lomatopo

RS International Broadcasting and Sport Management Co Ltd owns the local rights. Not sure how they plan to distribute content? One press release said 22 (of the 64 matches) will be shown on free TV (Ch. 7?), including the semi-finals, and finals; not sure which other matches might be included in these 22? For all matches you might need a new RS STB? Streaming options, via the internet, may be limited to re-streamers.

The NBTC lost their case, in the Central Administrative Court, which would have required distribution on free OTA channels here, but they are appealing to the Supreme Administrative Court. Hopefully things will be sorted out on/before 12 June.

http://rs.listedcompany.com/news.html/id/399481/group/newsroom_press

No discount that I'm aware of....and 50 baht isn't much of a deposit to pay for the convenience.

If you have ever seen the 15 - 20 minute wait for change, and the 10 - 15 minute wait at the ticket machine, then you'll understand that a deposit of 50 baht is well worth the five year convenience.

As others have highlighted, and is evident in the link, purchasing "rides" or "trips" can represent a significant discount, assuming you travel more than two or three stations per trip, and can use your trips within 30 days.

I think the bulk per trip rate ranges from 22 ~ 27 baht for adults, and 16 ~ 21 baht for a student. There is also a discount (~ 50 %) for a Senior Rabbit Card.

http://www.bts.co.th/customer/en/images/TicketType.jpg

Maybe best to review the Terms of Service associated with your contract to get a feel for what your service entails? Maybe contact 3BB if you feel they are limiting your service outside the terms of your contract.

3BB FTTx 30/3 "Home" service is 2,490 baht/month, but on promotion now for 1,200, while the 30/3 "Business" service is 6,300 baht/month.

http://www.3bb.co.th/3bb/product/details/2253

"The Company reserves the right to provide services. In the event the connection speed lower than the speed specified in the service package selected factors or due to technical limitations and network. Including the number of users at that time."

I think they have no choice but to limit usage in order to provide a reasonable level of service to all their customers. Internet access, and especially international bandwidth is a shared resource.

You could contact 3BB to determine what their policies may be, how they impact you, if there are any options.

You could also subscribe to more business oriented services which may come with service level agreements; these tend to be quite a bit more expensive.

Can you describe this "recording/downloading" service in a bit more detail? Do you choose specific shows? What format are these in? "Recording" is a different process than watching "live-ish", aka streaming, correct? Maybe some screen shots would help?

Being able to download five separate files at an aggregate of 8 Mega-bits per second, presumably over an international link is impressive.

If you stop all downloading activities, are you able to browse the internet to your normal sites? Can you connect to and view Youtube videos?

I still think you are going to have to ramp up your technical knowledge to the point where you can access your router's management system, determine what DNS servers you are using, perform pings and traceroutes.

Maybe more people are visiting the village from the big city, and are using the internet, creating additional congestion? You do realize that the internet bandwidth is a shared resource and if everyone were using 8 Mbps something would have to give.

Based on the vague, confusing and disjointed information you've provided my best guess is that your connection is working acceptably but you are experiencing some issues with TOT's internal network.

The first thing I might try is to change your DNS servers within your router - maybe accessible using a browser to 192.168.1.1, with a default username of "admin", and a PW of "TOT"?, to something like 8.8.8.8 and/or 8.8.4.4; these are Google DNS servers.

In addition to GrabTaxi there is also Easy Taxi and Uber. There are also many radio dispatch services, e.g 1681, and private limo companies. You can also chat up local drivers who may take you, at a pre-arranged time, for a negotiated flat rate.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ubercab

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grabtaxi.passenger

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.com.easytaxi

http://www.fromatob.com/taxi/bangkokth

Since there are so few customers/passengers, and still plenty of taxis, I seriously doubt you'll have a problem.

Are you pre-paid? Want to stay pre-paid? Want to change to post-paid? Want to change your plan/promotion, add mobile data?

Just stop in a True shop, they should be able to give you new uSIM, port you out, map your old number to your new SIM. There may be a fee of 29 baht for this service. Not sure if you, or they, will want you to port to TrueMove H or RealFuture?

TrueMove, TrueMove H and RealFuture are all parts/brands of TrueMove, or the TrueMobile Group.

Approximately how many connections (individual wires running) are currently being made to the local tower? Does this service have a name, if only on your bill?

Do you live in a fairly remote, rural area?

It could be that you are sharing a single, limited radio back-haul from this tower back into the TOT network - DSL, a small shelf, is being used for local connections. All the local voice and data traffic needs to get muxed (combined) for transmission, and voice will get priority. So if more and more people start making mobile calls the bandwidth remaining for data will decrease proportionally. There could also be some sort of issue with the equipment at this tower as a result of the power loss.

suggested to my wife we go to somone else's house in the village who has internet connection from the same tower. When we did this we found the same problem.

