Internet for new house - long range fiber vs. Wifi/Sim router

[Morch]

 

Apologies in advance for not providing technical details - one reason is I'm mostly clueless, the second is that this issue just came up and haven't had time to get all the info and verify.

 

We were led to believe, by True salesman and outsourced installing group, that although officially True doesn't service our area, it could be arranged (we're just over their zone's "border". True office said it's possible in some cases, so we thought all's well. Went to apply for new line - "cannot do". Reason being our plot is "too far". Turns out the maximum range they officially pull the line is 1200 meters, while we're at about 1500 meters. The "cannot do" morphed into "can, but cannot guarantee quality of service" (with the unsaid "up to you"). As an alternative they touted a WiFi/sim-card router package.

 

So first question is regarding range - how long is too long? How far is too far?

Second question, that WiFi/sim-card combo - are these worthwhile? and guess that unlike fiber, no need to get the ISP's router?

Third and last question - how would a possibly degraded fiber connection stack vs. the WiFi/Sim-card thingie?

 

We're going to check with 3BB anyway, and try get a more updated impression from village folk about quality. As far as I understand, 3BB's fiber pulling range limit is 500 meters, which (just) may work. Mrs. insists that we tore their cable right in front of our plot at some point, but unsure if its fiber or even where it goes to.

 

As for smartphones and such, we're sorta old fashioned. I'm finding the screens too small and the clicking stuff uncomfortable. Last resort, these.

 

Appreciate any insight, thanks.

 

 

[Susco]

Fibre optical cable can carry signal without loss for approximate 80 - 100 km.

 

The confusion is probably that True pulls 1 km fibre free of charge, while 3BB only does 500 meter free of charge, afteer that there is a charge per meter

 

Forget about the wifi/sim thingy.

[Morch]

On 5/14/2020 at 12:18 AM, Susco said:

Fibre optical cable can carry signal without loss for approximate 80 - 100 km.

 

The confusion is probably that True pulls 1 km fibre free of charge, while 3BB only does 500 meter free of charge, afteer that there is a charge per meter

 

Forget about the wifi/sim thingy.

 

Belated thanks, what with moving, settling in, this and that didn't log in for a time.

Sorted itself, really, the True guy came over to explain - they're in the process of pulling fiber to our side of the village, so if willing to wait a bit (2-3 weeks) we'll get a proper line with no hassles. The other option is to pull it a longer way from the other village, which might cause some issues with True later on. 

 

So far, using the smartphone as hotspot gives better than expected results, at least as a temporary solution. Thanks again for your reply.

[muratremix]

1500 meter for fibre is like nothing. You can even get decent speed with a phone line at 1.5km using VDSL, with fiber, it should provide at least 500 mbps if not more.

[Morch]

25 minutes ago, muratremix said:

1500 meter for fibre is like nothing. You can even get decent speed with a phone line at 1.5km using VDSL, with fiber, it should provide at least 500 mbps if not more.

 

Their apprehension seems more to do with subpar installation and pulling of cables. I get that, as poles in some rural areas can be dodgy, and if crews use leftover materials or carry out unauthorized installations, customer experience can be meh. With the upcoming connection distance pulled will be about 250m, so probably better in the long term.

[KhunBENQ]

3BB over True anytime!

Fiber over any other technology anytime.

Never spend big money to connect to True.

 

[muratremix]

18 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

3BB over True anytime!

Fiber over any other technology anytime.

Never spend big money to connect to True.

 

I doubt he has 3BB option. True is still better than dodgy 4G in rural areas with lots of trees (Trees absorb radio signals)

[Morch]

On 5/25/2020 at 2:44 PM, KhunBENQ said:

3BB over True anytime!

Fiber over any other technology anytime.

Never spend big money to connect to True.

 

 

No, not anytime, nor anywhere.

Both in our village and the nearby town where we rented while the house was being built, the original (and only) option was 3BB. Was about to sign with them then, but neighbors almost unanimous view that service was annoying and useless. True came in a couple of weeks later, anyone who wasn't shackled to a long term contract with 3BB switched. We had little issues with True during that time, got upgraded packages free, and service was reasonable plus. As for costs, about the same, depending on package.

[OneMoreFarang]

What is in between the 1500m?

 

Maybe you could install two WLAN stations with directional antenna. One in your house and the other wherever your ISP is willing to connect.

If you need technical info have a look at Google and YouTube.

 

[Pib]

Like muratermix said earlier....1500 meters for a fiber optics run is nothing.  In fiber optics drops from the trunk line junction box to a person's residence they use "single mode" fiber optics cable.  You would experience less than 1 db power loss....very little.   

 

However, I doubt the ISP likes to run a cable that far to a single residence as it costs more and over a 1500 meters so many "physical" problems could occur (like a break in the line, critters eating on the line, tree limb breaking line, etc) and trying to fine where the physical problem on a l....o.....n......g fiber line hung-up high on soi light poles mixed in with other black cables would be hard/time consuming unless the ISP outfitted its techs with special/costly equipment to estimate distance to a line break.   

