Gprs Prepaid?

[steffi]

At home I'm forced to use dialup internet and I was wondering if I can get better speeds if I resort to GPRS. I have an Edge capable cell phone so I'm just wondering if I can beat 56k with it and whether it's affordable or not with a unlimited GPRS plan. I'd want something that allows me to use my phone as a bluetooth modem.

[monty]

If you have an Edge capable phone and Edge coverage by your mobile phone provider, then it can be faster then dial-up.

Edge tops out most of the time at 200kbps for me, with average speeds almost always over 100kbps, which is almost 3 times faster then dial-up...

Biggest difference compared to dial up is that the speed can vary a lot, whereas with a good dial-up ISP your speed is roughly pegged to your connection speed and stays pretty stable...

Biggest advantage of Edge though is the price!

Its actually dirt cheap at just a couple of Baht per hour!

With an AIS one2call prepaid simcard, you just dial *138, and listen to the computervoive guiding you through the options. You should listen for "monthly GPRS packages" and choose that. Then choose a package which suits you, I think I have 100 hours/month for 350 Baht or something.

I think the biggest package is 900 Baht which gives you 300 hours (i think) or 10 hours per day, every day...

You cannot get unlimited packages with prepaid cards though...But then again, who uses more then 10 hours per day on average?

Another small advantage is that logging in goes much faster, just a few seconds compared to the almost a minute a dial up modem needs to complete the handshaking and the username/password verification.

Take a look here to see what speeds to expect,although it can vary a whole lot depending on your location, and how many people are using their mobile phones in your vicinity...

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...43517&st=15

[steffi]

So then does anybody have this working from OSX with an N80 over bluetooth? I'll enquire about this some more today. I'm guessing you need Ross Barkman's GPRS scripts?

If you have an Edge capable phone and Edge coverage by your mobile phone provider, then it can be faster then dial-up.

Edge tops out most of the time at 200kbps for me, with average speeds almost always over 100kbps, which is almost 3 times faster then dial-up...

Biggest difference compared to dial up is that the speed can vary a lot, whereas with a good dial-up ISP your speed is roughly pegged to your connection speed and stays pretty stable...

Biggest advantage of Edge though is the price!

Its actually dirt cheap at just a couple of Baht per hour!

With an AIS one2call prepaid simcard, you just dial *138, and listen to the computervoive guiding you through the options. You should listen for "monthly GPRS packages" and choose that. Then choose a package which suits you, I think I have 100 hours/month for 350 Baht or something.

I think the biggest package is 900 Baht which gives you 300 hours (i think) or 10 hours per day, every day...

You cannot get unlimited packages with prepaid cards though...But then again, who uses more then 10 hours per day on average?

Another small advantage is that logging in goes much faster, just a few seconds compared to the almost a minute a dial up modem needs to complete the handshaking and the username/password verification.

Take a look here to see what speeds to expect,although it can vary a whole lot depending on your location, and how many people are using their mobile phones in your vicinity...

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...43517&st=15

[nikster]

So then does anybody have this working from OSX with an N80 over bluetooth? I'll enquire about this some more today. I'm guessing you need Ross Barkman's GPRS scripts?

Don't know who mister barkman is but I don't think so. I was using my BT phone on OS X no problems. I think I did it - go figure! - via the "bluetooth modem" tab in the "Internet Access" application. Don't have my mac with me right now, but it's dirt simple.

You open Internet Access, go to Bluetooth modem, enter the number - *99# for my Nokia N73 and 6600, probably the same for the N80. You use the Nokia Modem or Nokia Infrared Modem scripts to connect - I believe the same control panel has either a popup for that, or a properties dialog or something.

You need to have synced your phone to the mac first via the Bluetooth setup assistant.

Then you can add the modem symbol to the menu bar and bluetooth modem is one of the options.

Very simple as far as I remember. I am almost 100% sure you don't need any special scripts. Maybe they're faster or something?

The phone will automatically use EDGE if available - it then displays an "E" instead of the <-> symbol for internet connectivity.

I found AIS EDGE has very good availability, almost everywhere I tried. But speed varies dramatically from location to location - it might very well be slower than your analog modem connection. No harm in trying though, you just sign up for the prepaid package and try it, if it's bad you cancel it again.

The only weirdness I had on my mac is that the BT sometimes would not shut down properly if I did not explicitly disconnect. I would forget to disconnect and just shut the lid and put the laptop to sleep. Most of the time, this would work. But sometimes, it would just fail to disconnect which has the effect that when you open it again and try to connect you can't because it's still "disconnecting...". Forever. Need to restart the machine to un-funk this. Amazingly, Windows XP has the same problem though So disconnect the BT connection before sleeping the machine.

[nikster]

So - using EDGE right now in Nimmanhemin road in Chiang Mai. I am getting a not very exciting 30 - 50 kb / sec, sometimes 80.

OT - question about the N80 - is it fast? If you click on "Messages" how long until you see the list of New Message, Inbox, My Folders and so on? Asking because this is way too slow on my N73 which really pisses me off. It takes about 3-4 seconds on the N73. Clicking on Inbox or New Message then takes 1 full second, which is also too long. That stuff should be instant. Grrrrr...

[steffi]

Do they let you change the package in the middle? ie. if I run out of minutes can I then change to a higher limit package or do I have to wait until 30 days have finished since I last made a change?

So - using EDGE right now in Nimmanhemin road in Chiang Mai. I am getting a not very exciting 30 - 50 kb / sec, sometimes 80.

OT - question about the N80 - is it fast? If you click on "Messages" how long until you see the list of New Message, Inbox, My Folders and so on? Asking because this is way too slow on my N73 which really pisses me off. It takes about 3-4 seconds on the N73. Clicking on Inbox or New Message then takes 1 full second, which is also too long. That stuff should be instant. Grrrrr...

[nikster]

Don't know but I suppose you could just cancel the old package and get a new one - starting today, whatever you want. I don't think you can "upgrade" a package since you pre-pay for that. But I am pretty sure if you want to pay more money, they can accommodate you

Do they let you change the package in the middle? ie. if I run out of minutes can I then change to a higher limit package or do I have to wait until 30 days have finished since I last made a change?

So - using EDGE right now in Nimmanhemin road in Chiang Mai. I am getting a not very exciting 30 - 50 kb / sec, sometimes 80.

OT - question about the N80 - is it fast? If you click on "Messages" how long until you see the list of New Message, Inbox, My Folders and so on? Asking because this is way too slow on my N73 which really pisses me off. It takes about 3-4 seconds on the N73. Clicking on Inbox or New Message then takes 1 full second, which is also too long. That stuff should be instant. Grrrrr...

[Gary A]

With AIS, if you run out of time and want to change your plan, dial 1175. I have changed the date when it renews and also signed up for a bigger plan. No problems either way.