Singtel, Singapore Telecommunications Limited

Singapore Telecommunications Limited, trading as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate and the country's principal fixed-line operator, as well as the largest of its four major mobile network operators.

Singtel, Singapore Telecommunications Limited

Basic information
Founded	28 March 1992
Legal Structure	Public conglomerate
Industry	Telecommuncations
Also known as	Singapore Telecommunications Limited
Official website	https://www.singtel.com/

Anti-Consumer Practices

• Singtel charges customers an additional S$10 per month to enable bridge mode on their Optical Network Router (ONR) — a configuration that allows customers to use their own router rather than Singtel's provided equipment. This is a software-level toggle that can be performed remotely or in minutes by a technician, yet Singtel has historically dispatched engineers and attached an ongoing monthly fee to it. Community discussion on HardwareZone (thread1, thread2) documents widespread frustration, including reports of Singtel offering bridge mode only as part of a S$78/month gaming bundle, refusing standalone requests entirely. At least one customer was told bridge mode was "no longer offered" before being redirected to the gaming bundle as the only available option. Singtel has developed custom firmware for its ONR devices with vendor-specific VLAN features, and critics argue this lock-in is a deliberate design choice that cripples the use of third-party routers regardless of their quality^[1].
• To save costs, Singtel uses interconnection facilities not in Singapore which means any traffic would have to travel all the way to Hongkong or Japan (closest contracted facilities)^[2]. Additionally, they set up peering agreements with certain companies to ensure that their traffic doesn't suffer this. In addition to that, they advertise a 12.22 SGD/month add-on service with WTFast^[3] if you want these issues dealt with.

• My Singtel App Vulnerability — Account Data of ~330,000 Subscribers Exposed (2017, fined 2019) ^[4] Singtel's My Singtel mobile application contained a design flaw in its API that allowed users to access other customers' account details by manipulating API parameters. An anonymous informant alerted the PDPC in May 2017, and investigations found that approximately 330,000 customers were put at risk of unauthorised disclosure of personal data — including names, billing addresses, account numbers, and mobile service plans. The PDPC found the vulnerability to be a well-known and preventable security risk, noting it had been listed in OWASP's top 10 critical web application security risks since 2013, and that Singtel had previously identified a similar flaw in a 2015 penetration test but failed to conduct a full code review thereafter.^[5]

Singtel's services span mobile, fixed voice and data, pay television, content and digital services, infocomms technology (ICT), and equipment sales:^[6]

• Fibre Broadband (SingNet) — Residential and business fibre broadband plans delivered over Singapore's national fibre network, ranging from 1Gbps to 10Gbps tiers. Broadband is provisioned through Singtel's ONR (Optical Network Router) hardware.
• Mobile Plans — Singtel's core retail product, offering postpaid and prepaid mobile plans across its 4G and 5G networks. Singtel's 4G outdoor coverage reached 99.41% in Singapore, ranking first among local operators.