TallGuyJohninBKK

3BB has a graphic on their website with their complete channel roster for the GigaTV service. It seems to include all the normal Thai broadcast channels, apart from the foreign cable ones like HBO, Cinemax, etc. As I see another member has already posted a link to the full channel list above: https://gigatv.3bb.co.th/channellist PS - 3BB these days also has a website for their regular internet subscribers (not GigaTV) where, with log-in, you can stream the regular Thai broadcast channels.

And the same studies that are being done on the aftermath of Pfizer vaccinations also show that, despite the declining antibody rates over time, the vaccine still has a very high rate of preventing both serious COVID illness and death over those same extended timeframes.

The article you cited provides the obvious answers: "But the combination of the hyper-infectious delta variant with the misinformation-driven refusal by so many Americans to get vaccinated -- some 70 million who are eligible have not received the free shots -- has left the country vulnerable to a virus that continues to adapt and find new victims." All of the above is only an argument FOR more people to get vaccinated, not the opposite as you seem to be implying.

These days, 3BB seems to be offering their GigaTV package including their fiber internet service for the same price as their fiber internet-only package for those who are already on their 700 baht per month 1 GB/500Mbps fiber plan, if you accept a 2-year service contract commitment, or 800 baht per month (100 baht per mo extra) with a one-year service commitment. Comparable deals for their two higher level fiber internet only packages -- TV package for same price with a two year commitment, or only 100 baht per month extra with a one year commitment. https://www.3bb.co.th/3bb/product/register

Couple of things: --it's not uncommon for Android TV devices to NOT support the most popular Android browsers via their Google Play Store connections (ie. the browsers simply aren't listed in the Google Play Store for those devices). None of my various ATVs do. However, as explained above, it's pretty easy to install and use the "Downloader" app from the Play Store, [ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.esaba.downloader ] and then use that to access other alternate Android app stores via their websites such as APKPure or Aptoide that allow you to install/sideload regular Android apps, including browsers like Firefox and Chrome. (The Downloader app includes a basic web browser functionality that can be controlled with the regular ATV remote control). In contrast, the reason ATVs don't generally support the main Android browser apps is they're designed for touch screen devices like mobile phones and tablets, whereas the ATV OS is not touch screen but instead remote control-clicker operated, and the remote clicks won't control the Android browser apps. Thus, to use Android Chrome or Firefox on an ATV, you'll need to use something like a Bluetooth mouse or some Android mouse app that will allow you to use and control the Android browser apps. --from everything I've seen and found, there should be THREE different ways to access the 3BB GigaTV content. 1. use the Android TV box from 3BB that has all their content built-in. The box will connect to your 3BB router either by LAN or dual band wifi. 2. use your own Android TV box, and then install the 3BB GigaTV Android app on your own Android box (access the app in the Play Store requires a Thai IP). 3. streaming the GigaTV content in a web browser by logging into the GigaTV website using your 3BB/GigaTV log-in ID and password. https://3bbgigatv.com/login

In looking last night, the HBO GO website for Thailand says you can subscribe directly to them, without going thru or needing 3BB, for 149b per month. But you do have to connect via a Thai IP address. It won't work with a non-Thai IP address. https://www.hbogo.co.th/

I was trying to find the same kind of info. My wife has a domestic flight back into BKK in the coming weeks. And in looking at both the AirAsia and Nok Air websites, they appear to be relatively useless for current COVID rules info. The AirAsia site has a link to a Ministry of Interior website that, just fyi, is entirely in TH and only appears to respond if you're using a Thai IP connection. https://www.moicovid.com/ข้อมูลสำคัญ-จังหวัด/

I think you misunderstood my comments. I didn't NEED to do my 90 day report as part of doing my extension at BKK CW. I WANTED to see if I could do my 90 day report at BKK CW as part of doing my extension, so I wouldn't have to worry several weeks later about whether or not the online reporting sytem was going to be functioning at that time. As I was preparing to go for my extension appointment, I had heard BKK CW (in a major change from recent practice) was allowing people to do 90 day reports as part of extensions, instead of sending them off for a separate trip/visit to MTT. And that's in fact what occurred.

