Singapore coverage

What the Singapore numbers mean

Two numbers matter and only one of them is the one every seller quotes. The typical speed, 119 Mbps, tells you what a good moment looks like.

The tenth percentile, 42 Mbps, is the one that matters. It is the speed in the worst tenth of the day, when the cell above the station is full and everybody around you is on it too. A country with a high median and a low floor is a country that works beautifully right up until the moment you actually need it.

If the trip depends on video calls or tethering, plan around the busy figure rather than the typical one.

What happens in Singapore when the network is busy

Congestion is not a fault, it is a Tuesday evening. The question is what your eSIM can do about it, and for most travel eSIMs the answer is nothing: one wholesale agreement per country, one network, and no way out except buying a second eSIM from somebody else while standing in the street.

Here, Orbislo traffic runs over Singtel and StarHub. When the network you are on degrades we move you to another one, mid trip, without you asking, and tell you afterwards rather than interrupting you at the time.

Mobile operators in Singapore

• Singtel: Singtel reported standalone 5G coverage of over 95% of Singapore on 22 July 2022, more than three years ahead of the end-2025 regulatory target. It had launched Singapore's first standalone 5G network in May 2021 and had carried 5G on the fully underground North East Line since May 2022.
• Singtel: On 6 September 2024 Singtel became the first operator to announce full 5G coverage across the MRT, covering all six underground lines and 27 stations of the Thomson-East Coast Line. It reused tunnel equipment that had carried its 3G and 4G signals.
• StarHub: StarHub reported over 99% outdoor 5G coverage in Singapore on 14 February 2024. It had opened its 5G network in 2020 with over 50% coverage during the initial trial period.
• M1: M1 and StarHub bid for 5G spectrum together as one consortium. In the 2021 auction of 2.1 GHz rights they took 25 MHz of paired spectrum for S$52.5 million, including one continuity lot each so that 3G could keep running at the time.
• Simba: Simba is the newest of the four networks. It received its facilities licence in 2016, launched commercially in 2020 and had one million subscribers by early 2024. In a 2025 filing, Simba and M1 called themselves the two smallest network operators by market share and put Singtel at about 40%.
• Simba: Simba traded as TPG Telecom until April 2022, when it renamed itself in a nod to the Lion City nickname after passing 500,000 subscribers.
• Simba: The fourth network's spectrum came from the new entrant auction of December 2016, where TPG Telecom bid S$105 million for 60 MHz: 20 MHz in the 900 MHz band and 40 MHz at 2.3 GHz, for 4G services.
• Simba: IMDA suspended its review of Simba's planned takeover of M1 in May 2026 after learning that Simba may have used radio frequencies not assigned to it, which would breach the Telecommunications Act 1999 and its licence. IMDA is investigating and will take enforcement action if the breach is established.
• M1: The Simba and M1 merger application was withdrawn on 11 June 2026, after IMDA had suspended its review on 18 May, and the review is closed. Singapore therefore still has four separate mobile networks.

Older networks in Singapore

• Singapore began switching off 2G on 1 April 2017 and completed the shutdown by 18 April 2017. The sale of 2G-only phones had already been stopped from 1 January that year.
• Singtel, StarHub and M1 announced in July 2023 that 3G would retire from 31 July 2024, when it carried about 1% of subscriptions. Retailers were barred from selling 3G phones, and 4G phones that fall back to 3G for voice calls, from 1 February 2024, since such phones lose calling once 3G is gone.
• M1 began retiring its 3G network on 1 August 2024 after moving every 3G customer across. Singtel and StarHub gave their last 3G users more time and planned to start retiring 3G from November 2024. IMDA also stopped the import and sale of 3G mobile devices from February 2024.
• IMDA's statistics count 3G broadband subscriptions as ceased from November 2024, and every mobile subscription recorded since then is 4G or 5G.

5G in Singapore

• In April 2020 IMDA chose Singtel and a StarHub and M1 joint venture to build two nationwide standalone 5G networks, requiring coverage of at least half of Singapore by end-2022 and nationwide coverage by end-2025. Other operators reach these networks through wholesale access.
• Singtel and the StarHub and M1 joint venture each paid a clearing price of S$55.01 million for 100 MHz of 3.5 GHz spectrum, and Singtel added an assignment bid of S$2,100,128 to secure the block it preferred.
• Each of the four operators holds 800 MHz of millimetre wave spectrum. There was no premium for it: M1, Singtel and StarHub bid only for placement, at S$250,001, S$750,128 and S$1, and TPG Telecom was then assigned the remaining two 400 MHz lots.
• In the November 2021 auction of 2.1 GHz spectrum for 5G, Singtel paid S$65 million for 25 MHz of paired spectrum and TPG Telecom paid S$31 million for 10 MHz. Bidders asked for 70 MHz in total, 10 MHz more than was on offer.
• Winning 2.1 GHz spectrum bound TPG Telecom to build its own standalone 5G network, reaching at least 50% coverage within two years and nationwide coverage within five years of its rights starting on 1 January 2022.
• At the end of December 2025, about 3.16 million of Singapore's 9.83 million mobile subscriptions were on 5G, roughly one in three, and the mobile penetration rate stood at 160.9% of the population.

Network notes for Singapore

• IMDA requires each 4G network to deliver a signal of at least minus 109 dBm across more than 99% of outdoor Singapore. It checks with phones on drive tests that cover housing estates, town centres, outdoor recreation areas and above-ground MRT track.
• Indoors, IMDA requires 4G coverage above 85% in each building it tests. In its April to June 2026 check of the same 60 buildings, M1, Singtel and Simba passed all 60 and StarHub passed 58, with failing buildings given four months to improve.
• Singapore's 5G@SEA testbed, co-funded by IMDA and the Maritime and Port Authority, chose M1 to provide standalone 5G over the southern offshore waters, aimed first at letting harbour pilots guide ships from shore rather than climbing aboard.
• In June 2023 Singapore had 26 subsea cables landed across three landing sites, and its Digital Connectivity Blueprint set out to double the number of landing sites over the following ten years.
• As of February 2026, new submarine cables may land only at three designated sites, Changi Site 1A, Tuas West and Tuas South, and each new system must first obtain an IMDA facilities-based operations licence.