 5G trial plan. And usually airplane trick will help for them.

All of my worst OOkla SpeedTest Results are from either eight 4G or SIMBA S$12 plan.

Take note my use cases are not the difficult ones as I do not take MRT during peak hours and I commute to work daily using bus.

I also do not streaming video outside my home in general, only things like Facebook (not watching the videos), HWZ forum, Gmail, web browsing, GitHub, WhatsApp, etc.