What Is The Best Adsl Provider In Bangkok?

[grahamb]

OK, so I know this isn't a simple question and therefore probably isn't the best subject for my first post after a couple of months of lurking. Never mind, here we go anyway...

What do you think is the best ADSL service in Bangkok? I've read through the different threads on here and can't come to any conclusions. From what I've read, broadband seems to be more available in Bangkok than the rest of the country but that's all I know.

How do I define "best"? Ideally, I'd like something with a reliable, fast-ish (256k?) connection that is cost-effective (i.e. I'd be willing to pay a bit more for reliability). We currently have an unlimited connection so that would be ideal but I'm not sure if it's worth the money - opinions on this? If it matters, we're going to be living in the Phahonyothin area.

I found this but I'm not sure if the information there is still valid (it is undated). I've also been surfing around the various ISP's pages but I'm looking for real experiences, not their sales pitches!

We currently have cable internet in Finland but I'm assuming that ADSL is a better option in Bangkok. The only details I could find about cable internet were from inet.co.th and when I used their info email address to send them an enquiry email, I got the response that the address didn't exist... Is ADSL the right way to go?

I know that TIT and therefore reliability, cost competitiveness, etc. are going to be relative but I'd like to get the best possible service with the least amount of hassle!

Thanks for any advice you can give!

[igotworms]

Look here for a start ---> http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10081

[JJDinsay]

I've always used TelecomAsia for the ADSL connection and the ISP service - U r charged seperately for both. Thought the other ones are not bad - my co-workers use KSC and that's zoomin. A client of mine uses Pacific Internet. But I'd still recommend TA over all. But read that post igotworms posted, it is a useful thread.

[grahamb]

Oops, I should have searched more carefully!

The ironic thing is that I saw that thread earlier but missed it when I was looking yesterday...

Thanks igotworms

[Firefoxx]

It's strange how backward Thailand is regarding broadband. To think that broadband started in Thailand at about the same time as Korea or Japan. Coverage has only just started to get good in Bangkok this year, and has only just started to spread in any significant numbers to the provinces. Prices are still ludicrous, speeds are still abyssmal, service is still spotty. It's time to chant the mantra : TIT, TIT, TIT....

To answer the question, TA/TRUE is the best media provider in Bangkok, which isn't saying much. You have a choice of various internet airtime providers, but getting the service also from TA/TRUE (Asianet) is usually cheaper, easier, and more reliable.

You also have to keep in mind that many times you don't really have a choice. ADSL coverage is still not that great after all these years. TA does seem to have the most coverage. TOT's coverage STILL hasn't reached my house. Another thing is that a lot of potential TA customers are complaining that they're in the coverage area, but the DSLAM at their local CO is full, with NO IDEA of when it will be expanded.

Rumors are floating around that TA/TRUE/Asianet will come out with a new ADSL "promotion" soon, which is supposed to offer actual unlimited internet access (as opposed to nearly useless local unlimited internet access).

[lopburi3]

Rumors are floating around that TA/TRUE/Asianet will come out with a new ADSL "promotion" soon

Unlimited hi-Speed Internet Access

Your access to the Internet has just increased in speed with unlimited access to international websites. As one of our valued hi-Speed Internet customers you automatically benefit from our new ‘Unlimited Package’.

As from July 1, 2004 your connection speed will be upgraded with unlimited access to international websites for the same monthly fee you are currently paying.

For example, if your current connection speed is 256 Kbps with a monthly fee of 750 Baht and 14 Baht per minute for time exceeding 40 hours per month, you will be automatically upgraded to a speed of 512 Kbps.  Your monthly fee will remain 750 Baht with unlimited access, so there are no extra charges.

Our new ‘Unlimited’ campaign celebrates the expansion of our Broadband network which now covers 90 percent of the Bangkok Metropolitan Area.

[Kalle_Sandare]

Lopburi3

Where you got the source from? Link please.

Or is this the rumour?

Just want to know, if the case is so then the 750 thb is ok for me. And I would like to make an order now... So I have the connection ready in a few weeks when they start the new deal.

[lopburi3]

Lopburi3

Where you got the source from? Link please.

Or is this the rumour? 

Not April 1st so hope it is for real. Was in email received from Asianet today. Don't know if they have the new info published on web yet but looks like they are going to blow everyone else away. Can you believe 3 meg for 1,950 per month unlimited international internet?

[lopburi3]

Not April 1st so hope it is for real. Was in email received from Asianet today.

My 256 circuit is now connected at 576 so it appears to be true.

[huski]

My 256 circuit is now connected at 576 so it appears to be true.

