Eight Telecom discussion thread

[xiaofan]

Can ask your daughter to help do speedtest for simba too, then can no need play game.

Give her a task, if you can get 200mbps download speed on simba, papa treat you beach road curry rice.

She does not use SIMBA but rather StarHub Prepaid S Plan (5G enabled, migrated from old StarHub Prepaid card).

She does not allow me to carry out SpeedTest on her Poco X6 Pro...

Haha, I think she is not really a fan of Curry Rice.

 

[xiaofan]

I also tested Eight for my MRT trip from Boon Lay to Farrer Park (EWL + NEL, change at Outram Park MRT).

In general it is okay, with very slow speed in Chinese Garden only.

But of course it kind of failed the test at City Square Mall B1 level, especially at Jollybee.

I was testing M1 Maxx S$10 plan (5G) for the return trip from Farrer Park to Boon Lay, the speed is of course much faster than Eight.

If just for my usage in Singapore, I will say M1 Maxx S$10 plan is quite a bit better than Eight S$8 4G plan.

But I understand many users here use good ways to reduce the effective monthly pricing of Eight S$8 plan to much lower than that. So that may change the value proposition.

My main Singtel S$15.28 line is still better in terms of consistency than M1 Maxx S$10 plan. I have no intention to change it.

 

[Jurong640]

I also tested Eight for my MRT trip from Boon Lay to Farrer Park (EWL + NEL, change at Outram Park MRT).

In general it is okay, with very slow speed in Chinese Garden only.

But of course it kind of failed the test at City Square Mall B1 level, especially at Jollybee.

I was testing M1 Maxx S$10 plan (5G) for the return trip from Farrer Park to Boon Lay, the speed is of course much faster than Eight.

If just for my usage in Singapore, I will say M1 Maxx S$10 plan is quite a bit better than Eight S$8 4G plan.

But I understand many users here use good ways to reduce the effective monthly pricing of Eight S$8 plan to much lower than that. So that may change the value proposition.

My main Singtel S$15.28 line is still better in terms of consistency than M1 Maxx S$10 plan. I have no intention to change it.

You keep emphasing that you have no intention to sign up a singtel mvno as you already have singtel $15 plan.

I feel you need a more holistic view of everything to be more fair. I suggest if you have time or extra phone, port a line to Zym or Zero1 to test out the 5G NSA against your Singtel Sim Only $15 plan. We also want to know what is the real difference between Singtel $15 and Zym/Zero1 $15. I mean, if there is really a difference, then you can say main $15 singtel line is better.

Try out both Singtel and Zero1 during peak hour at Outram Park, Jurong East.

And also inside mrt trains between Jurong East and Clementi (near Ulu Pandan) and Outram Park to Tiong Bahru.

Don't do speedtest, but do a more realistic test, like general surfing of websites like CNA, Straits Times and streaming CNA Live from youtube. Test out if there are any buffering or lag. Speedtest isn't a good measure for good network.

 

[xiaofan]

You keep emphasing that you have no intention to sign up a singtel mvno as you already have singtel $15 plan.

I feel you need a more holistic view of everything to be more fair. I suggest if you have time or extra phone, port a line to Zym or Zero1 to test out the 5G NSA against your Singtel Sim Only $15 plan. We also want to know what is the real difference between Singtel $15 and Zym/Zero1 $15. I mean, if there is really a difference, then you can say main $15 singtel line is better.

Try out both Singtel and Zero1 during peak hour at Outram Park, Jurong East.

And also inside mrt trains between Jurong East and Clementi (near Ulu Pandan) and Outram Park to Tiong Bahru.

Don't do speedtest, but do a more realistic test, like general surfing of websites like CNA, Straits Times and streaming CNA Live from youtube. Test out if there are any buffering or lag. Speedtest isn't a good measure for good network.

I can do that after the 5G SA migration of Singtel MVNOs. Then compare 5G SA to 5G SA.

NSA is a dead end so no point to test.

I actually expect my Singtel experience will get a bit worse after Gomo users and Singtel NVNO users get 5G SA.

But then I also think Singtel NVNO users experiences will not get much better despite the enthusiasm in various threads about the 5G SA migration.

Just my personal opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

SpeedTest is just a quick way to carry out comparison. I always check web browsing after a slow speed test result. Then I will say it is usable even with the slow speed.

But anything below 1 Mbps does affect YouTube experience.

 

[xiaofan]

BTW, Singtel NVNO users can also get Singtel SIM Only plans to test it out

One user has done that even though he was using VIVIFI 4G before so the comparison may not be a good one.

Happy to report that the 19.25 plan worked rather well during this morning peak hour ride 830-9. I was able to listen to radio, read news article, Reddit, received WA. Connection broke between Bishan to Braddel which require a manual trigger to restart radio. Just leaving orchard, connection went down for like 10 secs but doesn’t require manual restart (it auto connect back).

these are vast majority improvements than compared to vivifi where I could not do any one of those single item above.

 

[Skypower]

Good about Eight Mobile is when going on oversea trip - Receiving / Making cellular Calls (to SGP and in the same oversea country) do not carry additional charges other than the plan pricing.