So I'm guessing you have TOT Wi-NET service; it usually helps if you can provide at least some basic background on the type of service.

Assuming TOT Wi-NET, my next best guess is that there is some localized equipment/back-haul/up-link issue from the tower into the TOT network. Given that a neighbor has the exact same issue, this is a decent guess. Likely a result of the power hit.

What DNS servers are you using?

Can you try some traceroutes to your DNS server(s)?

Can you try testmy.net to Singapore?

Please try to use exact terms like Kbps (Kilo-bits per second) or KBps (Kilo-Bytes per second).

I'm guessing that up until this power loss, your download speed seemed to average 7 ~ 8 Mbps? What about your upload speed? But now your download speed is 1 Mbps? I guess you should really pick one, single method for measuring speed, and stick to if comparing your current situation with your previous situation. I wouldn't necessarily rely on an actual, live, "Speedometer" reading, other than to say that you'll see a lot of fluctuation.

All one has to do is link all ATM transactions to the bank's SMS service. Then, literally as soon as any transaction take place using the card (POS or cash withdrawal or payment) one receives a phone message

The SMS service/notification is definitely a plus, and the small fee (10 baht/month ?) is definitely worth it, but some have reported being the victim of fraud while traveling outside the country where SMS notification was not available. And I'm not certain how timely the flow of information is from a Russian bank - where a cloned card/PIN might be used, to the Thai Bank, for issuance of an SMS alert?

Also note that many banks have a 25,000 baht minimum daily limit on the low-end, so best (of a worst) case you're going to be out 25,000, assuming you get on to the bank ASAP, which I agree is better than 200,000.

Some here have recommended the two account plan, one of which has the bulk of your funds and no ATM/Visa debit card associated with it, and the other, with an associated ATM card, has a limited amount of funds. I've been meaning to do this but just have never gotten around to it. I have a BBL Be1st chipped card, and an SCB account with a standard ATM card, but I keep funds in the SCB account of less than 25,000 baht - I just withdraw cash from BBL and deposit it into SCB to avoid any transfer fees.

FWIW, Fidelity's Visa Debit card credits the 150 THB local ATM fee immediately, the credit shows as the same date as the associated withdrawal, and there are no additional charges or fees.

Also, Bank of America charges $ 3.00 (three dollars) for an ACH to BBL/NY, which is reasonable IMO (BBL/NY charges a flat fee of $10 or $20 depending on amount, and BBL/THL charges up to 500 baht in-bound), you can originate

that from Thailand on-line assuming your mobile from the U.S roams here, which T-Mobile does now - so you can receive an OTP, otherwise you need to get SafePass card.

That happened to me with Regions Bank. I was changing my mailing address from one forwarding service to another. They wouldn't do it at first because "The computer says so"

This is becoming more of an issue these days. I've run into a few on-line retailers who've rejected orders based on the ship to address being a mail processing company. Not sure, maybe they've had some fraud issues and check the address - requiring a bill to and ship to, to be the same, which is easy to do these days with Google Maps and Streetview.

Banks have to be a bit careful re: federal and state regulations, and associated tax implications.

There have been a fair amount of threads on this topic here over the years so a search might yield additional detail, options and recommendations?

Probably best to check with AIS to get a feel for the current promotion/plan and associated top-up/validity scheme associated with the SIM/number/account, and to see what options might be available. AIS, via the new 2100 MHz subsidiary (AWN) is a bit behind re: extended validity. In the olden days AIS allowed for cumulative top-ups, up to 365 days, but on newer SIMs the maximum accumulated validity is +60 days. Some have reported maintaining accumulated validity even after transitioning to AWN.

TrueMove H just transitioned to accumulated validity, so each top-up gives another 30 days, and 12 top-ups would give 360 days. DTAC has the Day Giveaway plan, which allows users to purchase extra validity at the rate of 3 baht/30 days, up to 365 days max.

Very generally speaking, and assuming there is no need to have the SIM in hand, it is always easiest to maintain the SIM in country, given the many, many, many top-up options, along with easy access to customer service.

My best guess, at this point, is that TrueMove ported you from TrueMove to RealFuture, but that's just a guess. I suspect that if they had ported you to TrueMove H you would be able to roam onto either Telstra or Vodafone. RealFuture may not yet have roaming partners in Australia or has not yet extended their roaming agreement to cover RealFuture (2100 MHz) customers.

Do you know which 3G bands your Alcatel 3G smartphone supports?

If your DTAC SIM works you may want to change the telephone number at your bank? I had to do this recently (SCB and BBL), and it required an in-person visit, with passbook and passport.

