Jump to content
Login with your Gmail HERE and start posting in seconds! ×
Don't just read! Be part of the Community! Join the conversation ×
Our Newsletter now includes a Sunday edition! Stay updated 7 days a week!

Are Pc Cards Available To Thailand

Jay jones

By Jay jones
in IT and Computers

 Share

Recommended Posts

Jay jones Apprentice Member

Jay jones

Posted
Posted

I have what they (Verizon) call a PC Card for my laptop to go online for broadband Internet. "That is the most technical terminology I know.

Is this available in Thailand? / Cambodia? In states I can sign on any where they have cell service.

What is correct terminology- where can it be purchased and what is cost for card and cost for monthly service per_______?

I have unlimited service, nationwide, for $60.00 USD here...

Thanks alot. JKJ

lingyai Advanced Member

lingyai

Posted
Posted
I have what they (Verizon) call a PC Card for my laptop to go online for broadband Internet. "That is the most technical terminology I know.

Is this available in Thailand? / Cambodia? In states I can sign on any where they have cell service.

What is correct terminology- where can it be purchased and what is cost for card and cost for monthly service per_______?

I have unlimited service, nationwide, for $60.00 USD here...

Thanks alot. JKJ

You can get GPRS or CDMA card or usb. Last time I checked DTAC had a deal that worked out to about 1200 baht a month for unlimited access for GPRS. Hutch had a simmilar deal for the CDMA.

The thing is both serverices don't work everywhere. The do in most major cities in Thailand. The speed varies but don't expect more than 100k somtimes half of that.

You might be able to get both cards used at fortunetown or Pantip. Somewhere around 6,000 baht. Go to Dtac and Hutch first to see what kind of deal they offer. Also use yahoo, ask, google and do some searching for more info. How long do you expect to be here?

Jay jones Apprentice Member

Jay jones

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks for info;

So I understand, compare Thailand and/or Cambodia Cell service to what we have in USA. We have about 4 or 5 large companies, (Verizon-AT&T-Sprint and so on) They all service the entire country, some are better in one area than another, sometimes they share towers and other equipment) But you can choose what company you want from what people say about the service. In the areas I travel I think Verizon is the best.

Do you have this type of company set up and do all the companies offer service thu out the entire country . Then, is there one company that being oldest or largest has the best over all service in the entire country. Or is each company offering service, maybe strong in Bangkok but poor in another. If so, if you were going to travel around Thailand or Cambodia what company is best or would you have to get different companies as you move around.

JKJ

monty Diamond Member

monty

Posted
Posted

Hi Jay,

I'll try to give a little overview of whats available in Thailand...

First the three available technologies:

GPRS has a maximium speed of 48kbps (or 6kBps). Practically it'll average half of that due to the fact that most of the time the data arrives in short bursts...

GPRS Edge(in 4+1 configuration, most commonly used) downloads at a top speed of 236.8 kbps and uploads at a topspeed of 59.2 kbps athough up to 384kbps down should be possible.

CDMA 1x tops out at 144 kbps

The second is a faster version of the first and is backward compatible. Meaning that when you are with your gprs Edge PC card in an area where the faster Edge service is not available, it will seamlessly fall back to the slower standard gprs system to still allow you internet access, albeit at snail's pace...

The gprs/edge network is available throughout the whole country, but the faster Edge version will only be operational in the bigger cities.

There are two companies in Thailand providing the GPRS/Edge service, namely AIS and Dtac.

If you want to have nationwide access, any of those two companies will be your only option.

The third technology (CDMA) is offered only by Hutch. Availability is very limited to some provinces (about 9 out of 72)

If you remain in an area covered by Hutch this would be an option, but only after testing at the place you'd need to use it. I've found that even in covered cities, there are several black spots with low signal, resulting in useless internet access...Another caveat is that Hutch does not have a pre-paid system, and to subscribe with them you either need a workpermit, or a Thai person willing to put it in his/her name!

If you need to travel around and need to get acces to the internet wherever you are, you need to go with a PC card supporting GPRS/Edge, combined with a simcard from either AIS or Dtac.

I use the sierra Wireless aircard 775 combined with a simcard from AIS.

