3BB versus Ais

[Captor]

If reading this comparison based on customer I believe the AIS fibre is more fast and reliable: https://app.fing.com/internet/provider/True/Thailand

[Captor]

1 minute ago, stouricks said:

What does the 'fastest' matter. 3BB give me 1000/500 but that is only within Thailand. International connections are slower and even more so via VPN. BUT, you only need about 10Mb/s to view HD telly. 

Yes, but I am thinking if aiming high my chances are better getting a reliable end result.

[AgMech Cowboy]

Are you still reading replies?  I've got both AIS and 3BB fiber at my house. I got AIS because when my Son and Wife are home, there seems to be no ban width left for me on 3BB, which is centrally located (my little icon showing available Wifi doesn't even show on my computer). I pay more for 3BB than for AIS.  I'm not sure of the speed, but they're not much different.  I got a wifi TV box at no extra charge from AIS, which shows most of the channels available on basic TRUE cable (cancelled that over a year ago). There is not one with 3BB. You can pay for more channels on the box if you want, like HBO.  I was excited about that because I wanted to watch the last season of "Game of Thrones". I never signed up for it and watched the reviews on YouTube. When my Son is home he'll watch TV. (I don't watch TV, but it comes free, so it's still here).

 

3BB did a terrible job at installation and have had to come back 3 times to get the cable off the ground.  I've never had a problem with the AIS installation.

 

I use MS Office Outlook for my email. 3BB has a smtp outgoing mail server. AIS fiber does not, which is why for less than the TV cable box, I am still subscribed to two Fiber services. Strange one, AIS.  If you connect to the internet using your AIS supported mobile phone as a hot spot, they have a smtp server, but it doesn't work with their fiber service. You don't sound like a computer email "Outlook" guy so I don't think this will matter to you.

 

I hope this helps.

[stouricks]

6 minutes ago, Captor said:

Yes, but I am thinking if aiming high my chances are better getting a reliable end result.

That's a bit like having a Lambo which can do 200mph, and driving it on the UK motorway!  PML

Edited May 13, 2020 by stouricks

[Captor]

3 minutes ago, AgMech Cowboy said:

Are you still reading replies?  I've got both AIS and 3BB fiber at my house. I got AIS because when my Son and Wife are home, there seems to be no ban width left for me on 3BB, which is centrally located (my little icon showing available Wifi doesn't even show on my computer). I pay more for 3BB than for AIS.  I'm not sure of the speed, but they're not much different.  I got a wifi TV box at no extra charge from AIS, which shows most of the channels available on basic TRUE cable (cancelled that over a year ago). There is not one with 3BB. You can pay for more channels on the box if you want, like HBO.  I was excited about that because I wanted to watch the last season of "Game of Thrones". I never signed up for it and watched the reviews on YouTube. When my Son is home he'll watch TV. (I don't watch TV, but it comes free, so it's still here).

 

3BB did a terrible job at installation and have had to come back 3 times to get the cable off the ground.  I've never had a problem with the AIS installation.

 

I use MS Office Outlook for my email. 3BB has a smtp outgoing mail server. AIS fiber does not, which is why for less than the TV cable box, I am still subscribed to two Fiber services. Strange one, AIS.  If you connect to the internet using your AIS supported mobile phone as a hot spot, they have a smtp server, but it doesn't work with their fiber service. You don't sound like a computer email "Outlook" guy so I don't think this will matter to you.

 

I hope this helps.

Yes I am. Thanks for the info. Actually I am an Outlook guy but nowadays I use a microsoft account so I don't need to care about mail servers anymore which is a relief since

my old email provider changed ports all the time.  Now it is working just fine. I am not an expert on this and just want it to work.

 

[Captor]

4 minutes ago, stouricks said:

That's a bit like having a Lambo which can do 200mph, and driving it on the UK motorway!  PML

Yeah it is. Better that then having a 2-stroke Trabant which I don´t know will take me to my destination ????