MJ is great as a replacement U.S. home phone service to use in Thailand. The paid version works out to cost about $3+ per month (paid on an annual basis) and includes a real U.S. phone number and unlimited U.S. calling via VOIP, as well as regular SMS text messaging and calling via their Android and IOS apps. The only area where MJ falls short is that its SMS system isn't compatible with financial institution short code SMS messages typically used to send log-in codes and similar. But other than that, it's a service I've kept and continually used ever since I moved to Thailand, and expect to continue using long into the future.

The PM2.5 AQI numbers in BKK have been creeping up off and on over the past week, and the normal start of the Thailand smog season is approaching here at the end of Sept. and moving into October. Bangkok today is showing some red area/unhealthy for all PM2.5 readings in a few areas, and a lot of orange area/unhealthy for sensitive group readings in many more areas. Today, I found myself having to turn on my indoor HEPA air purifiers for the first time in months, based on the indoor PM2.5 readings my sensors are showing at home. https://aqicn.org/city/thailand/bangkok/chulalongkorn-hospital/

Perhaps you missed the post below that exactly paralleled the prior reports I had mentioned above:

If I find a merchant outside Thailand that will ONLY deliver a package here to Thailand via FedEx or DHL, I won't buy from that vendor. I'll find a different vendor with better shipping options that will allow me to receive the package into Thailand without extortionate upcharges. It's never happened to me, but in the past, other members here have reported the following: Getting a huge customs duty bill for a pending package from DHL or FedEx, disputing and fighting with them over it, with them refusing to make any adjustment, and then the recipient finally saying, OK, then I'm refusing to accept delivery and pay those fees... And then a week or so later, the same package is delivered to their home by FedEx or DHL without any payment of the demanded duty whatsoever... But I wouldn't count on that scenario as something I'd rely on! ????

You don't use them, if you know they have a tendency to charge inflated/extortionate customs duties if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones. FedEx and DHL don't have a total monopoly in the handling of shipments being sent into Thailand.

Any idea how their service would operate in a situation where you wanted to keep your will and other estate/financial stuff secure in that kind of box -- in terms of a wife/husband being able to access it in the event you have passed away?

That's a pretty interesting report, and tells you everything you need to know about how Thai customs mis-operates.

I can and I have here in the past.... But I haven't used FedEx or DHL for package deliveries into Thailand for many years.... after having some packages delivered by those services where the total amount of duty and VAT they charged exceeded the real/actual value of the items being shipped.

In a vast number of packages I've sent to Thailand over the years, the normal charge for USPS/Thai Post delivered packages of personal electronics has been 7% VAT at most, and often no charge at all. In the rare case where any actual Customs duty has been charged, it's been a pittance to the amounts FedEx and DHL have wanted in the past. Thailand has a duty exemption for packages valued at 1500 baht or less ($45-50 US)... But just lately, I shipped a $125 mobile phone from the U.S. via USPS, valued it correctly in the customs declaration based on that market value purchase price, and it was delivered to my home by ThaiPost with zero added charges (no duty or VAT).

Just to give a real world illustration, I happen to have a 5 lbs. package (which would be about the weight of a typical laptop) pending in the U.S. shipping service I use awaiting forwarding to Thailand. This below is a chart of the shipping rates for that package with my re-shipper, comparing the USPS rates vs those of FedEx and DHL for exactly the same 5 lbs. package. And then the higher customs fees associated with the private couriers make it even worse from there.... (I can't provide a public weblink for this graphic, because the rate chart is private to my personal account with this re-shipping service)

From the U.S., insured USPS Priority or Express Mail are absolutely better choices, and almost guaranteed to only be charged the 7% VAT amount on personal electronics, at most. There also are third-party shippers who don't attract the same kind of excessive/arbitrary customs fees on packages that often are seen with FedEx and DHL delivered packages.

The price I paid is the price the market was bearing on the product. For Customs to come in and start arbitrarily imposing what they think the value ought to be is simply inviting abuse. Then there's also the issue of different countries' product prices. In the U.S., if you're a good shopper, you can often find very good deals on products at discounted price. In Thailand, the same items especially for personal electronics are often much higher priced because of a lack of meaningful market competition.

