Problems with Internet in Singapore

An update on 1.5 years ago with Why Singapore Internet sucks. This is in the context of HSG.

HSG is stuck with M1 until 2016-02-09, since we were connected after 3+ month delay due to OpenNET 'capacity issues' on 2014-02-10.

(The other day I heard of a company waiting FIVE MONTHS for an OpenNET connection)

Switching cost far too high

Locked into a recurring two year contract. We tried to switch but M1 said we renewed per contract which as a Hackerspace we were unaware of (until it was too late) and we can't get out of. To compound the issue, we are unable to upgrade from 100Mbps to 1Gbps IIUC until 1 year has elapsed of our recurring contract.

Update: 930SGD pcm for 1Gbps Internet http://s.natalian.org/2014-11-25/M1-quote-1Gbps.pdf

Business versus residential line cost

Same service, 2+ times price difference, that's if you can get a clearly priced business package. Usually it has to be negotiated down from some crazy price.

Singapore ISPs have no status page / no accountability

{M1,Singtel,Starhub} do not have a status page like https://aastatus.net/ or http://status.aws.amazon.com/#AP_block

We never know what service quality we are getting, whether it is getting worse or better. (International) Bandwidth is another matter entirely which seems variable and opaque.

No static IPs / IP allocation service / IPv6

Making home/office hosting dependent on unreliable dynamic IP aliasing... Therefore any reliable Internet service is forced to centralise onto "the Cloud" which is usually much more expensive despite what AWS et al would like you to believe.

Conclusion

As a Hackerspace we are locked for years with uncompetitive Internet and we are unable to reasonably host any project at the Hackerspace.

We are forced to beg for Cloud credit and we are unable to run anything bandwidth intensive.