3BB surprise: fiber and new router with no price increase

[orang37]

I had seen some installers from AIS in the hood last week, and they said AIS had a ~700 baht fiber plan ... so, I was thinking about contacting 3BB to see if they had similar ... then ...

 

Yesterday, 3BB came by, surprise: said they were here to install fiber and new wireless router (I have a basic 599 baht plan).

 

I braced myself for another dark night of the soul sans internet, but, things went well ... my Thai was good enough to ask them the right techie questions; after about an hour I was up and running (Win 10 x64) with ethernet cable (with wi-fi tested, then, disabled).

 

The router is a big beast, about A4 size, sprouting four antennae. "FibreHome" model branded "3BB," made in China, naturally. Lots of ports.

 

I note that downloads using a VPN connected to a US server are about the same speed as before; however, other downloads are much faster. For what I do on the internet (don't upload other than to occasionally send someone a link to a DropBox file) , I don't sense much difference.

 

One test at dospeednet.com : 

Average Download : 25.09 Mbps
Average Upload : 11.46 Mbps
Capital : Bangkok
Total SpeedTest : 3538

 

using 3BB's test speedtest.3bb.co.th :
Download Speed: 111880kbps 
Upload Speed: 30348kbps 
Latency: 10ms

 

I'd never expect to see that 3BB download speed on any real-world large file ????

 

cheers, ~o:37;

[canthai55]

Did ours a couple of weeks ago. Zero Baht

DL speed almost doubled on those sites we can not mention

Starts with T and you pay the rent

[Gweiloman]

Did ours a couple of weeks ago. Zero Baht

DL speed almost doubled on those sites we can not mention

Starts with T and you pay the rent

Aye, the ol’ skull and bones. I haven’t been having much success in recent months though.

 

I normally try watching a BIT of LORD of the rings

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[Shiver]

I'm on AIS which is 'supposed' to be 100Mbit.   Using the site you posted I got:

75ms / D 41.54Mbit / U 30.09Mbit

 

[Dazinoz]

I have had 3BB about 5 years now and found them to be good, actually better than 2 of the big providers in Oz. Recently my internet performance dropped a lot. I have a thing called a "Fing" box which monitors my network. One of its tasks is to perform a daily speed test and emails results to me at the start of the month for the previous month. Thats how I knew performance dropping. Called 3BB up and they sent tech out who immediately replaced modem for new dual band (sounds as same in OP) and now great speeds even on wifi on the 5Ghz band.

[Dazinoz]

18 hours ago, orang37 said:

One test at dospeednet.com : 

Average Download : 25.09 Mbps
Average Upload : 11.46 Mbps
Capital : Bangkok
Total SpeedTest : 3538

Should that be dospeedtest.com?

[Dazinoz]

Just did my speed check on that website.

[orang37]

15 minutes ago, Dazinoz said:

Should that be dospeedtest.com?

Yes, thanks ! fyi: the VPN I use is NordVPN.

 

~o:37;

[AhFarangJa]

Many Thanks for the post Orang37.

I have been thinking of an upgrade for a while now, so will taking myself to 3BB office to find out more....

[orang37]

5 minutes ago, AhFarangJa said:

so will taking myself to 3BB office to find out more....

 

I used to know a tech there I could talk to, but, he's long gone; I'd bet that most of  the front-desk people at the local ISP's are going to be non-technical. If I were starting over, I'd certainly look around at all the vendors, and try to get information from people who lived in my neighborhood about their current experience ... since location may determine the number of "hops"/switches/routers between you and a really high-speed pipe.

 

I'd definitely post here, and on the TV internet forum, with as much detail as possible regarding my needs/goals.

 

~o:37;

[ardsong]

did a change some yr and half back with TOT from ADSL to fibre , once it reached our village.

got 10 times the DL/UL speed for 200 baht/month less.

half year back, I saw a advert from TOT and got an update for same money but double speed again.

speed in general very good, except some VPN connections at time slow

[Amplish]

Also just did the upgrade and very happy with it. My son told me Fiber should be available where we live and the speed of the VDSL connection we had was really going down hill lately. Made appointment a week ago and they came yesterday, same monthly cost and vastly improved speeds. According to dospeedtest.com:

 

 

I prefer using speedof.me, which tests consecutive larger files and gives a more real world result of 135 Mbps download and 22 Mbps upload. That is at least 4 times more than we used to have at the best of times with the old connection. The main advantage is that now 2 simultaneous Netflix streams don't suck up all the available bandwidth.

[AAArdvark]

53 minutes ago, orang37 said:

Yes, thanks ! fyi: the VPN I use is NordVPN.

 

~o:37;

Were you using the VPN when you did your speed testing, the speeds you gave are very slow for fiber?

[AAArdvark]

17 minutes ago, Amplish said:

Also just did the upgrade and very happy with it. My son told me Fiber should be available where we live and the speed of the VDSL connection we had was really going down hill lately. Made appointment a week ago and they came yesterday, same monthly cost and vastly improved speeds. According to dospeedtest.com:

 

 

I prefer using speedof.me, which tests consecutive larger files and gives a more real world result of 135 Mbps download and 22 Mbps upload. That is at least 4 times more than we used to have at the best of times with the old connection. The main advantage is that now 2 simultaneous Netflix streams don't suck up all the available bandwidth.

