I signed up for the Simba (previously known as TPG) 50GB SIM only plan and here is what I think about the plan

 

Well, I was quite annoyed by Starhub unstableness. It's like I can have super laggy moments at home with my wifi right in front of me. Not to mention that I'm still on 3G and it can be dead slow - like taking a minute to refresh a webpage.

At the worst, it affected my GrabFood deliveries - like I got disconnected and then couldn't receive any jobs. I also cannot complete a job because the connection was too weak or unstable.

Anyway, I did previously signed up for the TPG free trial. It was not too bad, except that I couldn't get it to work on my mom's iPhone 6S+. It worked on my iPhone 7+ and iPad Mini 2. I remembered it to be pretty smooth for my usual usage. I didn't test it in the undergrounds but my cousin reported that it didn't have any connection underground.

However, this time round, TPG promised better connections and more coverage. But is it true? Let's find out!

The TPG 50GB SIM only Plan

50GB SIM ONLY PLAN

$

10

 

For 30 days

 

50GB DATA

+1GB Roaming Data

to selected countries

300 Local Call Minutes

30 Local SMS

.

To be honest, the plan is very attractive because its a lot of data for such a cheap price. You cannot find another Telco that is cheaper than this! 

$10 for 30 days of 50GB 4G data, 300 call minutes and 30 SMS is quite a deal!

Connection 

I'm using the SIM plan mainly for GrabFood, Youtube, online Shopping and some light social gaming (Clash of Clans and Clash Royale). My area of activities will be around my neighbourhood area whereby I'll be doing my GrabFood deliveries. Occasionally, I'll head down to the central area of my Zone.

I first tested the reception in my own house, just the reception, not the connection and speed as I'll still be on Wifi. The reception was full bar in my living room but when it gets to my room, it went down a bar. I don't know what to say about it but it doesn't seems like good news. I've not gotten anything less than full bar in my own house with my 3G Starhub plan. (Unless, Starhub is having problem)

So my plan was activated on 23rd October and I've been using it for a week now. To be honest, TPG isn't the most stable network and the coverage is limited as of now. They promised to expand their coverage over the next quarters but I guess they should work harder on maintaining stability of their network first.   

For now, I feel TPG is not a good plan to use for GrabFood or if you need fast and stable connections on the go. I've encountered "No service" twice within the 7 days I've been using the card and the longest lasted for up to 10 minutes.

Reception is not good in (some)lifts and can get to just 1 bar of reception. That is as good as my previous 3G line, which can get weak in lifts too. I didn't see the improvement I expected from 4G line, except that, maybe YouTube videos did load slightly faster.

There was also once that I was randomly connected to "Celcom" (I think it's a Malaysia Telco) and then notified with an SMS "Welcome back to Singapore". Although the roaming data wasn't used, I don't really like the scare. What if it happens again and I'm being charged for data roaming?

We're looking at $3 per GB of roaming data once exceeding 1 GB.

Only support VoLTE calls

The TPG 50GB SIM only plan doesn't support calling and you need a phone that supports VoLTE to be able to make "normal" (call time) calls (not Whatsapp calls, Whatsapp calls work just fine). Although my phone model should support VoLTE, the option is not available when I tried to set it up, which means I cannot make VoLTE calls. 

TPG provided an alternative solution which is to download an App "TPG 4G Voice" and you call make and receive calls via the app. I've tried calling out with it and it did work. I got my sister to call me and I'm able to receive the call. I've chat over the app and it seems pretty clear though not that smooth, with short lags but it doesn't affect the conversation much.

Updated: By the way, a downside for GrabFood delivery partners is that, if you can't make VoLTE calls, you cannot call the customer at all! Because when you call via the Grab Driver App, it will not connect you to the TPG 4G App to make the call. You also can't manually call the customer via TPG App because you won't have their number (privacy protection). You can only call the hotline or chat with Grab CS to have them call the customer on your behalf.

OTP SMS

I've not tried to activate anything with my TPG number but a number of users have reported that they cannot received the OTP for their signups. It's believed that TPG could have blocked some 5 digits phone numbers from the servers hence the OTP cannot get through.

Well, this sucks big time as many of the apps and signups requires an OTP!

Charged Twice

I just realised this mistake when I was checking my bank balance earlier. TPG has charged me twice for the plan. What happened was that, while I was making payment for the first time, there was an error message saying payment failed after I entered the OTP and so I thought it didn't get through. So I tried a 2nd time, only then the payment went through without any error. 

But then I realised that both payment went through, so I actually paid $20 for the plan! I've emailed their support and surprisingly I got a respond the next day. They asked for some information which I gave them and they swiftly responded on the next working day stating they would investigate and then refund if there really is a double payment. Refund may take up to 21 days though... which is pretty slow in my opinion. 

A reminder to all who had signed up or planning to sign up for TPG plans, many users have complained about being double charged or randomly charged to their credit cards. Some reported still being billed AFTER emailing to terminate their plans!

I think it's safer to inform them about cancellation much early before your next bill date. Say give them 2 weeks notice. That is what I plan to do as I don't think I'll carry on with this plan, at least not until it becomes more stable.

To be fair, I definitely won't recommend TPG as your main line especially if you're always on the go or need constant connection like for food delivery, but it will make a nice and cheap secondary/backup plan when your main plan is running out of data. Over the last few days of using, the connection seems to have been a little more stable.

Updated (03 May 2021): Erm... they've yet to refund me the double payment as they promised... even after I sent them a 2nd email in December last year -_-" But I was too lazy to contact them a 3rd time! Anyway, plan was cancelled in December last year, as it's not ideal for GrabFood. It's quite OK for normal use if you don't travel around a lot.