StarHub takes MyRepublic 4G customers from M1

The reference needs unpacking for anyone who has not been following the MVNO market closely. redONE Mobile ceased operations in Singapore on 30 June 2026, six years after entering the market in 2019 with a proposition built around Malaysia-Singapore cross-border data. Its customers were steered towards eight, a rival MVNO that styles its name in lower case and, crucially, already runs on StarHub’s network. Subscribers were offered free 5G SIM cards, up to two months of free service and the ability to keep their numbers.

From a customer’s perspective, which telco’s logo appears on the SIM matters far less than whose network carries the traffic, as some prefer to use a specific carrier.

Singapore’s MVNO market is thinning out

Three virtual operators have left or been absorbed in seven months.

The pattern predates this year. Grid Mobile shut in December 2021, sending customers to GOMO or Vivifi depending on their profile.

Singapore’s MVNO market has competed almost entirely on price, and a look at current plan pricing shows how far that has gone. Several providers now sell 500GB or more for around S$10 a month, and cost per gigabyte across the market has roughly halved since late 2025. Consumers have done well out of it. Operators buying wholesale capacity have found it harder to make the numbers work, and survival has become its own form of differentiation.

The broadband backstory, and a brand oddity

StarHub bought MyRepublic’s broadband business outright in August 2025 for S$105.2 million, picking up the remaining 49.9 percent equity stake it did not already own along with key operational assets and the MyRepublic brand in Singapore. The deal comprised roughly S$94.3 million for the shares and more than S$10.8 million for assets and brand, with the equity payment largely offset against an existing S$74.2 million loan from StarHub to MyRepublic.

The timing then was notable too. It landed one day after Keppel announced it would sell M1’s telco business to Simba, a deal market watchers had expected StarHub to make.

What StarHub did not buy was MyRepublic’s mobile business, which stayed with MyRepublic Group along with its New Zealand operations and digital platform arm. That produced an unusual arrangement: StarHub owns the MyRepublic brand for broadband in Singapore, while a separate company continues to sell mobile services under the same name.

This week’s announcement does not change that ownership structure. It changes whose network the mobile side runs on.

Anyone tracking network performance will spot a further wrinkle. In Ookla’s H1 2026 Speedtest Connectivity Report, MyRepublic was named the fastest fixed ISP in Singapore, with a median download of 479.34Mbps and a median upload of 394.39Mbps. That business now belongs to StarHub.

What MyRepublic customers need to do

Right now, MyRepublic customers can just sit back as the telcos sort things out. 

“There is no need for MyRepublic 4G customers to do anything at this stage,” said Vaughan Baker, MyRepublic’s group chief executive. “Our customer service team will be in touch soon to ensure a smooth network transition.”

StarHub says customers will keep access to its nationwide 4G and 5G network throughout the transition.

Two practical questions the announcement leaves open. Neither company has said whether affected customers will need a new SIM card, which redONE customers did when they moved to eight. And no timeline has been given for when the migration begins or completes.

Customers on M1-dependent features, particularly anyone who chose MyRepublic on the strength of M1’s coverage in a specific location, may want to pay attention to how their signal behaves once the switch happens. In Opensignal’s July 2026 report, StarHub led the market on download speed at 172.7Mbps against M1’s 146.6Mbps, though M1 held a narrow lead on 5G download speed and the two operators share 5G infrastructure through the Antina joint venture in any case.

In that sense, the announcement is about more than moving customers from one network to another. It highlights how Singapore’s telecommunications market continues to mature, with collaboration increasingly becoming as important as competition in shaping the next phase of mobile connectivity.