AIS Fibre - slow download speeds from North America in Bangkok?

[user82374298374]

I just moved from one condo building to another on the same soi; I had AIS Fibre at the old location with 50mb/sec (the maximum the building wiring plant could support), and am now on a 75mb/sec download plan in a newer building.

 

At the old building, I'd typically get around 22-26mb/sec downloading from North America, which is about right, taking into account TCP RTTs.

 

At the new building, I'm getting 3-4mb/sec; downloads from within Thailand and Singapore are 75mb/sec, Japan around 50mb/sec, so it's obvious I'm being throttled on transpacific traffic.  Upload speeds to North America are around 15m/sec, which also lends creedence to the download traffic being policed down.

 

Is anyone else experiencing this problem with AIS Fibre in Bangkok?  So far, zero luck with support.

 

Thanks!

Edited April 4, 2018 by disambiguated
Typo.

[jackdd]

You could ask the people here, also on how to benchmark to get a comparable result:

 

 

[user82374298374]

Thanks - I don't need to ask anyone anything of that nature, as I'm quite technical.

 

What I'm looking for is anecdotal observations of slow download speeds from North America via AIS Fibre in Bangkok, if folks are seeing this problem.

[Thian]

Lately i have the same issues with connections to N-Europe. It was very fast but since a few weeks especially at night it's slow...too slow.

 

 

[suzannegoh]

Have you tried connecting to your US-based speedtest website through a VPN?  I've not had speeds as slow as you indicate with my AIS Fibre but I've encountered cases where using PIA's VPN has greatly sped up traffic to certain US-based websites.

[user82374298374]

Yes - this isn't some kind of flow-based traffic policing which a VPN will help elude, unfortunately.  It's straight bps-based policing, AFAICT.

[suzannegoh]

Yes - this isn't some kind of flow-based traffic policing which a VPN will help elude, unfortunately.  It's straight bps-based policing, AFAICT.

If you connect through a VPN server in Singapore or Japan, then what type of speeds do you get to the US?

 

 

Maybe I'm missing something but you say that you are getting 75 Mbps speeds to Singapore and 50Mbps to Japan, and that you suspect that the problem is with AIS throttling transpacific traffic. So then connect through a VPN server in Singapore or Japan and if the traffic to the US is still slow, that would mean that the bottleneck is someplace outside of Thailand. And if its not still slow, then you'd have a solution to the problem.

 

 

 

 

 

[Grumpy Duck]

22 hours ago, suzannegoh said:

Have you tried connecting to your US-based speedtest website through a VPN?  I've not had speeds as slow as you indicate with my AIS Fibre but I've encountered cases where using PIA's VPN has greatly sped up traffic to certain US-based websites.

I use PIA and usually find US servers are pretty slow. But I don’t bother downloading/uploading large files. So it seldom matters.

My Netflix connections are never interrupted (unless I forget to dc my VPN) I wish I could say the same for my Chinese Android TV box I use for HBO since TRUE dropped it. My building is contracted with TRUE and I cannot switch to AIS. 

[suzannegoh]

Here’s some data, in case it helps someone.  I have AIS Fibre and am paying for the 50/20 package but recently it has been benchmarking at 100 Mbps inside Thailand.  This morning I ran some speed tests from my home in Chiang Mai to Los Angeles using both testmy.net and speedtest.net with no VPN and going though PIA ‘s VPN servers in San Jose, Singapore, Tokyo, and Phoenix, respectively.  The tests were repeated 5 times for each configuration.  The data is presented below, the units are Mbps.

No VPN - speed tested to Los Angeles

        testmy.net              speedtest.net

 Test #    Down      Up            Down      Up

       1    24.1    16.6           49.38   16.36

       2    16.2    16.9           59.15   16.31

       3    10.8    13.7           48.59   16.65

       4     6.7    16.7           61.85   15.22

       5    11.6      17            53.6   16.83

Average:    13.9    16.2            54.5    16.3

 

San Jose VPN - speed tested to Los Angeles

        testmy.net              speedtest.net

 Test #    Down      Up            Down      Up

       1    17.8      17           46.82   18.23

       2    10.8    16.6           30.84    18.4

       3      13    16.5            39.3    18.1

       4    13.5    16.5            31.5   18.16

       5    11.1      17           50.47   18.37

Average:    13.2    16.7            39.8    18.3

 

Singapore VPN - speed tested to Los Angeles

        testmy.net              speedtest.net

 Test #    Down      Up            Down      Up

       1    10.2    13.9           72.56   17.71

       2    12.1    14.2            61.1   17.96

       3     7.5    14.3           40.45   17.62

       4     7.4    14.6           65.37   17.67

       5     7.3    14.5           54.58   17.98

Average:     8.9    14.3            58.8    17.8

 

