Well Ive gone and done it – My New CAT sim card experience .

[Whip Me Granny]

So I made the long trip from my home to the nearest CAT shop armed with information and suggestions from helpful forum members here ( Thanks to every one , especially JamJar  ) .

 

 As I sat at the customer service desk I pulled out my list of things that I wanted to ask about subscribing to the 4Mbps / 6Mbps Unlimited packages . 

From what I was told by the young lady at the CAT customer service desk both the My 4Mbps / 6Mbps packages had fixed speeds with no throttling for the duration of the package and there was no GB data capping during the duration of the package . So according to the young lady at the CAT customer service desk both these 4Mbps / 6Mbps packages are ‘’ Unlimited ‘’.????

 

I asked if it was possible to use the hot spot option in my Android mobile phone , yes was the answer . I asked if it was possible to use the sim card in my wireless 3G/4G sim card router ( D-Link DWR-912 ) the answer was yes.  The young lady at the CAT customer service desk suggested that to see if the CAT signal was good at my house ( in her words the CAT signal strength could be affected by the weather conditions ). That it would be best for me to purchase a CAT sim card and then subscribe to a 1 month 4Mbps Unlimited package to test things out.

 

So I purchased a 4Mbps package ( screen shot A ) and the young lady set it up on my mobile phone , I had to sit and wait in the CAT office for around 30 minuets for a SMS on my Android phone to confirm the the new CAT sim was now registered on their network.

 

Once the new CAT sim card had been registered I had to top up the sim cards credit to allow me to subscribe to the 4Mbps package( by entering a code on my Android phone ) 

I did ask the young lady if I was happy with the 4Mbps package after 1 month , how could I then change the subscription to the 6Mbps 6 Month package , she said that all I had to do was to top up the sim card with enough credit for a 6Mbps 6 Month package and then enter the provided code ( on my Android mobile phone , which means I have to remove the CAT sim card from my router and place it back in my mobile phone ) to change the package.

 

I asked if the 4Mbps / 6Mbps Unlimited packages shown on the CAT web site ( http://www.mybycat.com/en/PrePay.php?package=90_แพ็กเกจเสริม-my-เน็ตเพลิน-1,-4,-6-Mbps ) were in fact just a limited promotion - The young lady said '' No '' they were not a promotion and had been on that web site for a number of years and would continue to be there .

 

 

 

I did ask if it was possible to see my CAT sim card details on the internet , the young lady said no , but if I installed the my eService Android app I could then see all myCAT sim cards details 

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cat.eservice.myservice

 

So I left the CAT shop still not 100% sure how this new CAT sim card was going to work out . On arriving back home I was surprised that the CAT sim card signal on my mobile phone was showing full .  I downloaded the Android CAT my eService app onto my mobile phone and registered it to my new CAT sim card ( see screenshot B ) .

 

Now the tricky part ( or so I thought ) I put the new CAT sim card into my  D-Link DWR-912 3G/4G router and waited for it to reboot . Once it was up and running , I was surprised to see that every thing look like it was working .

 

So I did a speed test ( see Screenshot C ) 

 

Next I used my VPN and downloaded some torrents and then turned the VPN off ,  then watched youtube videos . My wife connected to the  D-Link DWR-912 3G/4G router Wifi and at the same time downloaded some games and watched several youtube videos . 

 

So far every thing seems to be working just fine , after I had been using the new CAT sim card and downloading some content   ''all night''  I then checked the CAT sim details and usage via the Android app ( see screenshot B – DATA = O  ) So with the Data showing 0 , this may indicate that the CAT package could indeed be unlimited . Only time will tell ????

 

 

[yankee99]

I cant read these ads in thai what is the actual cost of your plan and do you get cell minutes? Curious if its better then my true unlimited {no data usage cap} which is LTE and around 100mbps down never throttled and hot spot is included. 

[dotpoom]

Thanks a lot again to the man who many years ago gave me the soundest piece of advice I ever got..."Keep it simple". ...youngfella.

