Postpaid mobile - Singtel or Starhub?

[HMSY]

So I looked at their price plans online and Starhub seems to be more generous with their data and minutes. But pricing aside, I'm more concerned about the network quality and customer service. Would anyone be able to give some insight about this? I'm going to sign up for a 2 year contract so don't want to be stuck with any unpleasant surprises . I use my phone a lot for checking email, downloading, IDD call and roaming. TIA for your advice.

[Strong Eagle]

Customer service absolutely sucks at Starhub. You'll wait forever on the phone to get someone who may or may not be able to actually help. Starhub service centers are packed to the seams.

As for voice and data, pretty much the same... but it really depends of where you intend to use this stuff the most. On the 25th floor of Suntec, Singtel data absolutely was terrible, as it was at Harry's at 4 Floors, but Starhub was great. Others can tell you their own coverage stories.

[zzm9980]

Tell me the areas you'll be and I'll tell you what Singtel LTE coverage is like there. You're going to have a hard time finding someone who has used both both Singtel and Starhub LTE extensively to give you an honest comparison between the two, since both networks are relatively new and there is no way to use either without getting locked into a two-year contract.

[HMSY]

Thank you for your answers. I live and work in the Central, near Bishan area.

[zzm9980]

I get good LTE signals in the Bishan area. Specifically, I spend a fair amount of time near Marymount MRT and Thomson Plaza/Upper Thomson Rd. Also, CTE at Bishan.

[HMSY]

Awesome! It just happens that you're right in my area. So Singtel works great here. Thank you zzm9980 for the info! Would anyone else care to share their experience with Starhub?

[zzm9980]

I haven't used Starhub in that spot, and not LTE, but I can tell you 'when it works' their 3G network seems faster than Singtel's. The key thing is all of the carriers have these black spots of over-saturated usage. You'll get full signal, but data connections will just drop and time out. The carriers' general solution is to just roll out LTE and cross their fingers hoping people moving to LTE will un-saturate their 3G networks. I can say at least for Singtel, their 3G networks seem a bit less jammed and the LTE networks are getting a bit slower. LTE is still much better than their 3G, but then it is still much slower than modern 3G networks in most other places.

[zzm9980]

I was at Thomson Plaza for lunch, so I ran some speed tests for you.



It would only be fair to note that in between the two tests I lost all signal, dropping to GPRS, then 3G, for about 10 minutes. That could have been the tower power cycling through. (Or "On-Off"-ing as locals like to say).

Also, in lots of places it is not that fast. This is one of the better spots.

And here are the details from one of the tests:
Test Date: Apr 23, 2013 11:30
Download: 26.99 Mbps
Upload: 6.32 Mbps
Ping: 26 ms
Connection Type: Cellular
Server: Batam
External IP: 119.234.1.43
Internal IP: 10.98.32.92
Latitude: 1.3548
Longitude: 103.8313
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&q=1.354792,103.831343

[HMSY]

Thank you zzm9980. To be honest, those technical stats just made me . But I do appreciate your advice and will go with Singtel. My friend came over to our apt and he has Starhub and connection was very bad on both voice and Internet. We got an Internet usb from M1 and that works better here than Starhub. Not sure if it's only an indoor issue but anyhow, I don't want that issue. Singtel it is then.