 

[xiaofan]

Good about Eight Mobile is when going on oversea trip - Receiving / Making cellular Calls (to SGP and in the same oversea country) do not carry additional charges other than the plan pricing.

Exactly the reason why I get Eight to supplement my main SingTel line. Maxx does not have this free voice roaming feature. And it cost a BOMB to use Singtel MVNOs for voice roaming.

But SIMBA is a strong competitor here as it also offer free voice roaming.

New plans from StarHub (5G Unlimited+ and 5G Platinum, but not 5G Lite) also offers free voice roaming, but it starts at S$38 per month, so cannot compare with Eight or SIMBA.

 

[A7997A]

Exactly the reason why I get Eight to supplement my main SingTel line. Maxx does not have this free voice roaming feature. And it cost a BOMB to use Singtel MVNOs for voice roaming.

But SIMBA is a strong competitor here as it also offer free voice roaming.

New plans from StarHub (5G Unlimited+ and 5G Platinum, but not 5G Lire) also offers free voice roaming, but it starts at S$38 per month, so cannot compare with Eight or SIMBA.

Having personally used both I do find Simba to be superior for this purpose in my experience, but at $2 more a month. .

Also eight $8 plan dont seems to get 5G when roaming compared to Simba.

However where you go could make a major difference.

OTOH, eight local network might be better or worse depending on where you frequent, and many are able to get it for less than $8, and you can keep it alive by keeping a plan active every 3 months, so those are other factors to consider.

 

[crystalnox]

Regarding the recent promos for port in to 5G and get 2 months free...

If we port out or terminate the line say a week before the end of 3rd month, won't that effectively be $5/month?

That’s the only reason I was willing to give eight 5G a try.

 

[auriga]

Also eight $8 plan dont seems to get 5G when roaming compared to Simba.

I definitely saw 5G intermittently on eight while in Bangkok

 

[gapboy]

I definitely saw 5G intermittently on eight while in Bangkok

Roaming partner 5g not SG 5g. In BKK most telcos provide 5G NSA ..

 

[A7997A]

I definitely saw 5G intermittently on eight while in Bangkok

Possibly partner specific. In Taiwan i remember Simba got 5G. Maxx certainly did, but not eight.

 

[BBCWatcher]

But of course it kind of failed the test at City Square Mall B1 level, especially at Jollybee.

Could be a feature. You can't earn any Healthpoints at Jollybee.

 

[Cedric7]

5g seems to be surprisingly faster at my house area, tampines

 

[xiaofan]

5g seems to be surprisingly faster at my house area, tampines

5G speed should be fast if the signal is okay at your place.

StarHub shares 5G infrastructure with M1. M1 Maxx is very fast for the 5G speed. The record so far in this forum is from M1 Maxx.
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/threads/show-your-best-and-worst-5g-and-4g-speed.7168117/

Eight is a StarHub subsidiary and use StarHub 5G/4G networks. So by right Eight 5G should be good if the signal is good and the backend capacity is enough.

 

[Cedric7]

5G speed should be fast if the signal is okay at your place.

StarHub shares 5G infrastructure with M1. M1 Maxx is very fast for the 5G speed. The record so far in this forum is from M1 Maxx.
https://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/threads/show-your-best-and-worst-5g-and-4g-speed.7168117/

Eight is a StarHub subsidiary and use StarHub 5G/4G networks. So by right Eight 5G should be good if the signal is good and the backend capacity is enough.

Cause normally the 4g is faster than 5g

 

[hereiam7788]

Good about Eight Mobile is when going on oversea trip - Receiving / Making cellular Calls (to SGP and in the same oversea country) do not carry additional charges other than the plan pricing.

yeah. this is the greatest advantage for eight.

1) in the roaming countries, can make any calls to roaming countries no for free.

2) in the roaming countries, can make any calls to lion city no for free.

and there is no way u can incur additional roaming charges/call charge/idd charge with eight at all.
it is totally fool proof for elderly and kids who may additionally incur additional charge.

now all the MVNOs are pretty much the same no matter which one u signed up, at most just slight difference in price (Negligible) and amount of data given (local is totally negligible, roaming data varies depending on MVNOs).
But eight is one of them that is more all arounded that has everything one may need and again has zero worries for accidental cost.

 

[xiaofan]

Cause normally the 4g is faster than 5g

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.

 

[hereiam7788]

Having personally used both I do find Simba to be superior for this purpose in my experience, but at $2 more a month. .

Also eight $8 plan dont seems to get 5G when roaming compared to Simba.

However where you go could make a major difference.

OTOH, eight local network might be better or worse depending on where you frequent, and many are able to get it for less than $8, and you can keep it alive by keeping a plan active every 3 months, so those are other factors to consider.

in bolehland, can get 5G when roam to maxis. but 5G coverage in bolehland is still relatively incomplete.

 

[xiaofan]

in bolehland, can get 5G when roam to maxis. but 5G coverage in bolehland is still relatively incomplete.

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.