Cat Telecom Cdma Internet

[geoffphuket]

Having given up with my lousy and intermittent TOT adsl connection, I purchased a wireless CDMA telephone from CAT telecom thinking that being a fairly new 3G service it would be faster and more reliable – WRONG!! On average I manage no more than 3kbb/s download!

The sales girl in the shop told me the system ran at 512bbs, but I soon discovered that the telephone supplied with the package - a Huawei ETS2288 only provides for a 230kbbs connection….. Delving into the modem setup it got worse, it would appear that the internal modem is limited to 152kbss – which would be fine if it delivered the goods, but it doesn’t. I get a maximum 4 bar signal strenth so I don't know what's wrong.

Iif anyone has any idea of how I can improve its speed please let me know, maybe I’m missing something in the configuration. It’s driving me nuts! Maybe I could purchase a G3 hand phone with a better spec’ – ANYONE?

Cheers for any input

Geoff

[Guest Reimar]

May I'm wrong but as far as I know the CDMA is running with max. 153 kilo bits/s. Even DTac Edge, which showing a connection of 430 kilo bits/s run not faster as max 256 kilo bits/s but just 3 km (2 km on Air) from the Base Station the connect is just 40 kilo bits/s!

I checked CMA at my new office and was getting 38 kilo bits/s connection with 3.2 kilo Byte/s download! Signal Strength was 5!

Invite CAT to your house an let them explain!!

[ozymandious]

Quick questions:

How do you connect your phone to your computer ?(do you just browse from your phone?)

What area do you live on the island?

Why did you go with a phone over the PCMCIA Card?

[geoffphuket]

Quick questions:

How do you connect your phone to your computer ?(do you just browse from your phone?)

What area do you live on the island?

Why did you go with a phone over the PCMCIA Card?

1: The phone is connected via a USB cable

2: Thalang, Phuket

3: My old laptop does not have a PCMCIA card slot

[geoffphuket]

Quick questions:

How do you connect your phone to your computer ?(do you just browse from your phone?)

What area do you live on the island?

Why did you go with a phone over the PCMCIA Card?

1: The phone is connected via a USB cable

2: Thalang, Phuket

3: My old laptop does not have a PCMCIA card slot

I think I could improve matters with a better phone - maybe a G3 mobile. Can anyone suggest a reasonably priced one that includes all the leads and software to connect it to a PC via a USB cable?

[george]

You must use equipment from CAT directly as they are hardcoded. You can't buy your own hardware.

[Kyosuken]

http://www.phuketgazette.net/forthweek/features.asp

According to this article you are getting crap speed because you are using the usb phone.

[geoffphuket]

You must use equipment from CAT directly as they are hardcoded. You can't buy your own hardware.

Cheers George.

I guess I'm stuck with what I've got for now

I'm trying to download the TV Broadband speed test and post the result here.....but the connection is too slow to load the page!!

[monty]

The cdma mobile phones are only cdma 1X, with a top speed of 152 kbps. Count on average 70-90kbps.

This system is commonly called 2.5G or 2.75G.

The 230 kbps you see on your computer is only the speed between your computer and the phone, NOT the speed of your phone's built in modem to the internet!

The cdma ev-do network which CAT has running in Phuket is only available through the use of a PCMCIA aircard. The ones CAT sells are the Sierra wireless 580 card. Cost 12900 Baht.

The connection you have now (mostly sold by Hutch in the central provines) used to be the fastest mobile internet you could get before AIS and Dtac started upgrading to the Edge version of GPRS.

Where I live (just outside of Pattaya) I get pretty stable speeds of around 150kbps (downloading at 18kBps) on my Dtac simcard.

My AIS one2call card gives sometimes much better speeds (over 200kbps, comparable to 256/128 adsl) but AIS is much more temperamental, with often very low speeds. When this happens I just pop in my Dtac sim, which will work better although slower...

[geoffphuket]

http://www.phuketgazette.net/forthweek/features.asp

According to this article you are getting crap speed because you are using the usb phone.

