Advice on broadband, cable and mobile subscriptions request

[almightygoodgod]

Firstly, hello everyone! I am moving to Singapore in early August from Hong Kong (I am a UK national).

The information on the forums has been invaluable and everything I have needed to know up to now has been posted so thank you.

Something I am trying to get my head around is the packages for internet, tv and mobile. I did try searching but didn't find the answers to my specific questions.

From what I can make out Singtel have the rights to the English Premier League, is this correct? I can't actually find anywhere it is explicitly stated.

If this is the case, having browsed their website I was considering signing up with them for everything on one bill:

Home broadband
Two mobile contracts (with mobile data)
Cable TV - with premier league channels and HD

As my work is providing me with an apartment I should have the address soon so was going to arrange all this before I arrive so that hopefully it is all set up for the start of the football season. Are any of you with Singtel, would you recommend them? I guess it might be possible to get a better deal if I shop around for different companies for mobile and broadband but I like the idea of having just the one bill.

Last question, I will be getting a new TV for when I arrive. Again I was thinking or arranging it before I arrive through this website:

www.harveynorman.com.sg

Are their prices typical of Singapore or can you get cheaper prices by going to more local stores when I arrive?

Thank you

[zzm9980]

I hate Singtel, but they're the least of the three evils when it comes to the packaged bundles. I don't watch a lot of TV, and just use the basic package. It's pretty lame, but I can't expect much since it's the basic. The mobile phone service voice quality is good, the mobile data quality is terrible. If you're a heavy user of mobile data for anything more than email, expect to be disappointed. You'll find you always have good signal, but the service will just slow to a halt for 1-5 minutes at a time, all the time, for no reason at all.

For home internet, if you're a 'power user', you'll find yourself frustrated. Every outgoing HTTP/HTTPS request goes through a bank of caching web proxies. You can't stop this. So while you'll have one IP for all of your web traffic, everything else you will do will have another IP. This will cause massive headaches with certain non-browser Internet applications that check you by IP address. If you only ever use a web browser for your internet traffic, you'll probably be OK unless you try to visit web sites that have banned Singtel IPs for bad behavior. Since all hundred thousand+ of the Singtel subscribers will appear to come from 1 of ~500 IPs, a lot of forums have banned this block. Wikipedia has banned editing from Singtel IPs as an example.

If you're not a power user, or even more so, none of what I said above made sense, then don't worry. Just pick Fibre over MIO if you it's available at your new location. In theory it'll be much more responsive and have better uptime.

[zzm9980]

Harvey Norman isn't cheap, but neither are most options. If you don't care about price, then just do that. If you'll be upset to see a slightly better model for 5-10% less two weeks later, then go browse Harvey Norman, Best Denki, Giant, and Mega Discount. All of the prices are roughly the same, but each location will usually have some special on specific models to make them bit cheaper.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Don't leave out Gain City either.

[Hidy Ho]

I have Singtel fiber optic with TV package. TV package was a waste since I don't watch TV.

I use paid VPN package which gives me US IP address and to access channels not allowed from Singapore like Hulu.

I bought my TV from an eBay seller who was based in Singapore and had his mobile number in the ad. I just SMS'd him few times to finalize the order and the price and he delivered and setup the TV for me at my place and then I paid him cash. I bought few other items at same time like standing fan, iron and few other electronic stuff.

Locals would say wait for IT fair which they have twice a year to get the best price but, for me, it's not worth the saving to deal with huge crowd and etc to save few bucks. I feel like I paid decent price for my TV (for Singapore).

[almightygoodgod]

Quality of service is quite important for me with both mobile data and broadband, I'm quite a heavy user. Any suggested alternatives?

As for the cable, are they the only company with rights for the English Premier League? That is my main concern. My cable package in Hong Kong only ever got turned on over the weekend for the football, now that was a dire package!

[JayCee]

Quality of service is quite important for me with both mobile data and broadband, I'm quite a heavy user. Any suggested alternatives?

As for the cable, are they the only company with rights for the English Premier League? That is my main concern. My cable package in Hong Kong only ever got turned on over the weekend for the football, now that was a dire package!

