Eight Telecom discussion thread

[JAYSCS]

That is of course correct.

Weak 5G signal can be much worse than strong 4G signal. This can happen across the providers in Singapore.

Heavily congested 5G can be much worse than a less congested 4G. But in Singapore, StarHub 4G network tends to be much more congested than StarHub 4G network.

It could be a different story when 5G NSA shut down, the network situation may vary in future. 5G SA is not good at retaining signal due to its weak wall penetration.

 

[JAYSCS]

Why yearly cannot pay with main balance

Because you cannot expect Eight allows you to get plans discounted twice, the margin is thin enough for them. But as competition stiffen, who know they may have to.

 

[JAYSCS]

I think a MVNO ought to try a split allocation offer to see if that works competitively — for example, 288GB total data per month but with up to 8GB at 5G speeds, thereafter at 4G speeds. Price that split allocation somewhere in between the current 4G and 5G price offers. (Those who don't want to use their 5G allocations right away can simply disable 5G on their phones until they're ready.) This approach might be a way to persuade some price sensitive customers to pay a little more.

Maybe redONE or Circles.Life could try this?

On second thought, this is not viable as 5G SA will be constantly switched back and forth with 4G network, so how the system computes such data plan calculation? That is why the system will only have plans like normal speed and throttled speed category and not splitting network tier in a plan.

 

[sibeiTrolled]

But I got $280 in my main balance

Then either
- sub to the plans and let it drain monthly
- or sub to the 1 year plan and use those 280 for add-ons

 

[OnePunch!!]

Then either
- sub to the plans and let it drain monthly
- or sub to the 1 year plan and use those 280 for add-ons

though main. balance can't be use to pay for the 1year promotion?

 

[sibeiTrolled]

though main. balance can't be use to pay for the 1year promotion?

Ya, cannot.

Let me rephrase
- Sub to the monthly plans and let it drain
- Or buy the 1 year plan with your own money and use those 280 to purchase roaming addons or other addons

 

[hereiam7788]

Not forget to mention, there is sentimental values and nostalgia vibe for older devices, the exiting of 2G, 3G and future 4G networks is really not a good news to me at all.

i think likely 4G is still going to stay for quite a while.

Achieving the same indoor coverage with 5G as 4G is significantly more difficult, often requiring 10 to 100 times more infrastructure density, depending on the frequency band used.

4G first launch in 2012, and it takes all the way until 2020 for 4G to be well-established as the primary, highly stable network across Singapore, with availability often exceeding 90–95%.

you can imagine how long will it take for 5G to fully cover indoor before they can eliminate 4G.
not only they need significantly more cell towers to cover than 4G due to the frequency band used by 5G but also it costs more to implement 5G than 4G as well.

 

[xiaofan]

i think likely 4G is still going to stay for quite a while.

Achieving the same indoor coverage with 5G as 4G is significantly more difficult, often requiring 10 to 100 times more infrastructure density, depending on the frequency band used.

4G first launch in 2012, and it takes all the way until 2020 for 4G to be well-established as the primary, highly stable network across Singapore, with availability often exceeding 90–95%.

you can imagine how long will it take for 5G to fully cover indoor before they can eliminate 4G.
not only they need significantly more cell towers to cover than 4G due to the frequency band used by 5G but also it costs more to implement 5G than 4G as well.

Most likely 4G will only be gone until 2032 but the user experiences may deteoriate significant after 2030 or even a bit early when 6G starts deployment.

 

[koohansen]

Most likely 4G will only be gone until 2032 but the user experiences may deteoriate significant after 2030 or even a bit early when 6G starts deployment.

looking at how our stat board respond to phasing out old tech, I doubt so.
3G is not fully shutdown yet, because of them
2009, when I was doing my NS, I still see Windows NT 3.51 and 486 machines being used in military

 

[Panerex]

In Shenzhen now…keeps not able to manually connect to China Mobile to make VOLTE calls though my phone settings are properly set up.

can only connect to China Telecom

 

[xiaofan]

So far I have not been able to achieve the following good download speed record (360.77 Mbps) from eight 4G S$8 plan

This morning StarHub 4G speed is very fast, beating my own 4G speed record.