[Pedrogaz]

I'm never this thorough....I buy stuff and if it not good enough I buy something else. Simple and effective albeit not the cheapest way to do things. I have a friend that is this thorough and for major purchases I will ask him what he thinks.

I will say the lady's adivice to buy the I month package and check it out at home was very good....most of my botches about internet are to do with it not working in my house.

Simple and effective albeit not the cheapest way to do things. I have a friend that is this thorough and for major purchases I will ask him what he thinks.

 

[NCC1701A]

thanks for this detailed report. very helpful.

 

and anybody who's screen name is Whip Me Granny can hang out at my house any time.

[sfokevin]

So is the 90 baht one month plan a promotional one month trial or can you renew the 90 baht plan again after the month ends... if you can renew can it be made to auto renew?

[RJRS1301]

1 hour ago, NCC1701A said:

thanks for this detailed report. very helpful.

 

and anybody who's screen name is Whip Me Granny can hang out at my house any time.

Ok Granny

[RloLigor]

Have a look at their (CAT) terms and conditions. It's only in Thai on their website but here's a partial translation by Google:

 

Quote

The package For normal personal use only Cannot be used for commercial purposes Or using large amounts of data that may affect other users such as Bit Torrent or sharing via Hotspot or using electronic devices that require Connect large amounts of data at all times. If the company detects such use, the company will automatically suspend the use.

Perhaps your customer service agent didn't know this.

 

Having said that, it is of course technically possible and I may or may not have used their sim card and a 10 Mbit/s unlimited package for such purpose for a couple of months. I did limit my file transfer speeds to about 2 Mbit/s though to not burden their network too much. They use the same 4G network as True. The mobile signal of the network is fine but I have noticed some slowdown in their internet during evenings. The connection would also drop a few times in a day for 20 seconds or so. A sim and a data package from True didn't have such slowdowns.

 

[monkeycu]

3 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

thanks for this detailed report. very helpful.

 

and anybody who's screen name is Whip Me Granny can hang out at my house any time.

Sick Sick Sick 

[JamJar]

3 hours ago, sfokevin said:

So is the 90 baht one month plan a promotional one month trial or can you renew the 90 baht plan again after the month ends... if you can renew can it be made to auto renew?

 

I've written about this before. The answer is no.

[JamJar]

37 minutes ago, RloLigor said:

Have a look at their (CAT) terms and conditions. It's only in Thai on their website but here's a partial translation by Google:

 

Perhaps your customer service agent didn't know this.

 

Having said that, it is of course technically possible and I may or may not have used their sim card and a 10 Mbit/s unlimited package for such purpose for a couple of months. I did limit my file transfer speeds to about 2 Mbit/s though to not burden their network too much. They use the same 4G network as True. The mobile signal of the network is fine but I have noticed some slowdown in their internet during evenings. The connection would also drop a few times in a day for 20 seconds or so. A sim and a data package from True didn't have such slowdowns.

 

 

Of course she knows it. The salient point is "using large amounts of data that may affect other users". That is likely in every unlimited data contract in the world. 

They don't use "the same 4G network as True(sic)". They use DC-HSPDA on that network. Which is why they state "up to 42 Mbps" and not the expected bandwidth of true 4G. Which is why it likely had differing characteristics.

[JamJar]

5 hours ago, yankee99 said:

I cant read these ads in thai what is the actual cost of your plan and do you get cell minutes? Curious if its better then my true unlimited {no data usage cap} which is LTE and around 100mbps down never throttled and hot spot is included. 

 

100 Mbps down? In which area is that? Do you mind running a speed test and capturing a screenshot?

[RloLigor]

6 minutes ago, JamJar said:

They don't use "the same 4G network as True(sic)". They use DC-HSPDA on that network. Which is why they state "up to 42 Mbps" and not the expected bandwidth of true 4G.

Ok then. I assumed it's the same because my 4G modem/router identified it as 4G.

 

Where did you get that information? I'm not arguing, just curious.