 

It's better to have a short fiber optics cable run...say a few hundred meters (or less) which allow ISP techs to troubleshoot easier/faster if they feel it's a physical line problem....and takes a lot less time and baht to replace if a new line must be run....if they decide they don't want to splice/fuse the break together. 

 

3BB seems to get thumbs up ratings from most for their speed/service, but there are also plenty of posts on ThaiVisa about slow 3BB fiber optics speed/crappy service....like their 1Gb speed package falling far short of that speed. 

 

Waiting for True might be your best bet.  About 5 years ago I use to be on True cable (DOCSIS) high speed internet....the service worked fine....was very reliable.  But I switched to AIS Fibre just as soon as they arrived my moobaan because AIS internet and TV packages were so much cheaper than True's.   Not as big of a cost difference for internet now thou....but True TV packages still too expensive.  But True is still an ISP I avoid based on past experience with their pricing/billing, not only for their internet but their mobile service (I have a horror billing story about their mobile billing years back)...they just left a bad taste in my mouth.  True is still on my sh*t list.

 

Quote

 

Fiber Loss

 

For multimode fiber, the loss is about 3 dB per km for 850 nm sources, 1 dB per km for 1300 nm. (3.5 and 1.5 dB/km max per EIA/TIA 568) This roughly translates into a loss of 0.1 dB per 100 feet (30 m) for 850 nm, 0.1 dB per 300 feet(100 m) for 1300 nm.

 

For singlemode fiber, the loss is about 0.5 dB per km for 1310 nm sources, 0.4 dB per km for 1550 nm. (1.0 dB/km for premises/0.5 dB/km at either wavelength for outside plant max per EIA/TIA 568)This roughly translates into a loss of 0.1 dB per 600 (200m) feet for 1310 nm, 0.1 dB per 750 feet (250m) for 1300 nm.

 

[Morch]

7 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

What is in between the 1500m?

 

Maybe you could install two WLAN stations with directional antenna. One in your house and the other wherever your ISP is willing to connect.

If you need technical info have a look at Google and YouTube.

 

 

Thanks, but things are pretty much sorted, I think. Using smartphone as hotspot with DTAC package - works better than expected. True connection supposedly coming in a 2-3 weeks to a pole near us (250 m).

[Morch]

58 minutes ago, Pib said:

Like muratermix said earlier....1500 meters for a fiber optics run is nothing.  In fiber optics drops from the trunk line junction box to a person's residence they use "single mode" fiber optics cable.  You would experience less than 1 db power loss....very little.   

 

However, I doubt the ISP likes to run a cable that far to a single residence as it costs more and over a 1500 meters so many "physical" problems could occur (like a break in the line, critters eating on the line, tree limb breaking line, etc) and trying to fine where the physical problem on a l....o.....n......g fiber line hung-up high on soi light poles mixed in with other black cables would be hard/time consuming unless the ISP outfitted its techs with special/costly equipment to estimate distance to a line break.   

 

It's better to have a short fiber optics cable run...say a few hundred meters (or less) which allow ISP techs to troubleshoot easier/faster if they feel it's a physical line problem....and takes a lot less time and baht to replace if a new line must be run....if they decide they don't want to splice/fuse the break together. 

 

3BB seems to get thumbs up ratings from most for their speed/service, but there are also plenty of posts on ThaiVisa about slow 3BB fiber optics speed/crappy service....like their 1Gb speed package falling far short of that speed. 

 

Waiting for True might be your best bet.  About 5 years ago I use to be on True cable (DOCSIS) high speed internet....the service worked fine....was very reliable.  But I switched to AIS Fibre just as soon as they arrived my moobaan because AIS internet and TV packages were so much cheaper than True's.   Not as big of a cost difference for internet now thou....but True TV packages still too expensive.  But True is still an ISP I avoid based on past experience with their pricing/billing, not only for their internet but their mobile service (I have a horror billing story about their mobile billing years back)...they just left a bad taste in my mouth.  True is still on my sh*t list.

 

 

 

Thanks, and yes, the original explanation we got was obviously incorrect. Don't know if the guy actually didn't have a clue, was saving face about something or just saying stuff. What you outlined above pretty much conforms with how things were explained later on.

 

We thought we're taking just the internet package, but they tossed in a decent TV pack free (same thing the previous time we signed with them). Mobile we get from DTAC, not that we use it much.

 

New line in the making is 250m, and no houses between us and the box. The other side was way longer, crossing over from another amphur - so both physical issues and some company bureaucracy.

 

Hopefully sorted soon.

[Morch]

Just a short update. True connection materialized on time, distance from their nearest box about 200m As for performance, can't rightly say. We delayed upgrading our machines until moving, and what with this and that, still stuck with them, so they can't make the most of what's on offer. Still acceptable, and the newer smartphone does run faster and smoother.

 

When we bought this plot, about 6 years back, I told the doubtful Mrs. that it'll boom in 5 years. Was off by one. There are now 3 parallel housing projects in progress, and a few smaller ones done. True were simply biding their time for more customers to show up.