DTAC 2300 MHz Launch

mtls2005 · June 4, 2018

I guess DTAC is going to turn up their 2300 MHz spectrum (60 MHz wide, TDD so up to 600 Mbps, on band 40) on Wednesday, 6 June 2018. I guess TOT are leasing equipment from DTAC (DTN), for their customers, and DTAC customers can also roam on this network. I guess there have been at least 10 cells in Bangkok running for a while. It might be network dtac-T/MCC=52047? I haven't quite figured out what one needs to do to enable this service, assuming your phone supports 2300.

They also have some phone promotion tie-ins.

http://www.dtac.co.th/network (in Thai only, might work better with Firefox?)

http://www.dtac.co.th/blog/en/newsroom/tot-and-dtn-sign-agreement-to-launch-4g-lte-tdd-on-2300-mhz-spectrum-for-first-time-in-thailand.html

https://www.dtac.co.th/en/network/dtac-2300mhz.html

mtls2005 · June 7, 2018

I saw this new network at Phrom Phong, Ekkamai, Asoke today.

My phone's network status jumps from 4G to 4G+.

If your phone is capable (*2300# send) then you can use this network; that is, I didn't need to change any settings.

TallGuyJohninBKK · June 7, 2018

Yup, DTAC is calling their new service TURBO. But, LTE 2300 Mhz, band 40, is not available on my ASUS phone, nor is it available on my backup Motorola phone.

I wonder how common provisioning of LTE Band 40 (2300 Mhz) is among the phones here. My ASUS model was a Thai bought/worldwide version, while my Motorola is a U.S. bought/U.S. market phone. And both have a pretty long list of LTE bands provisioned, just not 2300 Mhz.

http://www.dtac.co.th/blog/en/newsroom/dtac-launches-dtac-turbo-a-more-advanced-mobile-network-with-more-capacity-for-a-smoother-experience.html

mtls2005 · June 7, 2018

5 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I wonder how common provisioning of LTE Band 40 (2300 Mhz) is among the phones here.

~ 70% of the handsets here (not sure if that's installed base, or phones currently available for sale?).

I wouldn't expect a U.S.-variant to support this band, other than say, higher-end phones.

My two most recent purchases: Nokia 7 Plus (13,900 baht), Xioami Mi A1 (4,990 baht) both support LTE Band 40. My U.S. phone (Moto G6) does not support this band.

60 MHz is a nice wide slice, given that most tranches have been 15 MHz, including the upcoming 1800 MHz auction, and getting two adjacent 15 MHz slices is challenging given there are three bidders.

TallGuyJohninBKK · June 7, 2018

4 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

~ 70% of the handsets here (not sure if that's installed base, or phones currently available for sale?).

I think it would be the latter (phones currently available for sale) if anything.

Because, in reading DTAC info about their new service, at one point, their info mentioned that 25% of their total customer base is still using 2G phones/service.

edwardandtubs · June 7, 2018

10 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

I saw this new network at Phrom Phong, Ekkamai, Asoke today.

My phone's network status jumps from 4G to 4G+.

If your phone is capable (*2300# send) then you can use this network; that is, I didn't need to change any settings.

That number is telling me my Xiaomi Redmi 4X is not compatible, even though it supports that band according to this website:

https://www.frequencycheck.com/models/GBYRR/xiaomi-redmi-4x-global-dual-sim-td-lte-32gb-mag138-xiaomi-santoni

Edited June 7, 2018 by edwardandtubs

mtls2005 · June 7, 2018

7 hours ago, edwardandtubs said:

That number is telling me my Xiaomi Redmi 4X is not compatible, even though it supports that band according to this website:

I'm not sure that USSD command is entirely accurate, as both my phones returned a similar "incompatible" message, and yet, I was able to utilize this new network on both.

My sense is that they are matching your IMEI number up against a list which is not yet fully populated?

Your phone appears to support LTE Band 40, as would nearly all LTE-capable phones sold here.

TallGuyJohninBKK · June 14, 2018

Just an add on about this. As MTLS mentioned above, DTAC is having a variety of promotions associated with their new Turbo service, both for service plans and for new mobile devices, particularly if you switch from another carrier to DTAC via MNP (Mobile Number Portability), before the end of June.

One of their MNP handset promotions caught my eye. But it's now turned into a weeklong ordeal that's still not reached its conclusion, though I'm hopeful that may come in the next couple days.

http://www.dtac.co.th/en/mnp/

Under the "Device Special Offers" tab, they have a Samsung J7 Core on offer for 490b, plus a 1500b deposit that you get back as a 150b bill discount each month over 10 months, and you must sign up for a 599b or better monthly calling/data plan for one year. All of that was/is OK with me. Especially since these phones support Band 40 2300 Mhz for DTAC's Turbo service, and none of my current mobiles do.