[scorecard]

18 hours ago, dimitriv said:

 

I googled. For voip calls: 

 

Does VoIP use a lot of bandwidth?

Typically, you will need anywhere from 85 - 100 Kbps per concurrent VoIP call. 

 

So with 1 mbit you can make 10 calls at the same time.

 

for skype:

 

Video calling (high-quality)400kbps / 400kbps

Video calling (HD)1.2Mbps / 1.2Mbps

 

You really do not need very much. But it is important that what you need is available 100% of the time, without interruptions.

 

 

 And you can do good clear VOIP videochat on LINE or VIBER, free.

 

Obviously needs both parties to have LINE or VIBER installed but that's easy enough, just takes a couple of minutes, all free.

 

I do videocall from Sydney in OZ to CM regularly, always clear picture and voice. Son calls me from CM regularly, same, always very clear videocalls.  

[pineapple01]

All those apps mentioned by posters work perfectly via Apple Car Play. Perfect picture and sound cant fault it here..Puzzled why non of our P.Cs cant match its perfection.I expedited it to be the other way round.We have top net providers for all  equipment.

[tomazbodner]

If you use Wifi, even 5G connection, it'll max out at about 350 mbps. LAN can go to 1 gbps usually. Speed test of AIS was above stated specs until 1 Gbps... now obviously with only 1 Gbps LAN you can't exceed that.

 

I had 3BB before. They are good. When they dropped package prices, they called me to tell me they overcharged me for 4 months and would give me discount for next 4 months to even it out. That wouldn't happen with True. They overcharge you until you threaten to cancel the contract, then they offer you some insane discount for 6 months or a year, before they start doing the same - charging the same price for package even price already dropped.

 

AIS, which I use now, is also good. What they do instead is upgrade you to higher package and keep the same price. I keep them because of TV. Previously had miserable quality True internet and their satellite TV (told me to move to the other side of the road if I wanted faster internet or cable TV). That's why I moved to 3BB which connected me in a week after 3+ years of waiting for True to make anything faster available on "my side of the road".

 

However the reason I went to AIS was to replace TrueVisions Platinum with AIS Playbox. Made sense. 100 mbps fiber + Playbox was 50% cheaper than True and had mostly the same stuff (what I was watching, anyway). Left 3BB for internet, and as AIS started upgrading me every few months, and I started to use AIS more and more, I no longer had any need for 3BB. After moving cables under the pavements, their connection also started suffering from outages and slowdowns, which required many calls to support, which was great but they really could not resolve it. I think cabling outside was the issue and they'd have to replace kilometres of them to get it sorted. Eventually that was the last push to give up on them and keep only AIS.

 

But honestly - if I was in area that didn't have AIS - I would certainly take 3BB, should it be available. They are good. Very good. Just can't use Playbox with them.

 

Hence both of them are good and I think you'll be happy with whichever one you choose. Note though that the speed listed is only to their local gateway. At these speeds the browser won't give you accurate results. You'll need LAN connected computer with Speedtest app. You could also test with testmy.net for international connections. 3BB used to have International package, where international link speed was boosted by 50-100% over "standard" package, but I think that's no longer available.

[Captor]

10 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

If you use Wifi, even 5G connection, it'll max out at about 350 mbps. LAN can go to 1 gbps usually. Speed test of AIS was above stated specs until 1 Gbps... now obviously with only 1 Gbps LAN you can't exceed that.

 

I had 3BB before. They are good. When they dropped package prices, they called me to tell me they overcharged me for 4 months and would give me discount for next 4 months to even it out. That wouldn't happen with True. They overcharge you until you threaten to cancel the contract, then they offer you some insane discount for 6 months or a year, before they start doing the same - charging the same price for package even price already dropped.

 

AIS, which I use now, is also good. What they do instead is upgrade you to higher package and keep the same price. I keep them because of TV. Previously had miserable quality True internet and their satellite TV (told me to move to the other side of the road if I wanted faster internet or cable TV). That's why I moved to 3BB which connected me in a week after 3+ years of waiting for True to make anything faster available on "my side of the road".

