Getting a Fibre broadband plan in 2020: MyRepublic Edition

Every ISP has a variety of plans to offer customers, but how do you actually make a reasonable choice and be sure you're getting what you need - both the plan type and its accompanying router choice? We shed some light.

By Team HardwareZone - 3 Sep 2020

Fiber broadband for 2020 and beyond

There are so many home fibre broadband bundle packages in the market that it can be confusing for homeowners to pick the plan that best suits them. That’s in addition to the many router choices and new technologies, such as Wi-Fi 6 and Mesh Networking that have blossomed in recent times.

But fret not. We are here to help.

Firstly, we have compiled a quick FAQ that will assuage your modern-day broadband needs and concerns.

1) Why get broadband when mobile data is almost unlimited?

It’s a fair question. But what many fail to see is that broadband is simply just more widely available. Most households in Singapore today would have an Optical Network Termination box (or ONT), and with that you can almost certainly get home fibre broadband. 4G coverage (and future 5G), however, is a lot patchier, with most networks covering somewhere between 75% and 95% of the island. 3G usually has better coverage, but with far slower speeds. More crucially, home fibre broadband is simply more reliable. Broadband has much lower latency (that's less lag, if you’re a gamer) for things like online gaming, streaming and video calls.

2) Gaming vs. non-Gaming fibre plans, what's the difference?

Generally speaking, a gaming fibre plan usually offers higher speed than non-gaming centric ones. But being subscribed to MyRepublic’s gaming fibre plan also means that the connection is optimised to reduce lag. Lag is usually easy to fix – it simply means finding a better route to game servers, often located in other countries. As a consumer, you can’t really do that on your own. The good news is that someone else can. MyRepublic optimises internet traffic, creating customised routes to these servers to give you a much better and faster connection. The company’s GAMER 1Gbps plan, for example, boasts the #1 download speed s on Steam.

3) What about Wi-Fi 6? What is it?

To put it very simply, Wi-Fi 6 (previously known as 802.11ax) is the next generation of Wi-Fi. It still does the same basic thing – connect you to the Internet – with additional technologies to make that happen more efficiently, speeding up connections in the process.

How fast, you ask? The short but incomplete answer: 9.6Gbps. That’s up from 3.5Gbps on Wi-Fi 5 (or 802.11ac).

The real answer: both of those speeds are theoretical maximums that you are unlikely to ever reach in real-world wireless use. And even if you could reach those speeds, it’s not clear that you’d need them. But the fact that Wi-Fi 6 has a much higher theoretical speed limit than its predecessor is still important. That 9.6Gbps doesn’t have to go to a single computer. It can be split up across a whole network of devices. That means more potential speed for each device or computers, as Wi-Fi 6 wireless routers can also manage simultaneous connections that will greatly improve home Wi-Fi performance. The caveat here is that these devices have to be Wi-Fi 6 compatible too.

4) What’s Mesh Networking?

Mesh networking simply refers to a wireless distributed system. In other words, all mesh nodes can cooperate and contribute to the distribution of data in a network. This is particularly useful in solving the problems of Wi-Fi dead spots in homes, as it gives homes the ability to have multiple access points (nodes) and these access points can cooperate to expand Wi-Fi coverage.

The single best thing about mesh networks is that it broadcasts a single SSID and promises seamless switching between the nodes. Simply put, you should not experience any drops in connection as you move around your home - provided that there are enough mesh nodes to cover your home. This is especially useful if you live in a large or multi-storey home.

Mesh networks also have one quality that has nothing to do with their actual function: form and usability. These units don’t look like traditional routers. The setup process and management tools are also user-friendly, and once configured, you do all your network management from an app, including rebooting the router, creating guest networks, and so on. This is great for techies and luddites alike, and the convenience alone is worth the cost of admission for technically illiterate people who just want a working network without any fuss.

MyRepublic Plan Types and which one should you choose?

MyRepublic currently offers the following Broadband Plans to cater to different needs. After all, some only need an Internet connection for web surfing to help in their work or studies while others such as content creators or gamers have higher requirements, and rightly so. Let’s figure out which plan works best for you.

For light Internet Usage

200Mbps Broadband, from S$27.99/mth (24 months contract)

The 200Mbps Broadband is pretty straightforward and is the entry-level MyRepublic plan that will be sufficient if your Internet usage is not intensive and mostly used for web-surfing and movie streaming on platforms such as Netflix or Viu. It is also suitable for small studio apartments with a single occupant, as there are likely to be lesser devices connected to the Wi-Fi router – and hence won’t be greatly impacted by slower broadband speeds.