So then the process begins, applying for MNP of another existing Thai mobile number I have via the DTAC website in order to quality for their promotion. First barrier -- when it asked for ID or passport number, their system actually appears to ONLY accept a Thai national ID number, meaning the rest of us (farangs) are technically locked out. Now, AFAICT, nowhere does the website say the promotions are only available to Thais. But, hey, this is Thailand, so no problem, won't use one of my mobile numbers, but instead a spare unused prepaid SIM my wife has sitting around in her name.

So, then reapply in her name and with the existing, unused SIM she had from another carrier, True. Fill in her Thai ID, do all the other related stuff online, and the DTAC site says we've been accepted and wait a couple days. So we wait a couple days, and then finally get an SMS message from True saying our MNP has been denied because we have an unpaid amount on our account.

Well, it's a prepaid SIM, we don't have any unpaid amount, and it has a positive balance. So in the first of MANY ensuing phone calls, I'm on the line to DTAC to find out what's going on with my MNP app, and then over to True, where in the first call, I'm told that despite what their SMS specifically said in English, an unpaid bill really wasn't the problem. The problem was, the SIM had some kind of top-up status "privilege" promotion associated with it, and True won't allow SIMs with top-up "privilege" promotion to be MNPd.

OK, so over the phone with True, the first rep says no problem, he can remove the "privilege" from the account, especially since it's not something we ever paid for or explicitly had asked for on the True SIM. So he says he does that and everything should be OK. But the next morning, before trying again with DTAC, I figure I'll call and talk to True again just to reconfirm. So I get a second True agent who assures me after checking that everything is now OK. So we hang up, and as I'm about to reapply with DTAC, the same second True agent calls back to say she was wrong, and they hadn't completely fixed the problem yet, and she'd call me back again when they did later in the day.

Then finally later in the day (today), she calls me back to say everything is really fixed now and True will allow their number to be MNPd to DTAC, and I proceed to reapply to DTAC, a process that's pending in process now. Meanwhile, I'm getting about a dozen SMSs from True offering all kinds of different promotions if I'm willing to cancel the MNP out of True.

Now, this whole process began on Sunday, and it's now Thursday night and still not completed. Probably spent 2 hours on the phone or on hold along the way. And still not sure what the final outcome is going to be.

All I can say is, if I ever get the discounted Samsung phone and the new DTAC Turbo service, I certainly hope it will have been worth the hassles of getting there.

Edited June 14, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

mtls2005 · June 15, 2018

I didn't read the entire post but the MNP process probably added a layer of complexity?

A friend, already with DTAC/postpaid, just got an S9+ (256 GB), with 2,300 baht off (special one-day Turbo promo), plus another 800 baht off for using K-Bank credit card, plus another 11,500 off, balloon payment of 4,000 against 10 months of service at 899. The entire process took ~ 15 minutes in a DTAC shop in Mega Bang Na.

TallGuyJohninBKK · June 15, 2018

6 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

I didn't read the entire post but the MNP process probably added a layer of complexity?

A friend, already with DTAC/postpaid, just got an S9+ (256 GB), with 2,300 baht off (special one-day Turbo promo), plus another 800 baht off for using K-Bank credit card, plus another 11,500 off, balloon payment of 4,000 against 10 months of service at 899. The entire process took ~ 15 minutes in a DTAC shop in Mega Bang Na.

DTAC has regular promotions, and then also MNP promotions for people willing to switch over from a different carrier. Obviously, taking advantage of the MNP device purchase discounts requires going thru the online MNP process.

Perhaps if the True Move SIM my wife had didn't have the so-called top-up "privilege" status attached to it at the outset by True, the MNP process would have gone quicker and smoother, like it's supposed to.

But I thought it was equally interesting, and one of the main reasons I posted, was that DTAC's online MNP process to obtain the promotional pricing on their device discounts apparently rules out farangs using their passports as IDs and only accepts Thai national ID numbers. Whether that would also be the case if someone attempted to do an MNP/discounted device thru a DTAC shop, I don't know.

Jdiddy · June 16, 2018

May give it a go, they better have 3xCA carrier aggregation turned on for the whole 3x20/60mhz

And if they do 4x4 mimo and QAM256 the speed could go up to ~1000mbps download

Edited June 16, 2018 by Jdiddy

mtls2005 · June 17, 2018

Seems a bit asymmetric, more so than Band 1/3 for my phones, on which I see 105/45 Mbps.

I honestly don't really need these sorts of speeds.

TallGuyJohninBKK · June 17, 2018

On 6/14/2018 at 11:09 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Just an add on about this. As MTLS mentioned above, DTAC is having a variety of promotions associated with their new Turbo service, both for service plans and for new mobile devices, particularly if you switch from another carrier to DTAC via MNP (Mobile Number Portability), before the end of June.