 

However the reason I went to AIS was to replace TrueVisions Platinum with AIS Playbox. Made sense. 100 mbps fiber + Playbox was 50% cheaper than True and had mostly the same stuff (what I was watching, anyway). Left 3BB for internet, and as AIS started upgrading me every few months, and I started to use AIS more and more, I no longer had any need for 3BB. After moving cables under the pavements, their connection also started suffering from outages and slowdowns, which required many calls to support, which was great but they really could not resolve it. I think cabling outside was the issue and they'd have to replace kilometres of them to get it sorted. Eventually that was the last push to give up on them and keep only AIS.

 

But honestly - if I was in area that didn't have AIS - I would certainly take 3BB, should it be available. They are good. Very good. Just can't use Playbox with them.

 

Hence both of them are good and I think you'll be happy with whichever one you choose. Note though that the speed listed is only to their local gateway. At these speeds the browser won't give you accurate results. You'll need LAN connected computer with Speedtest app. You could also test with testmy.net for international connections. 3BB used to have International package, where international link speed was boosted by 50-100% over "standard" package, but I think that's no longer available.

Tomaz, thank you very much for the post. Very good stuff.

Right now I am thinking more of AIS for us because of they have the package with the Playbox. 3BB said we have to buy a TV-box (android) by our self. And since I am not in Thailand most of the time I believe it is more easy for my wife to sort out potential problems with AIS

if it is their TV-box and not a box they don't have any knowledge about.

So at this moment we are considering AIS. And after your post even more.

Also very good that they (AIS) upgrade from time to time by them self. With True we had to threat them that we will cancel their service. That happen several times.

[soi3eddie]

5 hours ago, AgMech Cowboy said:

I use MS Office Outlook for my email. 3BB has a smtp outgoing mail server. AIS fiber does not, which is why for less than the TV cable box, I am still subscribed to two Fiber services. Strange one, AIS.  If you connect to the internet using your AIS supported mobile phone as a hot spot, they have a smtp server, but it doesn't work with their fiber service. You don't sound like a computer email "Outlook" guy so I don't think this will matter to you.

The provider of your email address will always have an outgoing SMTP server that you can use securely from any device, any connection, anywhere without issue. Same whether it's a phone, tablet, PC or Mac. I use Outlook 365 (was previously called MS Office Outlook) on my PC for all email. Whether it's Outlook, Google, Yahoo, Hotmail or your own personal domain email address, you can just use the correct IMAP/POP/SMTP server associated with the email address. It's best to avoid ISP SMTP servers as they are often abused and on blacklists meaning that outgoing message could be blocked or considered spam. I manage my own web and email server so if you have any questions on your setup then just send me a PM.

Edited May 13, 2020 by soi3eddie

[soi3eddie]

1 hour ago, Captor said:

Right now I am thinking more of AIS for us because of they have the package with the Playbox. 3BB said we have to buy a TV-box (android) by our self. And since I am not in Thailand most of the time I believe it is more easy for my wife to sort out potential problems with AIS

if it is their TV-box and not a box they don't have any knowledge about.

So at this moment we are considering AIS. And after your post even more.

Also very good that they (AIS) upgrade from time to time by them self. With True we had to threat them that we will cancel their service. That happen several times.

I was thinking about moving to 3BB in my condo because they apparently, somehow offer fibre to the room. Because thay don't offer TV by box (same or similar to Playbox) I decided to stay as I am with AIS and Playbox - however they did cull some channels recently. Because AIS, apparently cannot offer fibre to my room they discounted the total price by 50% with a single call - and they have honoured it every month since last year. I'm hoping to negotiate further price reduction as VDSL become outdated by faster fibre speeds. I used to use True Satellite until 2017 and their pricing and service was outrageous.

