Comment by neya | Hacker News Reader

Comment by neya | Hacker News Reader

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This isn't necessarily true in all cases - I can cite you an opposite example. Pre-covid, I was in Singapore. You pay $10 SGD for 1GB of data ONLY (no calls included). The top network operator in Singapore is state-backed Singtel. Their network coverage is very poor in many areas within the city. Singapore is almost literally just one big city and yet, the 4G experience is extremely poor. Also, customer support is very difficult to get hold of, if you're on the prepaid plan. I almost found it a rip off to pay so much for 1GB of 4G data for such a crappy experience.

Now, after my trip, I went to India. I paid $10 for 1.5GB of data DAILY from Airtel (India's top provider) which also includes free unlimited calls. The experience isn't uniform (India is quite huge in comparison to Singapore) but within any tier A city, Airtel is MUCH better than Singtel. Also, the customer support is top notch for the peanuts you pay them and you can find an operator to talk to in usually a minute or less. For comparison, in Singtel, you would have to navigate the crazyily designed IVR and wait for atleast 5+ minutes before you can talk to a real person.

I'm just citing this example to prove that the most expensive 1GB isn't necessarily the best.

Misleading. You didn't do five minutes of research.

Singtel (the most expensive telco) has multiple plans for visitors (100GB for $12 + 500mins talk + 1GB roaming + $3 to spend on public transport). If you want prepaid month to month, it's still nowhere in the stratosphere of $10/GB.

Also 4G coverage is virtually 100%, buildings and Faraday cages aside. (source: living in Singapore for 10 years, through 3G to 4G migration)

Nope, those are for tourists. I am not a tourist. I've lived there long enough to know what the rates are.

This is from Singtel Hi menu:

https://i.imgur.com/z6WmqYx.png

Notice it says "Data plans" - They give you only data and claim to give you free incoming only for 20 days as a bonus. That's not even a bonus, in India, you pay nothing for incoming, at least on the Airtel plan I mentioned.

Also, about your point on being expensive - Singtel is the only Telco that doesn't suck in terms of network coverage in the country. Starhub is a close second, with slightly cheaper plans depending on what you're after and M1 is garbage and everyone knows that.

I suggest you try 4G somewhere near Toa Payoh, Bishan, Bedok or even some places within Paya Lebar.

Not sure why you had to be so rude (5 minutes of research?) and created a new account just to contest this..oh well.

I lived in Singapore and while I was there, I used MyRepublic's mobile plans. The plan I was using was $24(SGD) a month for 17G. Rarely had connectivity issues though for the most part, I stayed in the more populated areas so I may not have had the same connectivity issues as you.

One of the nice things was that each telco would keep changing their plans to be better and better so it paid to pay attention and change plans whenever a better one came along.

Thanks Gary, haven't used My Republic personally, but I've tried the rest, and wasn't impressed. Will consider My Republic next time. I travel a lot around Singapore, hence my experience.

> I suggest you try 4G somewhere near Toa Payoh, Bishan, Bedok or even some places within Paya Lebar.

I’m with Singtel and don’t have any problems in those places. I even had 4G on Pulau Ubin today. Singtel has a $25/20GB plan for locals, $10/1GB isn’t really representative of typical plans.

I agree, Pulau Ubin coverage is pretty good, but that isn't indicative of the rest of the places. I'm a consultant and I travel quite a lot around the city.

My criteria isn't just having 4G, but able to actually use it in decent speeds. This is where Singtel sucks for me - the 4G logo will show on your phone, but pages will never load due to poor connectivity, even with 5 bars. I had this issue across three phones - iPhone, Sony and Samsung.

Singtel ALSO seems to do lot of throttling on videos depending on where in the city you're as well.

I'm a Singapore citizen and I've used my Singapore passport to get the tourist SIM cards from M1 before, did some store refuse to sell it to you?

New account because first time I've been compelled to correct something so blatantly wrong.

As other posts have pointed out, $10/GB is not right (tourist plan or not). If you lived here long enough to know what the rates are, why misrepresent it?

>$10 for 1.5GB of data DAILY. to be clear you paid $10 and you got 1.5GB daily for a Month, correct? If not you are taken for a ride by Airtel. Jio charges ~$5 for a month and you get 1.5GB daily with unlimited calls.. bandwidth ~40mbps in tier 1 cities and 10mbs tier2 and tier3..

I should have been clear, yes you're correct - I paid $10 for an entire month for 1.5GB of data daily. I'll try out Jio next time, thank you for the recommendation.

I wouldn't recommend it. Jio has too much of a load issue, especially at nights. Airtel isn't the top provider in India, and thankfully so. Airtel is much much faster than Jio, even if it's slightly more expensive.

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