My first encounter with M1 mobile service was back in 2001 where I was provided a mobile SIM card by my company. Basic functions works fine, however, I am missing many value added services that are being offered by its competitor e.g. SingTel.
During my travel, I find M1 is costlier. Like other mobile operators, it provided a cheaper way to call home or overseas while abroad. Call back service with *138*(country code)(area code)(phone number)# was likely to fail and has limited coverage outside of South East Asia countries. It’s VOIP-based IDD service 021 is also suffers from bad voice quality from time to time.
I switched to SingTel in 2003 and was very satisfied with it. Its *121* service is available in most country that I travelled to and provided consistent good call quality. The 019 IDD service has similar quality. Unfortunately, my SIM card is converted to M1 again to help the company in achieving cost-saving. I highlighted the lack of good service for IDD and while on roaming, that largely goes to a deaf-ear of people who just wanted to complete the project.
One problem with M1 is that, It has really bad signal in my apartment. Despite having access to open sky from the windows and no immediate adjacent buidling, calls quality is terrible. Frequent disconnection, unable to make calls at times and losing part of the conversation is part of the daily life. I informed M1 about this few times starting 2 years ago. They sent an engineer to measure the signal strength and quality. The result was in line with my assumption. Good signal strength does not mean good signal quality.
M1 does not do anything to expand its coverage in my area and I called again recently. Nothing has been done in over 2 years time frame and the quality is affecting many resident in the apartment. There are more than 400+ units, assuming only high-rise unit having the problem, we still have about 200+ units or 800 people affected (1 flat = 4 people or 4 lines assumption).
When voice quality is not sustainable, so is the Data session. I can get between 3,5G (HSDPA) quality to a mere GPRS quality on the same spot of my home.
Most of the family members uses StarHub which is fine and no problem with it so far. I can even enjoy their HSUPA data connection (up to 7.2Mbps downstream and 2Mbps upstream) on mobile broadband. With M1, I would be fortunate enough to get a real 3G connection.
Here is the scale:
- HSUPA: up to 7.2Mbps downstream and 2Mbps upstream
- HSDPA: up to 7.2Mbps downstream with 384Kbps upstream (slower)
- 3G: up to 384Kbps downstream/upstream
- GPRS: up to 114Kbps
- Legacy data connection: standard up to 9.6 Kbps and High-speed up to 44 Kbps
- Note: 1 Mbps = 1000 Kbps = 1000 bps. 8 bits = 1 character, 1 Mbps is about 125,000 characters per second.
Practical advice:
If your current operator’s network coverage is not up to standard, don’t wait for them to upgrade or fix it. Change service provider that known to work well in your area. Never be tempted over cheaper phones or other premiums and sign contract only to suffers 2 years of bad voice quality.
Opinions expressed in this article are mine and does not represent any affiliations to any organizations that I may have.