The simcards are easy to get and there are several cheap monthly plans available, both on pre-paid simcards and post paid subscriptions. I currently pay 350 Baht (10US$) for 100 hrs/month, but for heavy users a 900 Baht (25US$)/month for 400 hrs is available on the pre-paid simcards. If you go over that time before the month is over, you'll get deducted 1 Baht/minute from your prepaid card...

For a post paid subscription you would need a Thai workpermit, so for most visitors not possible!

So in short, what you are looking for is available in Thailand, but the biggest difference with the US will be the speed. The regular gprs system will give you speeds at around dial-up pace, whereas when in Edge coverage it can speed up to 4 times that speed (comparable to a 256 adsl connection).

Now even though the technology can handle the speed, the providers seem to be in terrible short supply of connection to the outside world (say USA) resulting that loading pages hosted on Thai servers will load very fast, but US based pages can still take ages to load (sometimes at slower then dial-up speed)

Simmo Silver Member

Simmo

Posted
Posted

I think the Verizon card you' have is EVDO. Don't have it in Thailand - won't work here with any provider.

monty Diamond Member

monty

Posted
Posted
I think the Verizon card you' have is EVDO. Don't have it in Thailand - won't work here with any provider.

Most probably true... Although CAT is trialling high speed access on what is most probably EVDO since they co-own the cdma network with Hutch (in Phuket).

Reports are coming in of speeds over 1mbps attainable!

When they start to roll out the network nobody knows...

Best bet for now would be to acquire a pc card like the one I have... (Aircard 775)

ozymandious Gold Member

ozymandious

Posted
Posted

http://www.catcdma.com/product/aircard.html

Info on CAT CDMA network run off a Seira Aircard SORRY THAI LANGUAGE ONLY maybe someone nice can tell us what it says.

It sells for 12,900THB which includes 6Mo use after that monthly fees are in the neighborhood of 600THB / Mo

Works pretty well every where in Phuket. Have had friends take their laptop to BKK and it did not work there.

One other note and this one cam as a shock to me. I have one friend who could use the card on his old laptop, he got a new laptop and the dam thing does not fit into it!!!! Somthing about not making the right connection. I thought PCMCIA was an established standard are there different variants??

Note the new PC is an HP that Runs Vista (don't know about compatibility issues there) but my frient took the machine and the air card to CAT and it just pshycially didn't make a clean connection and is un-usable on his new laptop

I'll try to get his model number and type so that others may avoid disappointment.

monty Diamond Member

monty

Posted
Posted

Since the cat network uses the aircard580, it indeed proves they are using the cdma EVDO technology...

It won't work anywhere else then in Phuket, and not even all over the island. Problem is nobody knows when they are going to roll out over the rest of Thailand :o

If they do, it might work properly simply because the fact that the CAT OWNS pretty much all available international bandwidth!

ozymandious, your friend's problem stems from the fact that the PCMCIA standard (the format the aircard uses) is on the way out.

Most new high-end laptops come with the expresscard slot, which allows for higher speeds as needed by newer equipment (gigabyte ethernet for example)

Unfortunately it is not compatible with the PCMCIA standard...

LivinLOS Star Member

LivinLOS

Posted
Posted

I was told the D-O rollout is happening fast..

Even had reports of it working in Ranong (even acroos the water in Burma) coming from Khun Woody who writes the PC bits for the gazette..

Thing is CAT dont ever take a stand or have info on anything.. Standard Thai response of never commit.

I dont have it but may get an aircard as a back up to my own ADSL if a biz option happens..

ozymandious Gold Member

ozymandious

Posted
Posted
ozymandious, your friend's problem stems from the fact that the PCMCIA standard (the format the aircard uses) is on the way out.

Most new high-end laptops come with the expresscard slot, which allows for higher speeds as needed by newer equipment (gigabyte ethernet for example)

Unfortunately it is not compatible with the PCMCIA standard...

Monty

Do you know where to get a PCMCIA reader to USB in Thailand?

I searched the net and most of the results are a pcmcia card featuring extra USB ports for your computer, but i did find what i was looking for in a few links, but I'm shocked by the price of this device!! 200-250US$ for this piece of junk can you believe it?