Were you using WiFi or Ethernet when you got those results?  Speeds are decent but that Latency is terrible.  I always try to use Ethernet and the ISP's test site to eliminate extraneous stuff.  In the case of 3BB try again at this site:

 

https://speedtest.3bb.co.th/ 

Edited February 20, 2019 by AAArdvark
typo

[orang37]

20 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

Were you using the VPN when you did your speed testing, the speeds you gave are very slow for fiber?

Was not using VPN when testing. Results using SpeedOf.Me: 68.3mps dl, 6.08mps ul.

 

thanks, ~o:37;

[orang37]

16 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

Were you using WiFi or Ethernet when you got those results?  

Used ethernet, and, yes, that's the same 3BB test I used and reported previously. Today's results: 

 

PING 11 ms

DOWNLOAD 110.9 Mbps

UPLOAD 31.2 Mbps

 

As, I said, I don't believe the dl figure reflects any real-world performance.

 

thanks, ~o:37;

[GalaxyMan]

I've never been happier with an ISP as I am with 3BB. GREAT service and FAST! 20/10 fiber-optic and far less expensive than anything I ever saw in the US or EU, not to mention faster. Whenever I've had a problem, I call them and someone SMART (my background is computers) talks to me in good English. The problem is almost immediately dealt with, even if they have to send a technician(s) to my house. Can't say enough good about 3BB.

[Amplish]

55 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

Were you using WiFi or Ethernet when you got those results?  Speeds are decent but that Latency is terrible.  I always try to use Ethernet and the ISP's test site to eliminate extraneous stuff.  In the case of 3BB try again at this site:

 

https://speedtest.3bb.co.th/ 

I was using WiFi, because that is how I almost always connect to our network. I prefer not to use the 3BB speedtest, as this connects to the nearest domestic server they can find and generally gives unrealistic results, similar to dospeedtest.com. I am not too bothered comparing the reported speeds. Having enough bandwidth (speed) to be shared between 4 active users in my household is the most important consideration. Besides, the main bottleneck with all Thai ISPs is connecting to foreign servers. I am sure that is what many foreigners do on a regular basis.

 

I occasionally had a ping of between 3-4 seconds on 3BB VDSL, so 56 ms is good enough, I am not using it for twitchy on-line shooters or anything like that.

[lordblackader]

100/30 3BB plan works as advertised.

Was free connection for me as well, they had to run a cable down the street as well (about 150 meters) to connect it to the house.

 

Not sure if true but I've heard 3BB has a deal where if you're outside of a metro area the government subsidizes the connection cost.  3BB is the only provider where I live, 20 kilometers outside of Chiang Mai. 

[mfd101]

I'm not a technical person but here's my observation (based on TOT fibre here in Surin) and trying various speed tests:

(1) Your service provider always LOVES Speedtest/Ookla and the reason (I think) is because it shows you only your PEAK speed during the 20-second test. If it showed the AVERAGE you get during the test (as does, for example, testmy.net) your results would then be MUCH less impressive.

(2) Your service provider always wants to run just the local (to BKK) service, which is quite impressive. But for most of us (including me) that's almost entirely irrelevant. I want to know what I'm getting from Sydney or LA or London or Paris. And again, the results then are MUCH less impressive.

[Cricky]

whats your plan?

 

upload / download contract

[artotle]

I get a 50/20 fiber from AIS, with mobile internet package, for 599. 

 

Quote

I'm on AIS which is 'supposed' to be 100Mbit.  

A lot of areas,  even in BKK, are limited to roughly 50mb due to infrastructure, so even if AIS could technically offer full rate it's very seldom you actually get that.

 

I wanted to get the 100/50 plan but they suggested me to downgrade because I couldn't reach that speed in my building anyway. 

[Lacessit]

I'm on the 3BB 599 baht plan in Chiang Mai. Slows down quite dramatically sometimes, mostly in the evening, presumably due to consumer load. I've heard Truemove has an identical plan for 399 baht. Has anyone tried it?

[orang37]

I'd like to suggest that timing results may be more relevant to your actual usage scenario if you use a test like https://www.speedtest.net, and change the default server to one(s) in the country(ies) you are  downloading/uploading from/to.

 

Right now, testing against an AT&T server in New York:

 

DATE / TIME	PING ms	DOWNLOAD Mbps	UPLOAD Mbps	DISTANCE mi	LOCATION / SERVER	PROVIDER
2/20/2019  7:07 PM	276	1.88	3.15	~ 8300	New York, NY AT&T	3BB

 

Not something to write home about, but okay for ... me.

[AAArdvark]

9 hours ago, mfd101 said:

I'm not a technical person but here's my observation (based on TOT fibre here in Surin) and trying various speed tests:

(1) Your service provider always LOVES Speedtest/Ookla and the reason (I think) is because it shows you only your PEAK speed during the 20-second test. If it showed the AVERAGE you get during the test (as does, for example, testmy.net) your results would then be MUCH less impressive.

(2) Your service provider always wants to run just the local (to BKK) service, which is quite impressive. But for most of us (including me) that's almost entirely irrelevant. I want to know what I'm getting from Sydney or LA or London or Paris. And again, the results then are MUCH less impressive.

That is true.  It is just that you have to start off by seeing if your ISP is actually giving you what they promise.  What you get for the more "realistic" measurements is informative but there isn't much you can do about it if the local test is good. It could be useful if you measured a current ISP and a new different one.  Measuring both Ethernet and WiFi gives you an idea if your router is behaving correctly.