Eight Telecom discussion thread

[miragez]

My wife is using it now in Guangzhou China. As per her, it is quite okay. No 5G connection though, only 4G connection to either China Mobile or China Unicom in Guangzhou.

She told me that had no issues using WeChat Video calls with my mum-in-law in another province, including a recent one for one hour.

Thanks for the updates, as looking into eight website they only stated support China Unicom, China Telecom. Did not know it also support China Mobile, always good to check with user experience

 

[calkel20]

First time see Singtel allow rollover data, in the past it does not exist. Did anyone tried the APAC destination or Worldwide data really usable in overseas? Not looking at speed test result but normal user experience to use service smoothly.

very worthy
Used very often

 

[hereiam7788]

Maybe you want to compare with the following.

In the end, such high local data (1.4TB in this case) are not that useful (except for those use it as the replacement for Fibre Internet).

The local talk time and SMS rollover are super high and I do not know who can really finish using the quota.

But the roaming data rollover can be really useful for those travel more often.

roaming data rollover is useful indeed but eight is not giving so this is why whatever u are given now is totally not useful.

Even if one is using the data on the go a lot also no way one can use so much data. I use eight in both Lion city and bolehland monthly, the maximum quota I can use is 100GB++.

 

[year2013]

Guys, these days I am facing lot of connection issues with EIGHT, Whatsapp Video Call having lot of problems, is it me only or others also facing similar network issues!

 

[xiaofan]

Guys, these days I am facing lot of connection issues with EIGHT, Whatsapp Video Call having lot of problems, is it me only or others also facing similar network issues!

1) Location?

2) eight S$8 4G plan?
Known problem that StarHub 4G network can be congested and eight may have lower priority compared to StarHub proper or even the new StarHub Prepaid plans.

Upgrade to 5G may or may not help depending on the location. I tend to think it will help.

My own tests show StarHub Prepaid S 5G (legacy plan, no more offered) is much better than eight 4G for local usage. YMMV.

If you are using eight 4G, you can always upgrade to eight 5G for one month to see if it helps or not.

3) Phone model
For example, as per the reports, Apple iPhones tend to have worse in terms of signal reception.

 

[xiaofan]

Thanks for the updates, as looking into eight website they only stated support China Unicom, China Telecom. Did not know it also support China Mobile, always good to check with user experience

Take note, I was talking about Singtel hi! PostPaid plan. My wife is using Singtel hi! S$13 plan as the main roaming data provider (26 GB China data).

eight S$8 line (3GB China data) is her backup line for roaming and she does not feel the need to use it now.

eight used to support China Mobile for roaming in China, unfortunately eight has changed to China Telecom and China Unicom earlier this year. It is good to have more competitions now.

I am using Singtel S$15.28 plan as main line and eight S$8 plan as the roaming line. Then I also have legacy StarHub Prepaid S 5G plan at S$3 per month (special Happy Prepaid Card migration offer in Nov 2025, 80GB local data, plan no longer offered) as the backup for local usage (better than eight S$8 4G for local usage).

We will keep eight S$8 line due to the S$88 one for one top-up (effective price at S$4 per month). But we may keep the Singtel hi! line as well since my wife may need to visit China more often this year.

 

[xiaofan]

For roaming, eight and SIMBA were the main choices last time, now you got many more choices.

1) M1 Maxx now also offers free roaming voice call to Singapore number.

2) New StarHub Prepaid plan also offers free roaming voice call, and it even offer free outgoing roaming SMS which is not supported by eight, SIMBA and Maxx.

3) Singtel MVNOs like Zym and VIVIFI offer 10 minutes of free incoming roaming voice call, and at the same time significantly increase the roaming data bundle.

4) Singtel hi! PostPaid plan also start to offer more roaming data bundles and support rollover of roaming data. It does not support roaming voice call though.

 

[miragez]

Guys, these days I am facing lot of connection issues with EIGHT, Whatsapp Video Call having lot of problems, is it me only or others also facing similar network issues!

Yeap facing the same problem for eight 4G $8 plan testing with IPhone 17e my third line.

I currently on vivifi vibe 5G+ (primary), zym roam plus with 5G+ forever (secondary) and eight (just to try out if iPhone 17e works well with it)

 

[miragez]

Take note, I was talking about Singtel hi! PostPaid plan. My wife is using Singtel hi! S$13 plan as the main roaming data provider (26 GB China data).

eight S$8 line (3GB China data) is her backup line for roaming and she does not feel the need to use it now.

eight used to support China Mobile for roaming in China, unfortunately eight has changed to China Telecom and China Unicom earlier this year. It is good to have more competitions now.

I am using Singtel S$15.28 plan as main line and eight S$8 plan as the roaming line. Then I also have legacy StarHub Prepaid S 5G plan at S$3 per month (special Happy Prepaid Card migration offer in Nov 2025, 80GB local data, plan no longer offered) as the backup for local usage (better than eight S$8 4G for local usage).

