Recontract or move out of Singtel?

jjlim1996

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Hi, would like to consult HWZ netizens. Currently on a Singtel 1 Gbps fibre broadband plan which expires end of this month.

Here is what it currently looks like at home:

Am using ZTE ONT (even though it says ONR) with the lousy AC Plus Router and Askey Wifi Mesh. The child node is in the furthest bedroom and only 2.4 Ghz's light is green (the 5 Ghz one is red). No wired backhauling.

Saw from other forums that there is a likelihood I get to keep the ZTE ONT if I stick with a simple recontract (currently $44.90/mth), so was wondering if I should 1) do that and get a better router, or to 2) switch out to M1/SH? If Option 1, what is a good router to get? Seems like triband routers are necessary.

FWIW I have a digital home line that I would like to continue usage as well.
 
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firesong

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If you have ONT, it's okay to stay; just make sure they don't replace your ON device.

If you are on ONR, move if you need to use your own hardware. If you are okay with the ONR setup and can accept all the problems, feel free to stay too.

I'm on the ONR. I will move. Bridged for now but unwilling to sign the contract cos I don't know if that will reverse the bridging. Even staff I've spoken with cannot promise to retain the bridging because they candidly say it's not the standard configuration so may not be supported for long. Problem is the contract, even though signed early August, is apparently only valid from the date of the OpenNET installation, and because of the delays back then by OpenNet, I have to wait until end September or early October.
 

jjlim1996

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If you have ONT, it's okay to stay; just make sure they don't replace your ON device.

If you are on ONR, move if you need to use your own hardware. If you are okay with the ONR setup and can accept all the problems, feel free to stay too.

I'm on the ONR. I will move. Bridged for now but unwilling to sign the contract cos I don't know if that will reverse the bridging. Even staff I've spoken with cannot promise to retain the bridging because they candidly say it's not the standard configuration so may not be supported for long. Problem is the contract, even though signed early August, is apparently only valid from the date of the OpenNET installation, and because of the delays back then by OpenNet, I have to wait until end September or early October.
Thanks firesong. Yeah I have the ONT. Just thinking if I sign a new contract, they might one day decide to make a blanket change - that would be very annoying,

If I may ask, which telco are you intending to switch to?
 

Henry Ng

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Thanks firesong. Yeah I have the ONT. Just thinking if I sign a new contract, they might one day decide to make a blanket change - that would be very annoying,

If I may ask, which telco are you intending to switch to?
May be M1 as they have quite good router and price is reasonable.
 

firesong

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Thanks firesong. Yeah I have the ONT. Just thinking if I sign a new contract, they might one day decide to make a blanket change - that would be very annoying,

If I may ask, which telco are you intending to switch to?
Probably back to Starhub even though Internet is more costly than M1, mainly because of the need for Cable TV for the elderly folks at home - they cannot wrap their minds around having to choose the shows they want as they are used to shows being preselected for them and they just channel surf to settle on what they feel like watching.

Even with Netflix, Disney+, VIU, Amazon Prime TV, they still cannot choose anything and just stare blankly as they keep scrolling. We have to choose for them, but we're not home with them all the time. And no, they are not Chinese speakers so there's no need for Chinese offerings.
 

xiaofan

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Saw from other forums that there is a likelihood I get to keep the ZTE ONT if I stick with a simple recontract (currently $44.90/mth), so was wondering if I should 1) do that and get a better router, or to 2) switch out to M1/SH? If Option 1, what is a good router to get? Seems like triband routers are necessary.

FWIW I have a digital home line that I would like to continue usage as well.

You can probably negotiate with Singtel to get S$39.90 per month to save some cost. But it is also fine to swtich to M1 or Starhub. M1 has a slightly cost advantage that digital voice is free.

As for router, if you have higher budget, you may want to go with Asus Zenwifi XT8 triband.
 
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Henry Ng

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You can probably negotiate with Singtel to get S%39.90 per month to save some cost. But it is also fine to swtich to M1 or Starhub. M1 has a slightly cost advantage that digital voice is free.

As for router, if you have higher budget, you may want to go with Asus Zenwifi XT8 triband.
Actually M1 got sell quite a few routers so user can see see.
 

Henry Ng

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Probably back to Starhub even though Internet is more costly than M1, mainly because of the need for Cable TV for the elderly folks at home - they cannot wrap their minds around having to choose the shows they want as they are used to shows being preselected for them and they just channel surf to settle on what they feel like watching.