In my experience with importing personal items into Thailand where FedEx or DHL are the couriers, there's A LOT of potential for the manipulation of customs charges. For starters, there's different customs codes that can be applied to any particular item, some with higher/high duties and some with less. They decide. Then there's how they value your shipment. They're apparently under no obligation to base the customs value on what you actually paid or the item cost, but what they THINK its value should be. Then on top of that, in my experience, those private couriers often aren't just basing their customs charges based on the value of the item itself, but they're also charging duty against the shipping and insurance costs associated with the package, known in the industry as CIF. All of that combines to increase the amount they're likely to charge you duty on. I don't use FedEx or DHL anymore for personal item shipments into Thailand for those reasons. But long ago, before I knew better and that other options exists, I had private courier packages where the total duty and VAT amounts that FedEx or DHL wanted to charge at the Thai end exceeded the total real value of the item(s) being shipped. On the other hand, in the past, I've shipped various personal electronics from the U.S. to Thailand using USPS Priority mail and versions of that, and at most was ever charged just the flat 7% VAT amount other posters have referred to above relating to customs fees on electronics.

If you had read the pertinent article, you would have seen it reporting: "Somewhere around 0.2% to 0.3% of Android users are still accessing the Play Store on Android 2.3 – which sounds small. But there are more than 3billion active Android devices in the world. That suggests somewhere between 6million and 9million active devices will be affected by this change."

As Thailand begins moving toward easing COVID restrictions once again, supposedly for the last time, the above cited Bloomberg article is an excellent read on what the pandemic likely will be in the coming months and years: "Almost everyone will be either infected or vaccinated before the pandemic ends, experts agree. Maybe both. An unlucky few will contract the virus more than once. The race between the waves of transmission that lead to new variants and the battle to get the globe inoculated won’t be over until the coronavirus has touched all of us. “I see these continued surges occurring throughout the world,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and an adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden. “Then it will drop, potentially somewhat precipitously,” he said. “And then I think we very easily could see another surge in the fall and winter” of this year, he added. With billions of people around the world yet to be vaccinated and little chance now of eliminating the virus, we can expect more outbreaks in classrooms, on public transport and in workplaces over the coming months, as economies push ahead with reopening." In short, if the above projections are correct, we and the world aren't likely going to be done with this for a long time to come.

I've seen and quoted here previously the Fortune article you cite above. #1 - The results cited in that article have NOT been peer reviewed. #2 - a good part of the article's info about China vaccines pertains to Sinopharm results, not Sinovac. But of what it has to say about the Sinovac vaccine, this is what it says: "A Brazilian preprint study published last week tracked 61 million people in Brazil from January to June, comparing infection, hospitalization, and death rates between unvaccinated individuals and those who received Sinovac or AstraZeneca jabs. The study found that people fully inoculated with Sinovac reduced their risk of infection by 54% and risk of death by 74% compared with unvaccinated populations. Still, the AstraZeneca vaccine appeared to offer more protection, reducing the risk of infection by 70% and the risk of death by 90%. Sinovac’s efficacy also waned in older populations, reducing the risk of death by only 35% in populations over 80." Sinovac's 54% reduction in risk of infection and 74% reduction in risk of death in that study does not look very good compared to the comparable percentages of 70% and 90% for AZ vaccine recipients. But I will agree with one of the article's conclusions: "The scientific consensus remains that getting a Sinopharm or Sinovac jab is far better than getting no vaccine at all." In the broader scheme of things, as regards the Delta variant, the mRNA vaccines generally have shown the highest levels of effectiveness. Lesser down the scale has been the AZ vaccine, though recent studies have suggested the Pfizer vaccine effectiveness declines over several months after injection to the point of being similar to the AZ vaccine at that point. And then further down the scale of effectiveness is a vaccine like Sinovac, as illustrated by the Fortune report above, which basically means Sinovac is at the bottom of the list of currently approved CV vaccines.

Here you go: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57817591 "However, there is little data about its [Sinovac's] effectiveness against the Delta variant." In general, THAT'S the reason to prefer the mRNA vaccine choices over Sinovac if one has any choice.