We will keep eight S$8 line due to the S$88 one for one top-up (effective price at S$4 per month). But we may keep the Singtel hi! line as well since my wife may need to visit China more often this year.

Thanks for the detail information this is very useful.

 

[year2013]

No, I am using 5G plan

 

[alex22]

So it is true that the data usage when roaming is throttled at a trigger volume huh

 

[xiaofan]

No, I am using 5G plan

Then it is more about location and maybe phone model as well.

StarHub/M1 5G network is not bad at least for me (living and working in the very west part of Singapore), only slightly worse than Singtel 5G network. With the shutdown of Singtel 5G NSA network, the user experiences of Singtel 5G plan may well go down for SingTel and Singtel based MVNOs.

I am using Poco X7 Pro and the signal reception is indeed better than the iPhone 14 used by my wife.

 

[chaiscool]

Feels like getting worst.

fast.com test 2.5mbps
Speedtest app 5mbps - can fluctuate to 20+ mbps

Youtube max at 720p, 1080p will lag and keep stopping

4G senior plan, at home sia not even at congested peak hour mrt.

 

[JAYSCS]

Feels like getting worst.

fast.com test 2.5mbps
Speedtest app 5mbps - can fluctuate to 20+ mbps

Youtube max at 720p, 1080p will lag and keep stopping

4G senior plan, at home sia not even at congested peak hour mrt.

Congestion can be anywhere any time, it is quite common to suffer congestion in the evening hours at home as more users are using mobile plans to replace fibre broadband. I would say give your 4G plans a little patience, as more users upgrade to 5G plans, it will get better and better.

 

[hereiam7788]

So it is true that the data usage when roaming is throttled at a trigger volume huh

for my experience in bolehland, personally i will feel that it is true, just i could not confirm what is the FUP quota before the throttle starts.

 

[amazingone]

4G Roaming on Telstra in Sydney is pretty good, speed is usually around 100+ Mbps. However in Melbourne, some locations can be slowed down a lot when there's huge crowd.

 

[BBCWatcher]

I am using Poco X7 Pro and the signal reception is indeed better than the iPhone 14 used by my wife.

You'd need engineering tests to know for sure, and "it's complicated." But you'd hope the Xiaomi Poco X7 Pro would do a little better since it's a newer phone with the opportunity to use newer cellular chipsets. The Poco X7 Pro was introduced in January, 2025, and the iPhone 14 was introduced in September, 2022. The iPhone 16 (September, 2024) or 17 (September, 2025) would be a similar vintage and more directly comparable.

However, as long as the iPhone 14 wasn't purchased in one of the few excluded countries, your wife is more likely to rescue you if you find yourselves in a remote area of the world outside of cellular tower range. She has the first iPhone model that supports satellite communications over the Globalstar (now Amazon) satellite constellation.

 

[hereiam7788]

I did many many speedtests since the start of the day (after 12am)

each speedtest at least consumes 50MB of data (min for download and upload add together).

in between I also watch 4k videos on YouTube to consume more data.

but from the speed test result, u can tell that until 11am++ I can still get normal speed.

but after my speedtest at 1pm it starts to throttle. I did not manage to test between 12pm and 1pm.

now I had a wild guess that could the throttle is based on timing instead of any FUP quota use up.

maybe starting from 12pm all the way to 12am the speed will be throttled around 5Mbps+-?

 

[xiaofan]

You'd need engineering tests to know for sure, and "it's complicated." But you'd hope the Xiaomi Poco X7 Pro would do a little better since it's a newer phone with the opportunity to use newer cellular chipsets. The Poco X7 Pro was introduced in January, 2025, and the iPhone 14 was introduced in September, 2022. The iPhone 16 (September, 2024) or 17 (September, 2025) would be a similar vintage and more directly comparable.

Indeed. I was just giving a quick example. My wife will upgrade to iPhone 18 later this year or early next year (some reports say this year there may be no standard iPhone 18, only iPhone 18 Pro). So I can compare at that time with my Poco X7 Pro and Poco X8 Pro Max.

But there are many such reports, compare iPhone flagship to Android flagships or Huawei flagships, and iPhones have poorer signal receptions.

 

[BBCWatcher]

(some reports say this year there may be no standard iPhone 18, only iPhone 18 Pro)

Yes, that's the current rumor consensus, that the most expensive iPhone 18 models will be introduced this September (including the first foldable iPhone) followed by the "regular" iPhone 18 and 18e models in or about March, 2027....

But the iPhone 17e (introduced in March, 2026) is already an excellent phone and the best value in the current new model range. Typically available starting under S$800 from local mobile phone shops (new, activated, usually 350+ days of remaining warranty).