Usb Gprs Edge Modem

[monty]

After my weekly stroll in TukCom Pattaya I just saw the brand new Solomon USB Edge modem in a stall over there.

Priced at 7,900 Baht which seems pretty reasonable as well.

I have one of their older plain jane GPRS usb modems, which considering the speed limits of regular gprs works well enough.

Quite handy, small, useful for people not wanting to fiddle around with making bluetooth connections or hooking up phones to pc's or worrying about phone batteries running empty etc...

[TopDogger]

Whats the name of the model which does edge ?

[monty]

SEGM-520

Go to http://www.solomon.com.tw/wbu/

then click on products, choose "wireless modem" in the pop down menu and then on the left of the screen you'll all the USB modems they have...

Saw it at 7900 Baht with a free one2call net-sim card included, gives you 40 hours free internet/month for a whole year...

[TopDogger]

Top Dogger!

[TopDogger]

Has anyone tried SSH connections over EDGE, GPRS in Thailand? In BKK and also outside where EDGE isn't avail.

[misterme]

For less than 7900 baht, you can buy an Edge phone, sim card, and 40 hours a month of internet...

... and you can use the phone if you need to too.

What am I missing?

[TopDogger]

What am I missing?

B7900?

[lomatopo]

For less than 7900 baht, you can buy an Edge phone, sim card, and 40 hours a month of internet...

... and you can use the phone if you need to too.

What am I missing?

Could you break that out with details?

EDGE handsets still command a premium; I'm not sure that there are that many available for less than 8,000 THB? With 1-2-Call 40 hours a month for one year is ~ 1,800 per year (no real 40 hour package now, a 20 hour package is 100 baht).

Also no need for additional cables and/or Bluetooth adapters in the event your PC doesn't have integrated BT.

For some this all-in-one solutions works, is cost-effective and allows them to use their regular mobile phone for voice-calls, something not usually recommended when a GPRS/EDGE session is up and running.

I wouldn't need such a solution but many find it pefect for their application.

[phazey]

Has anyone tried SSH connections over EDGE, GPRS in Thailand? In BKK and also outside where EDGE isn't avail.

yep, yep and yep. works a treat. Also had a few VNC sessions which worked better than expected. Averaging about 256kbps (Nokia 6820 & DTAC)

[Gary A]

I have one of the old Solomon modems. I bought it because it could plug into my laptop as well and my desktop. I was just a lot handier than using the phone. A Thai friend of mine has borrowed it ans has been using it for about the past year.

[The Dan Sai Kid]

I had a Sony Ericsson GPRS adaptor and it was crap, it would never stay connected longer than 5 minutes - and in those 5 minutes I could maybe, that's maybe, get up 1 page.

Switched to a mobile and I can happily surf all day.

The Dan Sai Wife has a Motorola RAZR, cost 4500 and it can surf the internet, has bluetooth. I just can't see the motivation to get the seperate modem.

If anyone wants to buy my GPRS modem, they are welcome. Cost new 10,000 baht, hardly used - and I really mean that!!! Just joking, I couldn't sell that <deleted> with a clear consience...

[monty]

Yeah, the Sony Ericcson gprs modems have a pretty bad reputation.

I almost bought one, but luckily I tried it first, didn't stay connected, time-outs etc.

Ended up buying the sierra wireless aircard 775 at about 4000 Baht more expensive instead, which works perfectly!

The Motorola Razr only does GPRS, means top speed 48 kbps, average speed probably 25kbps.

The Edge capable modems have a top speed of over 200 kbps, average probably around 100 kbps.

Not blistering fast but a huge improvement over regular GPRS. That is if the mobile system in your area is Edge capable of course.

For me the biggest drawback with using the mobile phones as a modem is cables. You need to keep the charger plugged in as well if you want to surf a couple of hours...

[The Dan Sai Kid]

I use a Sony Walkman phone now - 12,000 but it is edge enabled.

Simple solution to the battery problem is shell out 600 baht on a bluetooth adaptor for your computer and you can keep your phone charging whilst downloading...

[TopDogger]

EDGE is only avail in BKK right?

[monty]

Nope, not only Bangkok.

Pattaya is pretty much completely covered by Edge, both on AIS and Dtac...

EDGE_Coverage_Area.doc

[The Dan Sai Kid]

My phone is showing Edge availability in Loei - the GPRS was not working for 2 hours then when it came back Edge was working. It is much more consistent than GPRS and a bit faster...

[lomatopo]

My phone is showing Edge availability in Loei - the GPRS was not working for 2 hours then when it came back Edge was working. It is much more consistent than GPRS and a bit faster...