[Captor]

2 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

The provider of your email address will always have an outgoing SMTP server that you can use securely from any device, any connection, anywhere without issue. Same whether it's a phone, tablet, PC or Mac. I use Outlook 365 (was previously called MS Office Outlook) on my PC for all email. Whether it's Outlook, Google, Yahoo, Hotmail or your own personal domain email address, you can just use the correct IMAP/POP/SMTP server associated with the email address. It's best to avoid ISP SMTP servers as they are often abused and on blacklists meaning that outgoing message could be blocked or considered spam. I manage my own web and email server so if you have any questions on your setup then just send me a PM.

Thank you very much. For now I have no problem since i use the microsoft account in my Outlook in Office professional 2019. The microsoft account look like an exchange set up. It is IMAP I think. The emails remains on the server. I can open up the emails from other computers or phone as well. The changes I am doing in one computer will be visible in the other computers as well. For example answering and then the email will end up in the sent box. The same will happen in the other computers as well. I think the name of that is IMAP. Not sure though. It is perfect for me anyway and works very well so far.

[Captor]

2 hours ago, soi3eddie said:

I was thinking about moving to 3BB in my condo because they apparently, somehow offer fibre to the room. Because thay don't offer TV by box (same or similar to Playbox) I decided to stay as I am with AIS and Playbox - however they did cull some channels recently. Because AIS, apparently cannot offer fibre to my room they discounted the total price by 50% with a single call - and they have honoured it every month since last year. I'm hoping to negotiate further price reduction as VDSL become outdated by faster fibre speeds. I used to use True Satellite until 2017 and their pricing and service was outrageous.

Maybe they will be able to install fiber soon. That is coming more and more. And in the future maybe 5G will be the most used.

[Rawairat]

I had 3BB 100Mbs and took the AIS offer for 3BB subscribers to change to AIS 200Mbs + Playbox with a 1 year subscription + a SIM card with 20GBs per month for 1 year. As my 3BB was still on contract I had the 2 running for 6 months. I was told of the contract when I tried to cancel but they did upgrade my 3BB to 200Mbs, the same as AIS.

Data speeds seem much the same, I am in Phuket, but I have had more problems with AIS dropping out over a 6 month period during which the AIS tech changed hardware and rewired cabling outside. On the last visit they changed the router to different brand and that seems to have finally fixed the problems, as it has improved over the last month. My contract with AIS expires in 12 months and at the moment I am leaning back to 3BB, but I will see what is on offer and how my current internet performs.

On the AIS addons, I didn't think much of AIS playbox, some good content but not a Netflix. The SIM card was great worked in the back blocks of Surin during a trip way better than my True SIMs, however when watching Playbox movies it chewed through the Gbs way more than Netflix.

 

 

[Captor]

41 minutes ago, Rawairat said:

I had 3BB 100Mbs and took the AIS offer for 3BB subscribers to change to AIS 200Mbs + Playbox with a 1 year subscription + a SIM card with 20GBs per month for 1 year. As my 3BB was still on contract I had the 2 running for 6 months. I was told of the contract when I tried to cancel but they did upgrade my 3BB to 200Mbs, the same as AIS.

Data speeds seem much the same, I am in Phuket, but I have had more problems with AIS dropping out over a 6 month period during which the AIS tech changed hardware and rewired cabling outside. On the last visit they changed the router to different brand and that seems to have finally fixed the problems, as it has improved over the last month. My contract with AIS expires in 12 months and at the moment I am leaning back to 3BB, but I will see what is on offer and how my current internet performs.

On the AIS addons, I didn't think much of AIS playbox, some good content but not a Netflix. The SIM card was great worked in the back blocks of Surin during a trip way better than my True SIMs, however when watching Playbox movies it chewed through the Gbs way more than Netflix.

 

 

Hi, thank you very much. That is a good comparison you were able to do there. I read on a webpage name "fing" that they both have about the same scoring among people. AIS slightly better in Bkk. I did not look at Phuket. I think that is because of the TV-box which 3bb don't have in a convinient package. Maybe they will in the future. I believe that would gain new customer for them.