Know where to get on here??

monty Diamond Member

monty

Posted
Posted

Ozy, not sure they even exist!

PCMCIA (cardbus pc card) is a special protocol, being hot pluggable, hardware detection stuff etc.

If it exists I would expect it to be expensive, since the device would need to house the complete PCMCIA controller hardware.

As you can see from following picture

300px-Pccards.png

The PCMCIA controller talks to your systembus by means of a PCI connection. Laptops normally don't have empty PCI slots!

In a regular PC it's easy to do since they normally have plenty free PCI slots.

External express cardbus devices on the other hand would be much easier as they are designed to talk to the motherboard through a USB 2.0 or a PCIe connection!

monty Diamond Member

monty

Posted
Posted

Definately NOT!!!

Read the notice they put up in red:

· Please Note: The USB Adaptor will only work with this specific PCMCIA Card Reader and NOT other PCMCIA or PC Card Devices

googled around a bit and it seems that real pcmcia to usb adapters simply don't exist!

The one you first linked to is not really an adapter, it can *only* accept a very limited selection of aircards and then they say the included software with the pccard won't work when using the USB adapter.

It probably has the software hardcoded in the device, hence the high price and limited compatibility!

ozymandious Gold Member

ozymandious

Posted
Posted

So he's basically screwed unless CAT starts dispensing an express card for their wireless services.

going way out of my leauge here on this one. I have no idea how tis works.

Can he buy an express card and CAT reprogram/reformat it???

monty Diamond Member

monty

Posted
Posted

Do note that what Hutch offers is not the same as what CAT is offering in Phuket!

CAT uses the CDMA EVDO technology, which tops out theoretically at 2.4mbps and should turn in average speeds of anywhere between 400 and 700kbps.

Hutch uses the older cdma 1X system, with a topspeed of 144kbps and probably averaging around 70kbps!

12500 for the old Huawei aircard is actually pretty expensive!

ozymandious Gold Member

ozymandious

Posted
Posted (edited)

alright i checked it out with a friend of mine who is much more IT savvy than I and he said you could purchase an express-card from the states (or where ever) and configure it to work here with CAT's system.

The card just needs to use the same tech standard ->CMDA EVDO

Edited by ozymandious
pgrin Advanced Member

pgrin

Posted
Posted
alright i checked it out with a friend of mine who is much more IT savvy than I and he said you could purchase an express-card from the states (or where ever) and configure it to work here with CAT's system.

The card just needs to use the same tech standard ->CMDA EVDO

I have heard you can not re configure these cards. There is no sim chip inside and the info is burned in. Can you PM me with a cntact who knows different?

P

g00dgirl Silver Member

g00dgirl

Posted
Posted
It won't work anywhere else then in Phuket, and not even all over the island. Problem is nobody knows when they are going to roll out over the rest of Thailand :o

I was told (which isn't to be taken for granted of course) yesterday in the CAT office in Phuket town that the "CAT CDMA" branded service works everywhere (in 51 provinces) but not in Bangkok and sourrounding provinces (these would be the 21 provinces where the Hutch branded service is in use instead, including the promotion I mentioned in my earlier post in this thread). This means that promotion from Hutch I mentioned is not available in Phuket.

Specifically I asked if the CAT CDMA works in the Songkhla province and was told yes. It could be because the installation of the hardware was completed in 51 provinces in January 2007 according to this news article: "The rollout of CAT’s 2.5G/3G network covering 51 provinces was completed by Chinese technology provider Huawei in January, and CAT says it is currently in a nationwide trial phase of EV-DO services. "

More discussion and information for everybody who is interested in the wireless 3G service in Thailand in my new thread here.

This thread also explains in detail the difference between the Hutch branded CDMA service and the CAT CDMA service and the future "nationwide" merger of the two networks.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.






ASEANNOW

ASEANNOW (formally ThaiVisa) is Thailand's oldest and most popular expat and foriegner forum. Sign up today and have your say!

MORE INFO

POPULAR AREAS

CONTACT US

219/59 Asoke Towers, 15th Floor, Soi Sukhumvit 21, Watthana, Bangkok 10110
(+66) 99 196 1100
[email protected]

×
×
  • Create New...