You can buy extended validity, for a reasonable fee of 3 baht per 30 days, with DTAC via the Day Giveaway service. http://www.dtac.co.th/en/prepaid/services/freeday.html

Looking down from the passing BTS train, it looked fairly wet on Soi 4 at ~ 12 Noon.

You should plan for random, rather than wholesale, acts of wetness today.

Ok, I got on to True Move chat. We did a few things like change the phones and went from 2G to 3G and pulled SIMS out and then put them back in. Off and on a few times and still not working.

The chat staff think there is a problem with my SIM and if I bring it in they will replace the SIM with same number free of charge. She said it all appears to be working ok, can not see any problem and has credit and validity until Sept. 14.

OK, thanks for your help guys, i have exhausted all avenues, cheers.

Have you been able to determine if they have ported you out of TrueMove (MCC/MNC: 520-99) and into TrueMove H (520-00) or into Real Future (520-04)?

What is the make and model of your phone?

What country are you currently in, and which local provider had you used successfully before?

Current TrueMove IR partners:

http://truemoveh.truecorp.co.th/international_services/roaming_services/entry/615

http://truemoveh.truecorp.co.th/international_services/roaming_services/entry/618

https://www3.truecorp.co.th/assets/files/Website-RF-Post-IR-Tariff-1-Mar-2014.pdf

I guess it could be a SIM issue, or a local partner connectivity issue, or the local partner is not able to authorize your SIM.

We have had a few new 3BB DSL installs over the past month or so, all in new housing developments, and there was no fee from 3BB or any other party for pulling cable. This could be a result of an exclusivity arrangement with the property management company?

Note that 3BB does not provide traditional analog telephone service on their DSL installations, as do True and TOT (again in DSL applications), just in case that may be a requirement.

FTTx and DOCSIS access technologies may use coax, copper or fiber for the final run to premises.

There was an ATM skimming fraud last November at a few ATMs in/around All Seasons Place. Reports in the press said that skimmed cards were cloned and "observed/stolen" PINs were used at banks in other countries (Russia and Ukraine, I think).

I have a feeling that while EMV-equipped cards are more secure than magnetic strips, nothing is really 100% secure and thieves will eventually figure out how to clone/copy/reproduce chipped cards.

ATM skimming is a problem everywhere, regardless of the capabilities of local law enforcement.

Based on all the details you've posted I think you'll be fine.

It sounds like TrueMove proactively ported you from TrueMove to TrueMove H, which is a good thing as TrueMove's service will end Sep. 15, 2014, - they probably assumed you were in Thailand, and during this process your international roaming was disabled, or the new TrueMove H subsidiary does not yet have a roaming partner in your country, or the new partner offers service on a frequency which your phone does not support.

Maybe just plan to sort this out when you arrive in May?

http://www.bts.co.th/customer/en/01-ticket-type.aspx

Many options: single-journey, one day, quantity of "rides", stored value. The standard Rabbit stored value card is 50 baht (non-refundable) + 50 baht (refundable) + 100 baht (stored value), so 200 baht in total.

Using a card of any type is more about saving time (queuing for change, queuing to use the ticketing machines) than saving money.

You can review the plans currently on offer, with the link provided, and sort out something that meets your requirements.

You could go with the Net 250 plan, but you'll need to manage your usage as you will pay per min/MB once you go over 1 GB.

Your TrueMove H air-card is probably locked to TrueMove H, but only you can determine this for sure. Most air-cards can be unlocked.

https://www.google.com/search?q=747+ramkhamhaeng&espv=2&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=mxNGU8S2McaErgeLyIDADg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAw&biw=1920&bih=979

http://www.renegadetravels.com/abandoned-747-airplane-bangkok-suburb/

IME, some (most? all?) branded aircards are locked to the promoting provider, this is legal here. They may be able to be unlocked reasonably easily.

I always recommend an unbranded device, although these may be more expensive.

That said, if you only plan to use TrueMove H then I'd recommend you buy an aircard/SIM combo from them as they have great service/coverage.

I wouldn't worry about the higher speed, more expensive option, just buy the least expensive combo. You won't notice a difference.

Yes, these devices require a SIM (some standard.mini, some micro).

http://www.totalaircard.com/

For use here I would recommend a device which supports (minimally) 850/2100 MHz 3G.

There are dozens of mobile data plans - most recommend a monthly, unlimited, volume-based plan as this reduces the possibility of incurring additional charges. You can get 1 GB for ~ 430 baht; 2 GB for ~ 645 baht.

If you understand your data requirements, and speed is not a concern, there may be other, most cost-effective options: smaller, capped volume-based, time-based, etc.

http://truemoveh.truecorp.co.th/3g/toppings/iplay/entry/654

DTAC and AIS are other options.