[Susco]

1 minute ago, Captor said:

think that is because of the TV-box which 3bb don't have in a convinient package. Maybe they will in the future. I believe that would gain new customer for them.

 

The "box" should for sure not influence your decision on choice of ISP, because the AIS box is nothing more than a useless piece of junk.

 

Most of the channels that might be of interest to a foreigner have been removed already, and you can not install third party apps on the box. You can for example not install HBOgo or Netflix or anby apps that provide you free movies or livestream.

[soi3eddie]

12 hours ago, Captor said:

Thank you very much. For now I have no problem since i use the microsoft account in my Outlook in Office professional 2019. The microsoft account look like an exchange set up. It is IMAP I think. The emails remains on the server. I can open up the emails from other computers or phone as well. The changes I am doing in one computer will be visible in the other computers as well. For example answering and then the email will end up in the sent box. The same will happen in the other computers as well. I think the name of that is IMAP. Not sure though. It is perfect for me anyway and works very well so far.

Yes, IMAP is the way to go. The messages are stored on the server and when you send, receive or move a message it's always updated into the correct folder on the server and then synced across all devices that you use. Only issue can be storage but most email accounts have plenty - my businesses do send a lot of large images on our emails and recently we noticed many GBs using our server space so we then simply archived them (any older than 1 year) and backed them up on external hard drives.

[Captor]

37 minutes ago, Susco said:

 

The "box" should for sure not influence your decision on choice of ISP, because the AIS box is nothing more than a useless piece of junk.

 

Most of the channels that might be of interest to a foreigner have been removed already, and you can not install third party apps on the box. You can for example not install HBOgo or Netflix or anby apps that provide you free movies or livestream.

I see. Is there any specific box that is good if i will go for 3bb?

[innosiem]

3BB over AIS anyday
we had AIS put in, as deal was much better at the time
but connection is awful
now we are waiting for our AIS credit to run down
so we can get 3BB put in come August

[Captor]

4 hours ago, innosiem said:

3BB over AIS anyday
we had AIS put in, as deal was much better at the time
but connection is awful
now we are waiting for our AIS credit to run down
so we can get 3BB put in come August

Auch! That is something I want to avoid! Hence the topic here. Thank you for the info. Are you in BKK?

[muratremix]

I used both of them last year. I don't like CGNAT in AIS, though their gaming packages comes with Dynamic IPv4. 3BB always give Dynamic ipv4 for me and they also provide ipv6 connectivity for a year if not more. It is also easier to connect a router of your choice to 3BB. For AIS, you have to ask them because they use a different system.

 

I'm pretty happy with my 1000/1000 at 3BB but when I move to another house, I'm considering 1000/200 from 3BB + AIS 590 or 690 baht package in a Dual Wan setup. I need more than 1000 Mbps, still waiting for 2Gbps or 2.5 Gbps plans to be available just to satisfy my curiosity (not that I need all that speed!)

[soi3eddie]

3 hours ago, muratremix said:

I used both of them last year. I don't like CGNAT in AIS, though their gaming packages comes with Dynamic IPv4. 3BB always give Dynamic ipv4 for me and they also provide ipv6 connectivity for a year if not more. It is also easier to connect a router of your choice to 3BB. For AIS, you have to ask them because they use a different system.

Ah yes. This reminds me that when I took out AIS they didn't give IPV4 and it was something I had to apply and pay extra for (I use remote CCTV for security monitoring).

Also, I now recall that when the AIS engineer came to install the ISP modem/router I quietly snapped a picture of the jobsheet which showed the required pasword for the connection. This was in case I needed to use my own router - which subsequently I did (I had read on TV that AIS don't give out the password). Not sure if the above currently applies but worth bearing in mind if moving to AIS and wishing to use your own router.

[MangoPineappleBanana]

On 5/16/2020 at 12:27 PM, soi3eddie said:

Ah yes. This reminds me that when I took out AIS they didn't give IPV4 and it was something I had to apply and pay extra for (I use remote CCTV for security monitoring).

