SingTel Bridge Data Roaming – Part 2

In my previous blog post on SingTel Bridge Data Roaming – Part 1 which is dated 3 months ago, since then SingTel has upgraded their SMS system for activating the Bridge Data Roaming. In the previous system, you can’t activate Bridge DataRoam Unlimited via SMS which is cheaper than Bridge DataRoam Unlimited Plus plan if you are only data roaming in 1 country.

Bridge DataRoam Unlimited Plus

Price: S$20/day
Data Bundle: Unlimited
Service Coverage
1. Australia – Optus
2. Hong Kong – CSL
3. Indonesia – Telkomsel
4. Macau – CTM
5. Malaysia – Maxis
6. Philippines – Globe Telecom
7. Taiwan – Taiwan Mobile
8. Thailand – AIS
Enjoy FREE extended coverage
1. France – Orange
2. USA – AT&T
3. Switzerland – Swisscom
4. Japan – Softbank

Bridge DataRoam Unlimited

Price
- 1 day – S$14
- 3 days – S$38
- 5 days – S$56
Data Bundle: Unlimited
Service Coverage
1. Australia – Optus
2. Hong Kong – CSL
3. India – Bharti Airtel
4. Indonesia – Telkomsel
5. Korea – SK Telecom
6. Macau – CTM
7. Malaysia – Maxis
8. Philippines – Globe Telecom
9. Taiwan – Taiwan Mobile
10. Thailand – AIS

As you can see on the prices above, most people will be opting for Bridge DataRoam Unlimited instead as you will be traveling only to 1 country and stay there for a few days, before proceeding back home or travelling to another country.

When I was in Hong Kong on 22nd April 2011 to 26th April 2011, I activated the 5 days Bridge DataRoam Unlimited for S$56, which is about S$11+ per day, cheaper than paying for my hotel Internet.

Personally I find the price is pretty reasonable. Some countries might have cheaper alternatives like in Hong Kong, the local pre-paid SIM card from Three (which has a MicroSIM version as well), charges only HK$28 (~S$4.50) for unlimited usage of data in a day.

If you are using Bridge Data Roaming, you need to remember not to use “Automatic Network Selection” which is by default on for most if not all phones. Instead you need to select “Manual Network Selection” and choose your preferred network which in my case is CSL in Hong Kong. This is to ensure that your data will not wonder off to another telecom network in the country (without your knowing) which is not part of the Bridge Alliance.

Screenshots of the steps I took to activate my bridge data roaming when in Hong Kong

In terms of speed, I am pretty disappointed during the last few days of my trip, when I arrived in Hong Kong on 22nd, my speed was pretty good as seen from the first screenshot of speedtest.net. But subsequently, my speed seems to be capped at 0.05mbps for both upstream and downstream no matter where I am. I thought it was a speed cap for bridge data roaming.

However when I came back to Singapore, I am getting this cap as well no matter where I am. I thought that is something wrong with my iPhone 4 and wanted to do a restore. Luckily I didn’t because yesterday, it just resolved by itself. So I am guessing that is something really wrong with SingTel network for the past few days which is making me get this “crap cap speed”.