Every quarter, we will see the telcos unbid one another to secure more customers. This is not the first and will never be the last. At Hall 5 of Singapore Expo, you would probably see the three main telecom operators sitting side by side at Singapore Expo, luring customers with the freebies and super low price.
So which operator has the best deal for Fibre Broadband and package deal ? Let’s take a look at them one by one.
M1
First is M1. To date, M1 has the best Fibre Broadband no frills package that will attract most users who just want plain 100Mbps fibre connection and nothing more. Priced at S$39 per mth with a 24 months contract, it also throws in a Mobile Broadband mData 1GB (up to 7.2Mbps HSPA SIM card alone) and Home Fixed Voice Service. The Optical Networko Terminal installation is FREE. Upgrade to 200Mbps at S$49/mth, just $10 more is you really need 2X the speed for the poor local contents.
They also have the bundle offer of 100Mbps with the same as above but comes with a FREE Acer Aspire V5 Touch notebook worth S$1398. The price is tagged at S$75/mth or you can choose to get a ValurSurf+ mobile plan or Value+plan with another $10 more.
Something which is not mentioned is that M1 does not provide you with a Wireless Router. So, you have to purchase you own. Price ranges from S$52-$209 from Cisco or ASUS.
M1 also has very cheap Mobile Broadband offers starting from $12/mth (3G) or $24/mth (LTE) for 2GB bundle. There is also a free 3 mth mData+ subscription if you sign up for 24 mths.
Singtel
Singtel doesn’t seem to have standalone Fibre broadband plan. Instead, it bundle their Mio TV service with a 100Mbps at S$69.90 or 300Mbps at S$99. For the price, you get a Wireless Router worth S$188, 10 GB online storage, Fixed Home Line and Mio TV Family+ with 44 channels. In addition you get 10% discount for additional mio tv contents. Those with Singtel mobile lines also enjoyu annual mobile handset upgrade and multiline users can get up from 10% to 25% discount for their Singtel mobile lines. Latest : They are throwing in one year of Fox Movies (you have to pay from the 13th month at S$16 in addition to the S$69.90). They also throw in a 1GB data SIM free.
The Mio TV package seems rather attractive for those who wants to catch the latest News and Education programmes in HD. Entertainment wise there is Starworld HD, Fox HD. Unfortunately there is no CNN, BBC or CNBC on this platform.
Something that is not mentioned is the installation charges. So, do check before you commit the 24mths contract.
Starhub
Starhub has a number of bundle deals giving away notebooks. All deals comes with free 1 GB data SIM card free. The most appealing is the 200Mbps Fibre broadband plan at S$128/mth. They are giving away a MacBook Pro worth S$1688 for a 2 yrs contract. Alternatively, you can go for ASUS R405CA notebook with 100Mbps at S$89.90/mth. Cable broadband wise, they have a 50Mbps cable broadband plan at S$77.90/mth, comes with free Toshiba Satellite M840.
If you want just plain vanilla broadband, 150Mbps + 1GB mobile broadband and wirles home gateway is yours for S$49.90/mth. There are small prints below the brochure which indicates the installation charges.
As for Starhub TV bundle, it has a S$73 Home Ultimate which gives you 100Mbps Fibre, Home Gateway, 37 channels of Starhub TV, Home phone line, Tv anyway and up to 30% off mobile subscription and 1GB data SIM. This plan is comparable to the Singtel offer at S$69.90/mth.
Viewquest
Viewquest also has something up on it’s sleeve. It is promoting it’s Fibrenet Raptor 200 giving you 300Mbps at S$79.95. In addition, the first 50 sign up per day get a free Apple TV. It ia also throwing in a 1mth trial and 3 months freedom VPN for you to access overseas contents. There is no mention of free installation on it’s brochure.
MyRepublic
MyRepublic seems to be one of the more aggressive new players. They offer 2 plans – Pure Plan is S$59/mth at S$100/mth and Gamer Plan is S$69/mth at 150Mbps.
It is offering free service installation. You can choose to have free 6 mths Fire Broadband or take home a free Acer ASpire S7 worth $1898 (plan is $109.90/mth) or Acer Iconia W510 worth $1198 (plan is S$88/mth).
One thing good about MyRepublic is that you can have a Fix IP address for S$50 more, Home Voice isn’t free thought. You can to pay S$49/mth for installation and equipemtn charge. So Pure plan works out to be S$44.25/mth and Gamer plan at S$51.75/mth. Just like M1, you have to purchase your own ASUS router from S$69 to S$209 onwards.
Verdict
If you are a user who just wants plain internet surfing without free notebooks or whatsoever, the M1 plan remains the King among the 5 players. MyRepublic is slightly more expensive than M1 but it’s Home Fixed line service isn’t really free and it is limited in a way. Secondly, it doesn’t provide a free mobile 1GB data plan.
If you want TV content to be bundled, I think the Singtel Fibre plan would be worth the money but do take note you have to pay an additional $16 for the Fox movie channels (it’s free for the first year). The Starhub TV is good but you have to pay extra for HD contents.
As for the other Viewquest, it’s quest for gamers market might not work out too well. As for VPN option it is indeed a good option for exptraites who missed their home channels. As for locals, most people will use their means to download them over P2P network.
So the choice is up to you. Which operator will you go for ? Check out the brochures here