Also, I now recall that when the AIS engineer came to install the ISP modem/router I quietly snapped a picture of the jobsheet which showed the required pasword for the connection. This was in case I needed to use my own router - which subsequently I did (I had read on TV that AIS don't give out the password). Not sure if the above currently applies but worth bearing in mind if moving to AIS and wishing to use your own router.

What remote CCTV system do you use may I ask? I am getting ready to purchase. Only need 3 or 4 cameras and would prefer to use my own managed server for storage and remote viewing.

 

On topic, I too use 3BB because of how lenient they are with IPV4 and giving out their modem password, and can attest to AIS also being difficult in past. The only drawback i see to 3BB is small business, I have two contracts with them under my company name and the smallest "business package" they offer is 500mbps(LOL)...I think I pay somewhere around 750b/mo. Whereas a personal account with AIS or 3BB would have me paying only 400-500b/mo for the package required for CCTV viewing.

[MartinBKK]

I have both AIS and 3bb fiber - AIS is 500/300 and 3bb is 1000/500. Honestly, they are both extremely fast and reliable and i can't tell any difference between the 2. AIS is slightly cheaper and comes with 15gb 4g per month and a playbox which i personally never watch. We are paying less than 500 baht because my wife is a long time AIS user, it's an incredible deal for what you get in my opinion. I used to have True and in my experience both AIS and 3bb are far superior. However, as other posters note it is extremely location dependent. I am in Sansai, Chiang Mai.

[Captor]

56 minutes ago, MartinBKK said:

I have both AIS and 3bb fiber - AIS is 500/300 and 3bb is 1000/500. Honestly, they are both extremely fast and reliable and i can't tell any difference between the 2. AIS is slightly cheaper and comes with 15gb 4g per month and a playbox which i personally never watch. We are paying less than 500 baht because my wife is a long time AIS user, it's an incredible deal for what you get in my opinion. I used to have True and in my experience both AIS and 3bb are far superior. However, as other posters note it is extremely location dependent. I am in Sansai, Chiang Mai.

Hi MartinBKK, thanks for answering,

Yes I have got the feeling that they are quite similar but both better than True. Just yesterday actually True called my wife in BKK and said that they will upgrade from 200/200 to 300/300. So for now I think we will wait and see if that will help our Skype problem. If not, then it has to be AIS for now because wife and daughter are not so technical. I think we need to do some more settings with 3bb. However, when I move to Thailand in a couple of years it will be 3bb. If not things changes significant until then between the internet providers.

[soi3eddie]

On 5/20/2020 at 2:09 PM, MangoPineappleBanana said:

What remote CCTV system do you use may I ask? I am getting ready to purchase. Only need 3 or 4 cameras and would prefer to use my own managed server for storage and remote viewing.

 

In the UK I use a Synology NAS which has surveillance station for managing lots of cameras. I used to use that for CCTV and it was highly configurable with alerts, storage, emails etc. Here in Bangkok I just have an internal WiFi CCTV camera in my main living room. It monitors the whole room and entrance way and it takes and emails snapshots should anything move in the frame. It's unlikely ayone would ever break in as doors are secure, on 5th floor, keycard access and we have security 24/7 (if they are not sleeping). Just gives me peace of mind when not there. I can also pan it remotely to see the patio too. The model is Wansview Pro HD PTZ IP Camera NCM625GA

 

 

[i84teen]

Seems AIS needs to tighten up their security protocols.

 

https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/24/thai-billions-internet-records-leak/

[Captor]

47 minutes ago, i84teen said:

Seems AIS needs to tighten up their security protocols.

 

https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/24/thai-billions-internet-records-leak/

Wow! Thanks. I have now enabled DNS over HTTPS. But we are still using True since they increased the speed to 300/300. Look like working better now. And when I settle don´t in Thailand I will use 3bb.