Tokyo VPN - speed tested to Los Angeles

        testmy.net              speedtest.net

 Test #    Down      Up            Down      Up

       1     1.4     7.6           35.55   17.75

       2     1.3    16.6           38.41   17.31

       3     3.6    16.8           33.18    17.7

       4     3.2    10.9            44.6   17.78

       5     2.2    14.8           45.91   16.21

Average:     2.3    13.3            39.5    17.4

 

Phoenix VPN - speed tested to Los Angeles

        testmy.net              speedtest.net

 Test #    Down      Up            Down      Up

       1    19.3    16.1           50.61   15.56

       2    11.6    15.7           54.85   15.98

       3      14    15.6           45.93   16.36

       4    11.1    15.6           47.03   12.02

       5    11.9    15.6           41.67    11.4

Average:    13.6    15.7            48.0    14.3

 

 

 

Edited April 7, 2018 by suzannegoh

[Pib]

AIS Fibre 200/50 plan in western Bangkok.  Test below to SF run during early night/Sunday prime time (i.e., heavy internet usage) at approx 8:30pm.

 

Testmy.net Single Thread

 

Speedtest.net Multithread

 

Nperf.com Multithread

 

 

[mommysboy]

Speaking as a layman, and having lived here a long time, I reckon there is a great deal of instability.  I just have a cheap connection and sometimes the internet goes out of service with almost no download or upload.  Also, the latency varies greatly and the jitter can be absurdly high.  It just seems to be a quality issue to me.

[ev1lchris]

Have you tried it with a VPN to see if they are discriminating against data from the United States?

[Pib]

Using a VPN may not provide a definitive answer because regardless of what your VPN service provider may advertise about super speed, no throttling, etc.,  with their VPN service, the VPN service may indeed limit the speed of your VPN connection/his VPN servers simply do not have the bandwidth they advertise.   

 

Also, some ISP service providers may throttle suspected VPN connections like how some throttle torrents and other type of connections. 

 

And sometimes it's simply your account with the ISP that's having the international speed problem based on how they have your account setup.  

 

 

 

 

[suzannegoh]

Using a VPN may not provide a definitive answer because regardless of what your VPN service provider may advertise about super speed, no throttling, etc.,  with their VPN service, the VPN service may indeed limit the speed of your VPN connection/his VPN servers simply do not have the bandwidth they advertise.     

Also, some ISP service providers may throttle suspected VPN connections like how some throttle torrents and other type of connections. 

 

And sometimes it's simply your account with the ISP that's having the international speed problem based on how they have your account setup.  

 

 

 

 

 

It's an easy test to run though. The OP is reporting that he is only getting 3 to 4 Mbps on connections to the US and 75 Mbps to Singapore. If using a VPN server in Singapore did not speed up the connection to the US then it wouldn't vindicate AIS - it might just be a slow VPN or his AIS might be throttling suspected VPN traffic. However if the speed to the US improved significantly when going though a VPN server in Singapore, that would suggest that the problem is related to AIS.  

 

6

[Pib]

I agree, but as also said, it "may not provide the definitive answer" if a person's VPN service provider is not as fast as advertised.   I use to be with StrongVPN (I think you were too), but using their VPN service was a lot slower than my current VPN service provider of PureVPN.  

 

I'm going to guess it's just the particular AIS server the OP's account is setup on/the server that handles his current residence and how it interfaces with AIS's international gateway.

 

I've been with AIS Fibre  since mid 2016 and my international speed was always really good. But after around 15 months in being with AIS Fibre during early Sep 17 up until  the morning of 16 Nov 17 my international speed dropped by approx 65% (even to Singapore much less the rest of the world).  However, my domestic/in-Thailand speed remained full speed ahead.   While a few other AIS Fibre folks on ThaiVisa were experiencing a similar problem, others were still getting very good international speed.  

 

At least twice a week for that six week period I was complaining (nicely) to AIS about the slow international speed.  AIS technical support said they tried this-and-that...etc....etc.....etc.   All my home internet devices such as my routers, computers, smartphones/tablet/etc., were all experiencing the slow down.   Then magically on the morning of 16 Nov 17 I was back to full international speed...it was like a kink in my international speed water hose had been removed.

 

How an ISP may data shape VPN connections is another issue.  When I was still on True DOCSIS (cable) I found using a VPN connection would usually speed-up my international connections past Singapore very significantly; but with AIS Fibre I've found a VPN connection doesn't seem to help to speed things up.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pib]

And just for crossfeed, below is Testmy.net single thread download test results to Singapore, San Francisco, and New York done at arppox 10:45am.  I'm on an AIS Fibre 200Mb speed plan.

 

[Pib]

Repeated above tests at 2:40pm today.

[Pib]

And just to close out the day and show tests throughout the day, I repeated above Testmy.net single thread download speed tests to SG, SF, and NY at 9:05pm during primetime at night.   AIS Fibre 200Mb plan in Bangkok.