Even with Netflix, Disney+, VIU, Amazon Prime TV, they still cannot choose anything and just stare blankly as they keep scrolling. We have to choose for them, but we're not home with them all the time. And no, they are not Chinese speakers so there's no need for Chinese offerings.
Well can always take Entertainment+ and HBO which are English or the second pass can be Malay if they prefer Malay. Asian+ also got Korean and Japanese shows and movies. Every month can switch the passes one time. May be first month second pass HBO then second month switch to Malay or Asian+ la. Lots of TV contents.
 
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firesong

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Well can always take Entertainment+ and HBO which are English or the second pass can be Malay if they prefer Malay. Asian+ also got Korean and Japanese shows and movies. Every month can switch the passes one time. May be first month second pass HBO then second month switch to Malay or Asian+ la. Lots of TV contents.
You misunderstand.

Parents can navigate old style TV, where the programming is done by the station so they just need to channel surf to find something they like after watching a few minutes of it..

They are lost when given a plethora of apps and having to choose their shows from their respective catalogues. They don't know where to begin.
 

shadowoflight

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Of the traffic lights, singtel has the best internet.

The problem is the kneecap themselves with their rubbish router.
 

firesong

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Of the traffic lights, singtel has the best internet.

The problem is the kneecap themselves with their rubbish router.
Not really true. Their IPv6 policy also kneecaps them and hinders adoption. They also have poorer routing to local peers, especially because local companies tend to peer with the other IXes because they are more cost-efficient (STIX is more expensive and hence prohibitive). So you may find (via traceroutes) that your traffic, despite being intended for a Singapore server, ends up routing through India or Hong Kong before coming back. If there is greater congestion in the network, it may even travel via other routes, increasing the latency and lowering network performance.

Am porting back to StarHub. Had a fairly casual chat with Singtel staff as a last ditch resort before we visited StarHub, and even the staff at the branch conceded they cannot guarantee the ONR will remain bridged because it's all up to the back end, and they have no control. They are told that no ONR bridging will be entertained. So we walked over to StarHub and have already signed the contract. Pending the expiry of the Singtel contract next month before formal termination, and will have a week to play with multi-WAN. But even this is a massive headache because of the very different IPv6 implementation between Singtel (6in4 tunnelling) and StarHub (native IPv6, which of course is better).
 

CoolRock

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Not really true. Their IPv6 policy also kneecaps them and hinders adoption. They also have poorer routing to local peers, especially because local companies tend to peer with the other IXes because they are more cost-efficient (STIX is more expensive and hence prohibitive). So you may find (via traceroutes) that your traffic, despite being intended for a Singapore server, ends up routing through India or Hong Kong before coming back. If there is greater congestion in the network, it may even travel via other routes, increasing the latency and lowering network performance.

Am porting back to StarHub. Had a fairly casual chat with Singtel staff as a last ditch resort before we visited StarHub, and even the staff at the branch conceded they cannot guarantee the ONR will remain bridged because it's all up to the back end, and they have no control. They are told that no ONR bridging will be entertained. So we walked over to StarHub and have already signed the contract. Pending the expiry of the Singtel contract next month before formal termination, and will have a week to play with multi-WAN. But even this is a massive headache because of the very different IPv6 implementation between Singtel (6in4 tunnelling) and StarHub (native IPv6, which of course is better).

M1 has working IPv6 as well #justsaying :crazy:
 

firesong

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M1 has working IPv6 as well #justsaying :crazy:
Yep, I know. :) Was choosing between the two, but because elderly parents need cable TV as they still cannot handle the app interface, the choices were limited between ST and SH. SH has a price advantage for us because the bundling includes the price of Netflix, bringing down the overall subscription cost to more than $20 cheaper even after factoring in the price of renting the STB and adding the home digital line with VASes.
 

shadowoflight

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Not really true. Their IPv6 policy also kneecaps them and hinders adoption. They also have poorer routing to local peers, especially because local companies tend to peer with the other IXes because they are more cost-efficient (STIX is more expensive and hence prohibitive). So you may find (via traceroutes) that your traffic, despite being intended for a Singapore server, ends up routing through India or Hong Kong before coming back. If there is greater congestion in the network, it may even travel via other routes, increasing the latency and lowering network performance.

