True 3g

[paveet]

Just would like to report that I've been using True 3G around Silom/Rama 4 area for the past few hours. It works quite well and gets ~2mbps local and ~1mbps international. They now have quite good coverage for most inner Bangkok areas. I heard it's been free since around May during their testing period and I haven't had any money deducted from a prepaid SIM i bought specifically for this.

The only catch is that it's on 850Mhz, which is really an American band (used mostly by AT&T). Most phones here are single band 2100Mhz or dual band 900/2100Mhz, but the iPhone 3G/3GS should support this. I'm using a Sierra Wireless Compass 885 USB data dongle from Pantip (3,600 Baht).

[monty]

What upload speeds are you getting?

And latency (international)?

[nikster]

yes iPhone 3GS supports it, as should most other smartphones. 850 is listed as a GSM frequency in the iPhone specs, but apparently that also means it can do 3G over it.

[paveet]

Latency is basically the same as True Internet plus about 40ms because of the nature of connection (going over UMTS/HSDPA rather than DSL). Ping results:

lax.speakeasy.net (US West Coast): 250ms average

nyc.speakeasy.net (US East Coast): 338ms average

www.bbc.co.uk (UK): 333ms average

www.names.co.uk (UK): 366ms average

www.gameserver.hk (Hong Kong): 124ms average

www.singtel.com (Singapore): 77ms average

www.isp-thailand.com (local): 52ms average

Speeds are better today than yesterday.

Oh and if it matters to you, you don't get a public IP (unlike DTAC EDGE).

(Edit to add more details)

[Lorin]

What sim card you bought from True exactly? Did you tell them its for 3G connection, or they all enabled automatically? Prices and conditions?

[paveet]

I think any new True SIM cards bought now would be okay. I just went into a 7-11, asked for a SIM card paying 1 Baht for it. I filled in 90 Baht just in case, called 9779 (or something) which told me to press 2 to enable GPRS/EDGE/MMS on your phone (you could probably also try their contact center 1331). An SMS will come to you comfirming that it has been enabled, took about 10 minutes for mine.

Put the SIM card into the 3G USB data dongle and then I connected, making sure to enable 3G only mode on the dongle (because 3G is free and if you're out of range it wouldn't automatically fall back to GPRS/EDGE which isn't free). I still have 81 Baht left on the SIM card after 30 hours of surfing!

[Jiu-Jitsu]

See my post in Mobile Internet.... for a cheap(275 baht) 3g dongle if you are eligible.

[lopburi3]

Noticed True 3G with a desk inside Ram Intra expressway Lotus in Latphao today so must be coverage outside of central area now.

[monty]

Unfortunately my PDA doesn't do HSDPA on 850 Mhz...

Actually it can, but strangely enough when I switch to that band (850 & 1900 Mhz), my GSM radio also switches to that band, so I luse my phone signal (and gprs when outside of 3G rage)...

HTC touch diamond (with GenY 2.10 Rom)