FWIW, just because the phone shows an "E" rather than a "G" it doesn't necessarily mean you're getting true EDGE services. (The base-station could be mis-configured, or many operators flip the EDGE bit for reasons easily imagined.) Further unless the base station equipment was upgraded during that 2 hour period I wouldn't expcet EDGE or GPRS to be more consistent or faster? EDGE/GPRS is not a guaranteed service, so as voice calls are origintated/terminated you will lose/gain timeslots on the fly. I'm guessing your serving base-station is using a 2 mbps microwave, back to who knows where, for your IP traffic to get onto AIS/1-2-Calls' 10.xxx.xxx.xxx network. Now if you can just keep all those people from making/receiving voicecalls you'll be good to go.

[monty]

I'm not too sure how the dynamic assignment of timeslots works, or the capacity they have (meaning how many voice calls need to be active before they start taking away slots from your data connection).

Yesterday I've done a 26 mB download through my Edge connection which came in at a bit over 24 minutes.

I have DU meter running, so from the graph I could see that the speed had been pretty stable throughout the whole download at around 20kBps. A few times the speed dropped to zero, to pick up again after maybe 10 seconds, in the end I got an average download speed of 18.3 kBps (or 146 kbps).

That was pretty close to the center of Pattaya at 7PM, so one can assume that quite some voice calls were going on as well

To me it looks that the sometimes iffy speeds on Edge result more from the limited international bandwidth available to AIS/Dtac. I've done speedtests to Thai servers giving me over 200 kbps, but still hotmail took ages to load!

I have both a Dtac and an AIS card, just to be sure to get connectivity when I need it! AIS in general is faster, with speedtests to the thaivisa servers consistently at over 200kbps. But every so often their whole connection seems to go down the drain, close to being unusable. Then my Dtac card comes in, which never gives me blistering speeds, but a more stable connection...

[TopDogger]

Where r these proper GPRS/EDGE SIMs avail from Mr Monty?

[pluto_manibo]

Is anyone using edge on the eastern side of Pattaya in the Soi nermPlub waan/soi Siam country area? If so what kind of speeds are u getting and which phone? Adsl hasn't come yet to my area(been waiting 3 yrs) and the gprs is ok but just too slow...Thanks.

[monty]

Where r these proper GPRS/EDGE SIMs avail from Mr Monty?

Any mobile phone shop.

Remember once you have the sim to set-up a gprs package that suits you!

Instructions, along with prices in this file:

GPRS_Tariffs.pdf

Is anyone using edge on the eastern side of Pattaya in the Soi nermPlub waan/soi Siam country area? If so what kind of speeds are u getting and which phone? Adsl hasn't come yet to my area(been waiting 3 yrs) and the gprs is ok but just too slow...Thanks.

I use it both at the Lake Mabprachan area, and in Soi Siam Country club about 1 km past the railway (if going towards the lake).

Both Dtac and AIS is Edge enabled in these areas.

I mainly use AIS, expect speeds within Thailand and Singapore (where Thaivisa is hosted!) to be between 120 and 230 kbps. When surfing Thaivisa, it's not much slower then when using 256kbps adsl.

International speeds can vary a lot, I would say between 80 and 170 kbps. In a previous post yu can see I downloaded a 26mb file in under half an hour from one of download.com's servers in the USA...

Sometimes it grinds to a halt, then I just pop in my Dtac simcad. It's cheap enough to have this second card standby!

Dtac tends to give a more stable connection but at a lower speed (still always above 80kbps)

So for a little investment your surfing experience will definitely improve!

[TopDogger]

whats the best for central BKK & Pattaya Monty?

Thx for all the info

[monty]

Difficult to say, never used it in Bkk!

From a stability point Dtac seems to be the better choice in Pattaya, but if AIS works properly (not all the time!) it's faster then Dtac...

[TopDogger]

Picked one up from Pantit thisaft, works well etc.. The only thing is, when I registered the one2call net sim I got a message saying I had 1 month and 1800 minutes free. Any ideas how I get this 40hrs per month for a year for free?

thx

Edited April 29, 2007 by TopDogger

[monty]

Just bought a new net sim as well, and it seems it's now only 30 hours free (1800 minutes).

I already deleted the welcoming message, but I'm pretty sure its for a whole year.

Something like 1800 minutes per month for 0,00 Baht it said...

Payed 390 Baht a Telewiz, so if 30 hours is not sufficient, buy a second one

[TopDogger]

ahh, nice one.. Provided its 30pr month for a year no problemo

Edited April 29, 2007 by TopDogger

[Guest RealEstateBroker]

ahh, nice one.. Provided its 30pr month for a year no problemo

Got mine from edgethailanddotcom. They speak english and get you going including

calling AIS or DTAC to get you the best deal.

Now a question I have asked before, when I am in my house outside of Korat I can

only pick up a non EDGE connection on AIS or DTAC which is acceptable but slow.

Now when I turn on my Blackberry from the states that has roaming in Thailand it

shows EDGE and is WAY faster than AIS or DTAC connecting to the internet than

my EDGE card in my laptop. When I connect in Bangkok or Pattaya my laptop is

connecting to EDGE so the card is working. If you are still with me my question is

why is my Blackberry from the states on roaming so much faster in my little village

than AIS or DTAC on my laptop...it's fast !