Am porting back to StarHub. Had a fairly casual chat with Singtel staff as a last ditch resort before we visited StarHub, and even the staff at the branch conceded they cannot guarantee the ONR will remain bridged because it's all up to the back end, and they have no control. They are told that no ONR bridging will be entertained. So we walked over to StarHub and have already signed the contract. Pending the expiry of the Singtel contract next month before formal termination, and will have a week to play with multi-WAN. But even this is a massive headache because of the very different IPv6 implementation between Singtel (6in4 tunnelling) and StarHub (native IPv6, which of course is better).
hmm ok learnt something new today
 

xiaofan

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On this point, is true they will not entertain ONR bridging unless you are still on the legacy Singtel Unlimited Fibre 1Gbps (use your own router plan). And SingTel is trying damn hard to get remaining users off this plan, never seen them so desperate until every month keep asking us to change through telephone, letter, newsflyer etc. WTF

As long as you are currently using ONT, you can continue using the ONT , no matter it is normal 1Gbps plan or the legacy Unlimited 1Gbps plan.

If you want to recontract to cheaper normal 1Gbps (with VLAN) plan from the unlimited plan, I believe you can keep using the ONT but you need to set up VLAN profile. Still please confirm with SingTel first before the recontract.

Take note relocation will be considered as new sign-up and will get the ONR.

I am using SingTel ONT with my normal 1Gbps plan, upgraded from 500Mbps in 2018, recontract in 2020 and 2022.
 

xiaofan

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In my case, the ONT died so they change to ONR... at first they refuse to give me bridge mode until they test then realised it doesn't work... so they llst give me bridge mode...

I see. You should reject the change to ONR in the first place.

But since you are using a bridged ONR now, you can try to convince Singtel to keep that bridging status before recontract. If they do not agree, move out.
 

xiaofan

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I am not recontracting.

They have no more new ONTs to issue. I asked for used they said they scrap alr... so they lan lan do ONR bridge.

They also cannot put ONR in standard mode because the connecton will outright fail

Hmm, that is new to me.

When did they tell you that they do not have any more ONT? Are you told by the SERV+ staff ? Or a random staff from the Singtel hotline (many of them are badly trained and have no clues of ONT/ONR stuff)?

I believe they still have new ZTE ONT for replacement.

The ZTE is an ONR but configured as ONT.
Ref: https://www.singtel.com/content/dam/singtel/personal/support/broadband/broadband-troubleshooting/ONT vs ONR Guide.pdf
 
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xiaofan

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They replaced my ZTE ONT V6 to a V4, quite sure it was an ONR when they first tried to set it up. Of course, they couldn't do so until i told them mine was the singtel unlimited fibre plan. Then they llst switch it to bridge mode. I saw them configure the unit by plugging into LAN1 and accessing its internal console from a web browser.
Btw, you can't access the ONR interface unless you reset the ONR itself. Once it bridge mode, the ONR interface is turned off entirely.

Good to know that you get the ZTE v4. It is an ONT.

I believe that is the only ONT model left for replacement. I got the ZTE v4 in 2018 as well as a replacement for my old Ecrisson ONT. There will be no issues for you to recontract to the normal 1Gbps plan. You will need to set up VLAN on your router.

As for why they need to change the ONT settings for your Unlimited plan, it may have to do with something special about the Unlimited Plan (probably no throttling of traffic and no Singtel TV). Or they were just asking the backend to push the right settings and need to log in to the ONT to check the settings. But as far as I know, when people switch from Unlimited Plan to normal Singtel 1Gbps plan, they do not need to change the ONT settings. Probably they can push the setting changes from backend.

BTW, @miloaisdino was able to log into the ZTE v4 ONT and change some settings to have better bufferbloat performance. But he has since moved to M1.

Ref: Singtel ONT/ONR models
https://www.singtel.com/content/dam...roadband-troubleshooting/ONT vs ONR Guide.pdf
ZTE ONT V4
Please note that the newer version of the ZTE ONT is labelled Optical Network Router. However, this is not an ONR. This is an ONT.
 
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Henry Ng

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Since need to have TV service, it is either Singtel or Starhub as other ISP do not have TV service. For Starhub TV+ you can also watch their standard TV channels available in their TV passes by pressing the channel number on the remote and it look like the old cable TV channels. Can switch between normal standard TV channels and APP Video streaming. Nokia beacon 2 is able to provide wifi coverage to my home without any problem.
 
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