[tlandtday]

thanks for posting i will look into this:)

[yankee99]

20 minutes ago, JamJar said:

 

100 Mbps down? In which area is that? Do you mind running a speed test and capturing a screenshot?

I have 100 down almost any populated city but i am not paying 90 baht a month either 

[smo]

Last month I purchased a YEARlong unlimited, uncapped internet package from CAT (2500 baht) after recommendation by KittenKong. Yes, the connection drops not unfrequently, due to weather, location, and what not. I have tried the sim on various OS, ipad, windows phone, android tablet you name it and the problem still occurs. Whereas very little read none complaint I have had with the AIS package I had previously. My conclusion, correct or not, it's the quality of the product. One hint about that is that I had to "set up" the APN everytime, whereas with AIS none of the bother. But because AIS is willing to let go of their customers in a rather cavalier manner, this customer let AIS go in equal fashion.

 

One good thing about CAT is that their service staff is quite good, both online and in store. Everybody speaks English (from some to excellent, the latter online), all seems to take their task seriously, which may include long period of waiting - my shopping for new sim in their store lasted 2 hours! the last hour spent waiting for them trying to get SMS coming in English - and even then failing to get that going.

 

Thanks to WMGranny for a very informative and thorough report. I just wanted to reiterate the CAT hotspot set up: for APN it's "internet" and for username it's "my". My remaining suspicion is that there is something deeper in the bowels of the phone/tablet OS that could be adjusted to get better signals... I tried venturing down that road and ended up messing up my windows phone ie curiosity kills the cat;-(

 

Oh one last thing, re data usage, your phone/table can tell you that more accurately than the courier app, I think. Also FWIW, the call rate on CAT is half a baht per minute.

[tlandtday]

36 minutes ago, yankee99 said:

I have 100 down almost any populated city but i am not paying 90 baht a month either 

go to testmy.net then give us real results speedtest is bs

[Whip Me Granny]

1 hour ago, smo said:

Last month I purchased a YEARlong unlimited, uncapped internet package from CAT (2500 baht) after recommendation by KittenKong. Yes, the connection drops not unfrequently, due to weather, location, and what not. I have tried the sim on various OS, ipad, windows phone, android tablet you name it and the problem still occurs. Whereas very little read none complaint I have had with the AIS package I had previously. My conclusion, correct or not, it's the quality of the product. One hint about that is that I had to "set up" the APN everytime, whereas with AIS none of the bother. But because AIS is willing to let go of their customers in a rather cavalier manner, this customer let AIS go in equal fashion.

 

One good thing about CAT is that their service staff is quite good, both online and in store. Everybody speaks English (from some to excellent, the latter online), all seems to take their task seriously, which may include long period of waiting - my shopping for new sim in their store lasted 2 hours! the last hour spent waiting for them trying to get SMS coming in English - and even then failing to get that going.

 

Thanks to WMGranny for a very informative and thorough report. I just wanted to reiterate the CAT hotspot set up: for APN it's "internet" and for username it's "my". My remaining suspicion is that there is something deeper in the bowels of the phone/tablet OS that could be adjusted to get better signals... I tried venturing down that road and ended up messing up my windows phone ie curiosity kills the cat;-(

 

Oh one last thing, re data usage, your phone/table can tell you that more accurately than the courier app, I think. Also FWIW, the call rate on CAT is half a baht per minute.

Thanks very much for the details 

[Whip Me Granny]

The CAT sim card I subscribed to , the actual sim card cost 69 Baht and the 4Mbps 30 day package cost 90 Baht . The CAT lady said that sim card was on a promotion for new users only . The CAT lady while setting the sim card up in my mobile phone for me,  asked if I wanted to make telephone calls as well as an internet connection , I told her that I did not intend to use the sim card to make any telephone calls. 

 

When I first install the CAT sim card in my wireless 3G/4G sim card router ( D-Link DWR-912 ) I started to download content over night . The next morning I then checked out the CAT sim card details using the Android app ‘’ my eService ‘’ .  ( see screenshot A-1) and it showed 0 Data .

 

To day after continuing to download content , I once more checked the CAT sim details using the Android app. But this time the data usage was showing 4785 MB . ( see screenshot B-1 ).