Poco X7 Pro
Jurong Point JP2 B1, in front of StarHub Shop.

1. Eight S$8 4G Plan:
360.77 Mbps download
28.32 Mbps upload
14 ms idle ping
https://www.speedtest.net/result/a/11307307507

2. CUniq S$9.9 4G Plan
333 Mbps download
48.68 Mbps upload
14 ms idle ping
https://www.speedtest.net/result/a/11307306500

 

[yujin86]

I am at chengdu now, only can connect to China Unicom.

In Shenzhen now…keeps not able to manually connect to China Mobile to make VOLTE calls though my phone settings are properly set up.

can only connect to China Telecom

 

[Panerex]

I am at chengdu now, only can connect to China Unicom.

Sianz…that means cannot make local China phone calls.

Did you get separate local China +86 number to order meituan food delivery?

 

[yujin86]

No. Just ask hotel lobby got any mobile number to use for meituan. Rmb to remark communicate through app only.

Sianz…that means cannot make local China phone calls.

Did you get separate local China +86 number to order meituan food delivery?

 

[Mancunian2]

I am at chengdu now, only can connect to China Unicom.

Eight roaming partner is only China Mobile,
how come you connect to Unicom?

 

[loganrunning]

looking at how our stat board respond to phasing out old tech, I doubt so.
3G is not fully shutdown yet, because of them
2009, when I was doing my NS, I still see Windows NT 3.51 and 486 machines being used in military

if you do chance upon maintenance work being done on some ATMs here, and then hang around to watch them boot up, you will see the Win NT boot splash screen.

 

[xiaofan]

In Shenzhen now…keeps not able to manually connect to China Mobile to make VOLTE calls though my phone settings are properly set up.

can only connect to China Telecom

I am at chengdu now, only can connect to China Unicom.

Eight roaming partner is only China Mobile,
how come you connect to Unicom?

Indeed this is an interesting finding.

During my short visit to China in Dec 2025, my eight 4G plan was connected to China Mobile 4G network. Then I got giga China travel eSIM which could connect to China Mobile 5G NSA network.

The latest roaming list (20260102 version) still only lists China Mobile as the only roaming partner.
https://www.eight.com.sg/help/mobile
https://www.eight.com.sg/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/eight-Roaming-List_20260102.pdf

 

[loganrunning]

In Shenzhen now…keeps not able to manually connect to China Mobile to make VOLTE calls though my phone settings are properly set up.

can only connect to China Telecom

It could be congestion (not the overall network, but the bandwidth allocated to eight roaming) in Shenzhen.


or it could be isolated cases of coverage eg, was in a hotel in Kunming. Just that building, had poor coverage for eight (CM0, but acceptable for Simba (CT). That hotel was surrounded by many high rise condos, perhaps my luck to have too much blockage to the CM base station.

once i went down and took a walk around, CM coverage went back to excellent.

this only happened once, just my luck.

 

[xiaofan]

So far I have not been able to achieve the following good download speed record (360.77 Mbps) from eight 4G S$8 plan

For those on eight 5G, wonderning any one can beat the following download speed record reported in this forum.

Download speed at 1.34Gbps.
Upload speed at 109.11 Mbps.

3) from Asus80

Eight 5G
Sembawang polyclinic

 

[Skypower]

if 4G is Toyota & 5G is Lexus. My opinion are both are similar in speed in Singapore

“Network Congestion“ is network capacity issue or telecom provider issue whether they can maintain service quality indicatives of IMDA… if end user can’t have reliable and reasonable speed connectivity, whose issue?

If your normal SMRT trip is 30mins and stretch till 2 hours, is the train operator @ fault? and u jus ignore and go take taxi?