Thanks for the link

From the article:

The third fastest connection (no, I’m not a shill for CAT) I know about uses the CAT desktop telephone. This CDMA-based telephone looks and acts just like a regular desktop telephone – except you don’t need to plug it into a phone line. Attach your computer to the phone via a USB cable, and you can expect 150 Kbps or so, which isn’t great, but it runs rings around most other services.

This is what I've got and it certainly doesn't run anything like 150kpps - its actually worse than my old dialup connection I stopped using two years ago

[geoffphuket]

The cdma mobile phones are only cdma 1X, with a top speed of 152 kbps. Count on average 70-90kbps.

This system is commonly called 2.5G or 2.75G.

The 230 kbps you see on your computer is only the speed between your computer and the phone, NOT the speed of your phone's built in modem to the internet!

The cdma ev-do network which CAT has running in Phuket is only available through the use of a PCMCIA aircard. The ones CAT sells are the Sierra wireless 580 card. Cost 12900 Baht.

The connection you have now (mostly sold by Hutch in the central provines) used to be the fastest mobile internet you could get before AIS and Dtac started upgrading to the Edge version of GPRS.

Where I live (just outside of Pattaya) I get pretty stable speeds of around 150kbps (downloading at 18kBps) on my Dtac simcard.

My AIS one2call card gives sometimes much better speeds (over 200kbps, comparable to 256/128 adsl) but AIS is much more temperamental, with often very low speeds. When this happens I just pop in my Dtac sim, which will work better although slower...

Hi Monty,

The PCMCIA aircard seems my best option. Do you know if it's possible to connect it to a USB port via an adapter.

What are you pluging your Dtac/AIS/one2cards into - an aircard?

Cheers Geoff

[monty]

I have a PCMCIA card for my laptop, the sierra wireless aircard 775.

My wife's laptop uses an older solomon USB modem, but this offers only gprs speeds (up to 64 kbps, but on average more like 25kbps).

Unfortunately there's no such thing as a universal USB to PCMCIA adapter

There are some special devices allowing pcmcia aircards to connect to your USB ports, but they work with a very limited set of aircards, and they are expensive (150-200 US$).

I know there are USB edge capable gprs modems, but AFIK only Solomon is sold in Thailand and they don't have them (they're marked "ready soon" on their website!)

You can always bring one in from abroad, if the device is not locked to a provider and it's dual band (900/1800) it will work in Thailand with Dtac or Ais sim cards...

[trd]

Last I heard is that Woody who writes the computer column in the Gazette has 2 USB to PC Card adaptors left in his Sandwich Shop in Patong. I am using CDMA with the Sierra card in Rawai. Just did a speed test to a server in the USA and got 450 kbps download. Sometimes it gets up to 600 kbps. Best experience I 've had with broadband in Phuket and unlike ADSL the network hardly ever goes down.<BR>

[trd]

Just so that you are not confused, what used to be called a "PCMCIA" adaptor has been renamed by the computer industry to a "PC Card". As I said Woody has a couple left. He got them from Pantip Plaza. Many people with desktop machines are using this USB to PC Card adaptor with the CDMA Sierra card. Works just fine. All modern laptops already have PC Card slots bult in.

[monty]

trd, what upload speeds do you get?

[trd]

trd, what upload speeds do you get?

The only downside with CDMA is that upload speeds are slow. About the same as dialup. I get anything from 40 - 60 kbps. If you have a requirement for large uploads I think you're better off with ADSL. Skype doesn't work too well either because of the slow upload speed.

[geoffphuket]

trd, what upload speeds do you get?

The only downside with CDMA is that upload speeds are slow. About the same as dialup. I get anything from 40 - 60 kbps. If you have a requirement for large uploads I think you're better off with ADSL. Skype doesn't work too well either because of the slow upload speed.

My Skype doesn't work at all with CDMA It worked fine with my old dial up and TOT ADSL connections.

The problem I had with TOT (256k/128 kbps) was that the service became more and more unreliable to the extent that it stopped working altogether for two weeks - Their service engineers knew about the problem but couldn't reslove it, in the end I refused to pay and was disconected.