One of their MNP handset promotions caught my eye. But it's now turned into a weeklong ordeal that's still not reached its conclusion, though I'm hopeful that may come in the next couple days.

http://www.dtac.co.th/en/mnp/

Under the "Device Special Offers" tab, they have a Samsung J7 Core on offer for 490b, plus a 1500b deposit that you get back as a 150b bill discount each month over 10 months, and you must sign up for a 599b or better monthly calling/data plan for one year. All of that was/is OK with me. Especially since these phones support Band 40 2300 Mhz for DTAC's Turbo service, and none of my current mobiles do.

e MNP out of True.

Now, this whole process began on Sunday, and it's now Thursday night and still not completed. Probably spent 2 hours on the phone or on hold along the way. And still not sure what the final outcome is going to be.

All I can say is, if I ever get the discounted Samsung phone and the new DTAC Turbo service, I certainly hope it will have been worth the hassles of getting there.

Just to close the loop on this, I finally completed the MNP-based discounted new mobile phone purchase on the terms and price I had signed up for above via the DTAC website. But let me tell you, it's a HORRIBLE, FRUSTRATINGLY BAD process that took two full days and countless phone calls and SMS messages and emails back and forth between me and DTAC.

The problem and challenge is, you have to complete the phone purchase online via the DTAC online store. And to do that, you need them to give you a web link for the phone you want at the agreed upon discounted price, and then also a related discount code to enter. And getting both of those from DTAC was virtually impossible for the better part of two days.

Along the way, I got DTAC reps who said (wrongly) my account wasn't entitled to any phone purchase discount, I got sent to the wrong links to their website several times. I got sent to sites where I was given either the wrong phone from what I had requested or the wrong price for the phone I had requested. And their store site doesn't apparently work well via either Firefox or Chrome, and so the only browser that would get their pages to display properly (for completing all the purchase details) in the end was Internet Explorer.

I asked the DTAC staff lady who finally got me across the finish line after a half dozen wrong/mistaken efforts what happened and why it went like that. And she said, sometimes the process works OK, but a lot of times customers have similar problems in actually being able to execute the discounted phone purchase per the promised terms.

All I can say is, I was quietly inside ready to go get a gun more than a few times along the way. But on the outside, I stayed calm and persistent and exercised the patience of a saint, got the phone in the end, and lost most of my weekend in the process.

Ahh, and just to restate something I mentioned above, at one or more points in the process, their system required using a Thai ID number instead of a farang's passport number. So I had to do the purchase via my Thai wife's name, and AFAICT, I wouldn't have been able to do it myself if I was just trying to do it myself alone.

Edited June 17, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

HampiK · June 18, 2018

10 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Ahh, and just to restate something I mentioned above, at one or more points in the process, their system required using a Thai ID number instead of a farang's passport number. So I had to do the purchase via my Thai wife's name, and AFAICT, I wouldn't have been able to do it myself if I was just trying to do it myself alone.

Maybe with a Pink ID for foreigner this would be possible as well?

mtls2005 · June 18, 2018

On 6/16/2018 at 5:07 PM, Jdiddy said:

May give it a go, they better have 3xCA carrier aggregation turned on for the whole 3x20/60mhz

And if they do 4x4 mimo and QAM256 the speed could go up to ~1000mbps download

I think the theoretical top-end on this current DTAC/2300 implementation is 600 Mbps. At least that's what has been put forth in all of the press materials.

Jdiddy · June 20, 2018

On 6/18/2018 at 12:57 PM, mtls2005 said:

I think the theoretical top-end on this current DTAC/2300 implementation is 600 Mbps. At least that's what has been put forth in all of the press materials.

Pretty neat, i might do some tests as this is a hobby of mine

However i cant seem to find a pre-paid DTAC package that has a speed higher then 100mbps

TallGuyJohninBKK · June 21, 2018

Got my new Samsung mobile on a postpaid plan the other day that's compatible with DTAC's new 2300 Mhz Turbo service. And DTAC sent along a helpful SMS to explain a bit about how to recognize when you've got that new network.

I went in to the cell network settings on my J7 Core and manually selected the "dtac-T" network per the instructions in the SMS.

But nothing on the home screen of my phone appeared to give any indicator of that. I still just saw the same "4G" tiny indicator at the top of my phone's home screen display.

But then when I swiped down to display the notifications pane on my phone, I noticed this little "dtac-T" indicator at the bottom of my home screen. With the notifications pane swiped down, I can see it. But it disappears when the notifications pane is swiped away, at least on my Samsung model.

But I still see the correct dtac-T 520047 indicator when I doublecheck the status in LTE Discovery:

TallGuyJohninBKK · June 21, 2018

I ran a couple back to back speedtests comparing the LTE on my DTAC Turbo service with my regular AIS LTE, using both Netflix Fast and the TestMy.Net server in TX, U.S.A., and the DTAC service fared better. But it's also a brand new network with presumably fewer current users.

Netflix Fast:

AIS LTE