 

At lunch time to day a storm rolled by and due to the thundering and lightening I completely turned off my wireless 3G/4G sim card router that the CAT sim card was in. 

 

After the storm had passed by I restarted the router and at the same time I thought I would once more check the CAT sim details using the Android app . I was shocked ????  to see that this time after the CAT sim card had been disconnected and restarted , the Data was once again showing 0 ) ( see screen shot A-1 again ).

 

So it looks like when the CAT sim card is disconnected from the CAT network , any previous data MB numbers are reset to 0 . So other than writing down the MB numbers your self before disconnecting the CAT sim card from the network , and keeping a tally your self , there seem no way to see a running total of the CAT sim cards MB usage if you disconnect the CAT sim card from the CAT network.

 

I’m not sure how things will eventually work out due to me possibly going over the top with my data usage ☹️

 

I am planning to leave the CAT sim card in my stand alone wireless 3G/4G sim card router and not use it in my Android tablet or mobile phone. 

 

 

WMG 

 

 

 

[yankee99]

1 hour ago, tlandtday said:

go to testmy.net then give us real results speedtest is bs

Maybe bs but i can say the internet service is fast and flawless. I have 2 fibre lines in my house and true lte keeps up nicely again its not a bargain @฿90 per months so apples to oranges 

[JamJar]

55 minutes ago, yankee99 said:

Maybe bs but i can say the internet service is fast and flawless. I have 2 fibre lines in my house and true lte keeps up nicely again its not a bargain @฿90 per months so apples to oranges 

 

Still not bad.

 

The OP's 96.30 baht package is only available for subscription within the first 31 days. Then then cost moves to 2675 baht per annum.

Though in the OP's case, they will likely move on to a 6 Mbps package.

[JamJar]

4 hours ago, RloLigor said:

Ok then. I assumed it's the same because my 4G modem/router identified it as 4G.

 

Where did you get that information? I'm not arguing, just curious.

Not a problem. You can find it here; http://www.mybycat.com/en/About_WhyMy.php

 

But actually I think that you are right, that CAT are using the 1800/2100 bands of Truemove H for up to 100 Mbps for their full speed products; https://droidsans.com/my-4g-max-speed-discount-mobile-expo/

[RloLigor]

They do have a 3G network as well, with limited mobile data packages. (Well, I don't know whose network that actually is. ????)

[JamJar]

7 hours ago, RloLigor said:

They do have a 3G network as well, with limited mobile data packages. (Well, I don't know whose network that actually is. ????)

That is covered within the link for which you asked: http://www.mybycat.com/en/About_WhyMy.php

[Whip Me Granny]

19 hours ago, JamJar said:

 

Of course she knows it. The salient point is "using large amounts of data that may affect other users". That is likely in every unlimited data contract in the world. 

They don't use "the same 4G network as True(sic)". They use DC-HSPDA on that network. Which is why they state "up to 42 Mbps" and not the expected bandwidth of true 4G. Which is why it likely had differing characteristics.

 

 

‘’ using large amounts of data that may affect other users ‘’

 

I saw that statement on the CAT web site when looking to subscribe to my new 4Mbps 30 day package.

 

I wonder what amount of data CAT considers a large amount ?

 

 

WMG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RloLigor]

4 hours ago, Whip Me Granny said:

I wonder what amount of data CAT considers a large amount ?

I think I used around 150 gigs per month or maybe a bit less. That didn't seem to be a problem.

[myjawe]

package name: my super kum

 

555

 

 

[myjawe]

is CAT the cheapest yearly unlimited ?

 

 

[sfokevin]

53 minutes ago, myjawe said:

is CAT the cheapest yearly unlimited ?

 

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/4mbps-1-true-3g4g-i257658531-s396967750.html?search=1

[myjawe]

23 hours ago, sfokevin said:

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/4mbps-1-true-3g4g-i257658531-s396967750.html?search=1

 

Thank you, so why someone paid more for CAT if True is cheaper ?