Seems the only real answer (on Phuket) is to bite the bullet and have a leased line from CAT - I'll have to reduce the wife's shopping bills every month to pay for it

Thanks to everyone for their input

Geoff

[geoffphuket]

Looking at the Cat telecom website it would appear that there's a an aircard available that provides a 2.4Mbps Super CDMA connection.

Has anyone any information about the price of this? if it delivers the goods then the 590 Baht/month subscription would be a bargain.

Apparently the Sierra aircard (400-700Kbps) which cost 15,990 Baht has gone out of production.

Here's the link to the page: http://www.contactcenter.cattelecom.com/th...nfo.asp#anchor6

[george]

Looking at the Cat telecom website it would appear that there's a an aircard available that provides a 2.4Mbps Super CDMA connection.

Has anyone any information about the price of this? if it delivers the goods then the 590 Baht/month subscription would be a bargain.

Apparently the Sierra aircard (400-700Kbps) which cost 15,990 Baht has gone out of production.

Here's the link to the page: http://www.contactcenter.cattelecom.com/th...nfo.asp#anchor6

CAT bought the Aircards velly velly cheap

[geoffphuket]

Looking at the Cat telecom website it would appear that there's a an aircard available that provides a 2.4Mbps Super CDMA connection.

Has anyone any information about the price of this? if it delivers the goods then the 590 Baht/month subscription would be a bargain.

Apparently the Sierra aircard (400-700Kbps) which cost 15,990 Baht has gone out of production.

Here's the link to the page: http://www.contactcenter.cattelecom.com/th...nfo.asp#anchor6

CAT bought the Aircards velly velly cheap

George...are you refering to the Sierra card or the 'super CDMA 2.4Mbps' aircard?

Cheers, Geoff

[monty]

Geoff,

Cat sells the aircard 580 from Sierra, which has indeed gone out of production last year, hence the remark from George that CAT probably snapped them up at a low price!

However, the aircard 580 IS already capable of speeds up to 2.4mbps, and as such a super-cdma card doesn't exist. It's just that as with any wireless technology the top speed very seldom can be reached, which is why they give the more likely to happen average speed of 400-700 kbps.

For the specs of this card look here:

http://www.sierrawireless.com/product/ac580.aspx

If you roll over the picture of the speedometer, you'll get a clear representation of what speed is to be expected and what the theoretical top speed is!

Anyway, the top speed is rather unimportant, since CAT will probably cap the speed at their servers anyway, pretty much in the same way ADSL is capable of 8mbps, but packages that fast are not even being sold in Thailand...

[geoffphuket]

Geoff,

Cat sells the aircard 580 from Sierra, which has indeed gone out of production last year, hence the remark from George that CAT probably snapped them up at a low price!

However, the aircard 580 IS already capable of speeds up to 2.4mbps, and as such a super-cdma card doesn't exist. It's just that as with any wireless technology the top speed very seldom can be reached, which is why they give the more likely to happen average speed of 400-700 kbps.

For the specs of this card look here:

http://www.sierrawireless.com/product/ac580.aspx

If you roll over the picture of the speedometer, you'll get a clear representation of what speed is to be expected and what the theoretical top speed is!

Anyway, the top speed is rather unimportant, since CAT will probably cap the speed at their servers anyway, pretty much in the same way ADSL is capable of 8mbps, but packages that fast are not even being sold in Thailand...

Hi Monty

Thanks for the information. I'm curious as to why the Cattelecom web site shows two distinct cards availiable - one giving 400-700Kbps and the other 2.4Mbps, if as you quite correctly say, the 580 card is capable of 2.4Mbps:- http://www.contactcenter.cattelecom.com/th...nfo.asp#anchor6 .....1st and 6th on the list

The new Sierra 595 aircard seems to be the replacement for the old 580 but there's no mention of the price: http://www.sierrawireless.com/product/ac595.aspx

Whilst I was off line at home, I've been using the Catnet office in Phuket town for my internet needs, amazingly the Thai visa broadband speed test wraps the needle all the way to the end stop, which goes to show that very fast connections are availiable here - even if they're reserved for their own internal use.