For general Internet Usage

If you haven’t noticed by now, the most common package offered by MyRepublic (and other telcos) are 1Gbps plans – a sign indicating that the majority of Singapore home broadband consumers are satisfied with the speed offered by such connections – and come bundled with a wireless router. But if you already have a robust and fairly recent wireless router, then starting with a No Frills 1Gbps Broadband plan here is a good idea as it’s more than capable of handling intensive Internet-centric tasks such as 4K streaming, online gaming and fast downloads.

You can also top up $99 on the No Frills Broadband plan and get a TP-Link EC330 AC1900 Router that is actually worth S$199 in retail. It’s certainly not the most high-tech wireless router around, but it’s more than capable of meeting your day-to-day Internet needs.

If your budget allows though, we recommend opting for the ASUS RT-AX3000 Router 1Gbps Broadband Plan (from S$47.99/mth). It comes with the ASUS RT-AX3000 Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 router (worth S$399), which also has commercial-grade Security and more importantly, Mesh ready (with ASUS AiMesh Wi-Fi system) too. But more importantly, it supports 160MHz bandwidth and 1024-QAM for dramatically faster wireless connections, with a total networking speed of about 3000Mbps — 574Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 2,402Mbps on the 5GHz band. This makes the RT-AX3000 fast enough for most of today’s online games.

For intensive Gaming, Streaming and Content Creation

If your broadband needs require specific tweaks and customisation, for example, custom routings to game servers, then MyRepublic’s GAMER plans have your back. Custom Routing is a feature that’s unique to MyRepublic’s GAMER plan, and customers under any of the GAMER plans are assigned a specific dedicated IP address range. This allows MyRepublic’s team of engineers to specially shape the routes GAMER customers use to connect to overseas servers - specifically game servers - customising their experience and optimising for online gaming performance. This gives gamers under the MyRepublic GAMER an advantage against their opponents in online matches. Remember when we talked about latency/lag on the previous page?

ROG GT-AX11000 wireless gaming router (Source: ROG)

Naturally, the best gaming plan should rightly be paired with the best gaming routers in the market. Our pick goes to the ROG GT-AX11000 (1Gbps) GAMER Plan, because quite simply, there’s no other wireless gaming router like it. The winner of our Wi-Fi 6 Router Shootout, gamers can look forward to features like Game Radar and data prioritization, whereas other features like DFS (dynamic frequency selection), real-time traffic monitor, and remote management via the ASUS Router app, makes it easy for users to manage and optimise their connection. Parents will also be happy to know that the ROG GT-AX11000 has the most robust parental control settings.

It's also pretty expensive (S$699) in the market, but the router bundle with MyRepublic means that you’re essentially paying for it at a heavily subsidised price.

For large or multi-storey homes

Perhaps you live in a multi-storey home or that your ONT box was installed in an unfortunate part of the house that also meant the router’s Wi-Fi range is limited. Sure, you could install Range Extenders but these are really only signal boosters that work by amplifying an existing Wi-Fi signal. And if the Wi-Fi signal was already weak to begin with, what good is amplifying it?

Mesh networks, on the other hand, are far more sophisticated - which also explains their higher costs. Rather than simply amplify or boost a signal, a mesh networking kit often consists of two or more routers or nodes. One of the nodes will be used to connect to your existing router or modem and will broadcast Wi-Fi like any other router, and you can expand coverage simply by adding more nodes to the network. Data will then be transmitted through these nodes to reach your client devices wherever you might be in the house.

If you’re looking at setting up a Mesh network, MyRepublic currently has two different bundles.

The Google Nest Wifi is a tried and tested, reliable option but if wireless speed is key then consider the TP-Link Deco X60 Wi-Fi Mesh bundle instead, as it supports Wi-Fi 6 speeds of up to 3,000Mbps. This gives you the freedom of future-proofing your home network - so even if your router is on the ground floor, you’ll still get to enjoy speedy Wi-Fi 6 connections on the upcoming new generation of consoles such as the PlayStation 5.

TP-Link Deco X60 Wi-Fi Mesh (Source: TP-Link)

Note: MyRepublic’s broadband plans and prices listed are updated as of 3rd September 2020. For the latest pricing and promotions, please check out their website.

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