Circles.Life Taiwan

Someone knows how to resume a suspended account (i paid for suspension until 1.1.2023 but return earlier now (today actually).
I cannot find anything in the app

Try contacting them via chat or phone?

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Yep, chat was the fastest solution. I had send an email to some hours ago but chat activated it within 30 minutes.
There was some solution using OTP via message but the message didnā€™t arrive on suspended number (I think possible via Backup number, not sure who and if received that OTP as I couldnā€™t figure out the number they had there). For up to 10 months leaving Taiwan suspending is the easiest solution, next time just contact chat the day before or drop the message via the help/contact point the say before

I signed up to circles.life because the month-to-month contract seemed appealing.
All functionality has to be done from their mobile app, which is only in Chinese and region-locked to Taiwan. My app store region is not Taiwan, so I canā€™t download the app. I canā€™t even read the bills, because I would need the app to do so.

Iā€™d say that itā€™s all quite inconvenient.

If youā€™re on iOS, you can create a second account and switch between the two accounts. Unfortunately, many apps (banks, restaurants, ā€¦) are only available in the Taiwanese AppStore.

For me, the app is actually a mixture between Chinese and English - definitely easier to navigate than E.Suns app for exampleā€¦

App is in English for me.

Iā€™m on US Play Store still so I download it from APKPure

Yes, use another account with the location set to Taiwan. Google Play Store allows me to switch between accounts easily. The main benefit of using the app for me is to earn free talk timeā€¦

Will Circles Life be able to port my number from Taiwan Mobile if Taiwan Mobiles used my passport number instead of ARC number on the account?

Also another question, does circles work with cellular Apple Watches? Iā€™m thinking if buying one :slight_smile:

Iā€™ve been using my phone to create a hotspot for my laptop, for a year now, so I decided to buy a second line and a 4G router to create WiFi in my apt.

Well, so I get my new sim, pop it into my router (one I paid about 3,000nt for because it says it uses two channels of the 4g signal and combines them into one to give you nearly double the speed), and I gt about 20 mbpsā€¦

On my phone, with my main line, I get 60-90 mbps, and same for the laptop when connected to its hotspot.

So, I put the new sim into my old phone, and it gets 10 mbps down and 2 mbps upā€¦

I emailed them and shared my speed test, and they said that was a normal speed :rofl:

So, I try swapping the SIMs on my two phones. With the new SIM in my main phone, I get 20mbps. 1/3 of what I usually get. On the old phone with my main SIM, Iā€™m getting the same <10mbps bs.

Very weird.

That old phone used to be my main phone, and my speeds were always fine.

So Iā€™m back to just creating a hotspot and not using the new account at all. Their support people have no explanation ā€“ they just said itā€™s not designed for a router and so I might not get good speeds on it. I tried resetting all the networks settings and everything on the old phone, but it doesnt help.

It definitely doesnā€™t make sense that with my main phone I get such diff speeds with the two diff sims.

Anyone have any ideas?

It could be an issue with 4G bands. Not all phones / 4G-capable routers necessarily support all 4G bands.

Not sure if that website is to be trusted, but it would imply that CHT uses LTE bands B3, B7 and B8. You could try to check if your devices actually support these.

Thatā€™s the thing tho ā€“ with the same phone I get 3x the speed on my old sim as the new sim. Itā€™s a Pixel 6 Pro.

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I never used them, but you might get more insights trying some of those apps.

https://www.androidpolice.com/2019/04/13/how-to-check-your-lte-4g-band-signal-strength-and-more-on-android-phones/

LTE has many iterations and a lot of features which can be on or off, depending on the SIM settings.

Ah, sorry - I misunderstood your posting.

If they actually limit certain LTE bands for newer cards, that would actually be a really bad thingā€¦

In theory, there might also be some kind of traffic prioritization at work - itā€™s not unheard of that providers reduce the priority and / or speed if youā€˜ve gone over a certain data usage in a specific periodā€¦

But still a bit strangeā€¦

You may need to do many speed tests over a longer duration to be able to get a reliable notion of what kind of speeds you can get.

Also, some 4G routers have very underpowered 4G modems.

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On the router, it did show bands 3, 7, and 8, as qwert_zuiop mentioned.
I bought, I think, the most expensive 4G router I saw, as it was the only one that supports ā€œ4G Cat6ā€, which is strangely named but has to do with combining the channels and not cat6 cables.

I used a signal measuring app just now on both my new and old phones and the old phone only shows 3g which is weird. The phone def supports 4g, and I used it before with good speeds.

Iā€™ll try swapping the SIMs now and see what the Pixel says with the new sim.

Iā€™ve used the hell out of my data for the past year, as itā€™s been my only source of internet. But itā€™s that year-old line thatā€™s fast, and the brand new one is slow. I couldnā€™t find a way to simply add a line either, itā€™s a whole separate account.

ok so swapped the SIMs again.

Pixel phone + new sim = blazing fast. 75-100 mbps down. 12 up
old phone + old sim = slow as ass

This isnā€™t what I was experiencing yesterday. Pixel had really slow internet with the new sim.

So it seems like an issue with the old phone and not the SIMs

But trying the router again, I get max 20 mbps down, and it builds up to that, whereas on my phone it jumps straight to top speed immediately. Hmm

Try this app:
Network Cell Info Lite

It can show signal strength and phone band on your phone.

Seems your old phone/router doesnā€™t support all bands. But sometimes itā€™s also just chance into which band your phone puts priority. - plus not sure that the SIM card or chunghwa allows dual band usage.

Iā€™m also going around 150-200GB per month and no speed limits. Just notice the difference to 5G of other people, but yeah most chunghwa users likely are on 5G already so circles life just serves them to keep 4G running because itā€™s too early for switch off.