Yes, Singtel are the only ones with the rights to show the football. Starhub had the rights up until the start of the 10-11 season and then Singtel outbid them meaning anyone who wanted to watch the footie at home had to get a second box Although in their defence their coverage is much better than Starhub's was. Considering they're both basically government entities though it seems like just a ploy to screw us (the consumer) out of more money, nothing at all to do with free market competition (such a thing does not exist in Singapore).

Singtel's cable tv package is dire except for the sport (they also have star sports, espn, and will have Spanish footie this season too) so if you want to watch anything else like star world, HBO, Fox, BBC channels etc... you'll have to subscribe to Starhub too

[JR8]

Is it Singtel's fault that watching football is expensive? I thought the cost would be mostly to keep the pampered prima-donnas on the pitch in the 6/7 figure salaries to which they are accustomed.

[nutnut]

Personally, I have Starhub for Cable, mobile and internet and MIO for Sports, it seems to be around the best bundling option IMO, although, the options are pretty poor all over.

Expect to pay around $250 for everything you need, and if you watch anything other than sport, Starhub is a must.

Good luck!

[almightygoodgod]

Personally, I have Starhub for Cable, mobile and internet and MIO for Sports, it seems to be around the best bundling option IMO, although, the options are pretty poor all over.

Expect to pay around $250 for everything you need, and if you watch anything other than sport, Starhub is a must.

Good luck!

Do you find the quality of starhub's Internet and mobile to be quite good?

[JayCee]

Is it Singtel's fault that watching football is expensive? I thought the cost would be mostly to keep the pampered prima-donnas on the pitch in the 6/7 figure salaries to which they are accustomed.

When they paid about 50% more than they needed to to secure the rights, yeah

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 25462.html

[JayCee]

Personally, I have Starhub for Cable, mobile and internet and MIO for Sports, it seems to be around the best bundling option IMO, although, the options are pretty poor all over.

Expect to pay around $250 for everything you need, and if you watch anything other than sport, Starhub is a must.

Good luck!

Do you find the quality of starhub's Internet and mobile to be quite good?

I found Starhub's internet to be very slow, both in a brand spanking new condo and then later in a 15 year old one. Switched to Singtel, they're not great either but seem a bit more stable. M1 is the only other option and by all accounts they're worse.

Can't comment on Starhub mobile, always had Singtel and does the job for me although the 3G is pretty crap (a Singapore wide problem)

[nutnut]

Personally, I have Starhub for Cable, mobile and internet and MIO for Sports, it seems to be around the best bundling option IMO, although, the options are pretty poor all over.

Expect to pay around $250 for everything you need, and if you watch anything other than sport, Starhub is a must.

Good luck!

Do you find the quality of starhub's Internet and mobile to be quite good?

Find the broadband better than Singtel to be honest (we have both currently) and the mobile is fine, very rarely drops, but 3G isn't great (I've heard it's not great on Singtel either) Not much choice though huh!?

[therat]

For Mobile, Singtel is better.
For Mobile 3G, all the 3 service provide equally suck.
For TV program if you watch other sports then soccer, Starhub SCV is the best.

Singtel MIO TV is terrible. The program is out dated and the start up box take 1-2 min to take up.

Internet, I prefer Singtel as they are using cable.
If you want a faster speed, you can give up optical fibre plan. Provide the place you stay had lay the opennet cable.

[zzm9980]

Quality of service is quite important for me with both mobile data and broadband, I'm quite a heavy user. Any suggested alternatives?

As for the cable, are they the only company with rights for the English Premier League? That is my main concern. My cable package in Hong Kong only ever got turned on over the weekend for the football, now that was a dire package!

All broadband internet options here are substandard compared to most of the US, Europe, and Asia. The only ISP I've consistently heard good things about is a company called "Super Internet". You'll probably still be on a Singtel backbone, but it seems like anything in their control to make nice they do. I don't have them personally as they're not available in my flat, but I have a few highly technical friends with opinions I trust that do.