Singtel retains Singapore’s best mobile network crown as StarHub races ahead on speed, Opensignal says

Consistent Quality tests whether a network clears the thresholds demanding applications need, folding in throughput, latency, jitter, packet loss and time to first byte. Singtel scores 84.7 percent, StarHub 78, SIMBA 70.7, M1 68.7. Singtel is the only operator to improve since December, widening its lead from 2.6 percentage points to roughly seven.

5G Coverage, which measures reach where people live, work and travel rather than raw land area, goes to Singtel on 9.5 out of 10, with M1 and StarHub tied on 9.0 and SIMBA on 8.9. Singtel also retains 5G Availability at 79.9 percent, ahead of StarHub’s 70, M1’s 67 and SIMBA’s 31.4, though StarHub’s score climbed 12 percentage points since December.

Where StarHub and M1 win

StarHub defends overall Download Speed at 172.7Mbps, ahead of Singtel’s 164.4, M1’s 146.6 and SIMBA’s 25. The 8Mbps gap over Singtel matches December, when StarHub won on 155.9Mbps. The standout is M1, up 23Mbps or 18.5 percent, the largest gain of any operator and the first clear local evidence that its completed Standalone migration is reaching customers.

On 5G Download Speed, M1 records 305.5Mbps and StarHub 302.4Mbps, close enough to fall inside Opensignal’s confidence interval and be treated as a tie. Singtel follows on 294.8, SIMBA on 39. M1 won this outright in December. The near-identical result is expected rather than coincidental: M1 and StarHub share their nationwide 5G Standalone radio network through Antina, the joint venture the two established in 2020, competing separately only on pricing, plans and service.

StarHub takes overall Upload Speed from Singtel with 25.3Mbps against 24.2, M1’s 21.8 and SIMBA’s 6, having added 5Mbps, more than 20 percent. Singtel takes it back on 5G, winning 5G Upload Speed outright on 34.4Mbps ahead of StarHub’s 33, M1’s 32.7 and SIMBA’s 9.2. M1 and StarHub had shared that category in December.

StarHub also holds Video Experience on 74.3 points, with Singtel on 73.2, M1 on 72.4 and SIMBA on 66.7. Opensignal rates the first three Very Good, meaning 1080p or better with minimal buffering, and SIMBA Good.

On Time on Network, nobody loses. M1, Singtel and StarHub all record 99.5 percent and SIMBA 99.3 percent, all four statistically tied. Opensignal renamed this metric from Availability in late 2025 to make clear it tracks connected time, not geographical reach.

The market underneath the scores

In Opensignal’s December report, the defining event in the market was SIMBA’s proposed acquisition of M1, an all-cash deal valuing the business at S$1.43 billion. Opensignal noted the combination of the two smallest telcos could benefit consumers, while flagging that rival MNOs and MVNOs had raised concerns about the wholesale market and about handing the merged entity a structural advantage on spectrum.

That deal is now dead.

Keppel has not closed the door, saying it still believes the sector needs consolidation. SIMBA continues to operate and to cooperate with the investigation, and its reliability score suggests the uncertainty has not reached the network. StarHub has moved the other way on consolidation, buying out the remaining shares in MyRepublic.

All four operators now offer nationwide 5G Standalone coverage, though M1 and StarHub have completed the migration from Non-Standalone while Singtel keeps a small share of customers on NSA. Singtel has separately partnered with Ericsson on 5G Advanced, aiming at an AI-enabled programmable platform for enterprise workloads, work that sits outside the scoring window.

How Singapore looks from outside

Opensignal’s Global Mobile Network Experience Awards 2026 rank Singtel, StarHub and M1 as Global Leaders for both Download and Upload Speed Experience, alongside South Korea’s KT and LG U+, Finland’s DNA, Telia and Elisa, and the Netherlands’ Odido. SK Telecom is the outright Global Winner on both. All four Singapore operators, SIMBA included, make the small land-area leaders list for time on 4G or 5G, with Taiwan’s Chunghwa, FarEasTone and Taiwan Mobile, Denmark’s Norlys, 3 and Telenor, the Dutch KPN, Odido and Vodafone, and Austria’s Magenta. LG U+ tops that table on 99.8 percent.

City-level comparisons flatter Singapore less. Opensignal’s November 2024 APAC benchmark put Seoul first for 5G reliability and consistency on 925 out of 1,000 and 85 percent, with Tokyo, Taipei and Sydney next and Singapore fifth on 896 points and 79 percent. Singapore also came fifth for 5G availability on 37 percent, barely ahead of Bangkok on 35.9, with Mumbai top. Being small is not the advantage people assume.