"true", pun intended lopburi3?

thanks for the info, going to have do it now...my dialup speed is pathetic

[Firefoxx]

This is supposedly the new rate. Anyone already using local (with 40 hours inter per month) will be automatically upgraded. Anyone using pure local will have to contact True to change. Again, I don't know if this is the real deal.

speed baht/month

512/256 Kbps 590

1 Mbps 750

2.5 Mbps 1150

3 Mbps 1850

4 Mbps 2200

If this is the real deal, then Thailand has FINALLY caught up with the rest of the world after several years of playing turtle (not playing catch-up, since Thailand started roughly at the same time). I didn't think this day would come for another 10 years at least.

[kabal1234]

Got any links about this deal? Called TA and they seemed clueless about it. Is this just for existing customers.

lopburi, how are the speeds in reality? do you get at or close to advertised speeds? How much do they vary between peek/off-peek?

Seems to good to be true, where's the catch?

[lopburi3]

lopburi, how are the speeds in reality? do you get at or close to advertised speeds? How much do they vary between peek/off-peek?

I only have the 256k service but speed has always been between 240-288 at any time of day when I downloaded enough to check or ran a check. There are been what appear to be one or two minute delays in finding DNS server a few times, and perhaps one or two ADSL signal drops during a 12 hour day for a few seconds. Other than that very solid.

The current information is by email and form letter to customers of the upgrade. Believe they will have to make change to website 1 July as the old information will not be valid (although old information does not seem to bother a number of web sites).

[Firefoxx]

True is generally good speed-wise... they have nearly the largest international link, and a very large local link (both of which aren't that great when compared to other countries). It only drops when their gateways have problems, and one time their gateway was down for a month, giving sub-56k speeds for a month. There seems to be no difference between peak and non-peak right now.

However, this information is for the current situation. I don't know how much this will change with the new prices, which are sure to draw a lot more subscribers than the crippled "local" service. They haven't increased their international link for quite some time.

There is a rumor that the higher multi-megabit speeds will be routed through CAT's gateways, and CAT's gateways aren't stellar. CAT's hinet, with 2mbit advertised speed and 64kbit real world speed is a good example.

It is also not known whether you will be assigned public or private IPs. The difference is that with public IPs you will not be able to:

1 host servers of any kind (inluding game servers)

2 do certain p2p transfers, especially IRC uploads

3 use certain programs that cannot pass firewalls/NAT

And some programs will require some config changes to work properly. Currently, some "local" users get private IPs, some public (if you login with the "internet" account, you always get public).

[kabal1234]

Firefoxx,

How about p2p clients like overnet and sharaza? Will they work regardless of private/public IP? That's got me a bit worried.

[Firefoxx]

Sorry, I've never tried overnet or sharaza.

Basically, with a private IP, it's like you're behind a adsl/cable NAT router. Only in this case, the router is not at your house but at the ISP. If the router were at your house, you could at least configure it to forward ports.

This means that whenever you connect to anyone (servers, other people), what they see is the router. They can never see "you". They can never connect to "you" directly. Sort of like having a pabx system, except that there are no internal extensions to dial.

So, any program that requires the other party to initiate a connection directly to you will not work. I know that winmx has a built-in workaround, wherein if you are behind a firewall/router, then you initiate all connections, uploading and downloading. Of course, this fails if both parties are behind routers.

[BEJ]

This is supposedly the new rate. Anyone already using local (with 40 hours inter per month) will be automatically upgraded. Anyone using pure local will have to contact True to change. Again, I don't know if this is the real deal.

speed baht/month

512/256 Kbps 590

1 Mbps 750

2.5 Mbps 1150

3 Mbps 1850

4 Mbps 2200 

Thats interesting, i checked out international bandwidth capacity from a website and i found out Thailands internet exchange only had about 2 gigabits/s international capacity. If TA is planning on providing the services that Firefoxx describes perhaps their network is routed outside of INEX. Obviously if CAT advertises 2 Mbit/s and the throughput is only 64kbit their backbone is truly exhausted. Does someone know if Thai ISP's have to buy bandwidth products such as SDH and ATM from CAT or can they buy from anyone ? Does anyone else than CAT own infrastructure such as terrestial fibre cables terminating in Malaysia or Singapore ? I know CAT together with Singtel and PT Indonesia just recently opened a new 320 Gbps submarine fiber cable from Songkla with landing stations in Batam, Indonesia and Changi, Singapore. Asia Netcom the owner of the 2.56 Tbps EAC submarine cable say they operate layer 2 infrastructure to Bangkok via ATM and Frame relay. See http://www.asianetcom.com/inter/index.asp?did=10&pg=Network Recently, i noticed thai websites loads faster than they used to, not Google like but a major improvement, looks like the bandwidth exhaust in Thailand are diminishing.

[TheHamburger]

FYI

http://webcorp.asianet.co.th/eh/linkinter/linkstatus.php

[camerata]

Does someone know if Thai ISP's have to buy bandwidth products such as SDH and ATM from CAT or can they buy from anyone ? Does anyone else than CAT own infrastructure such as terrestial fibre cables terminating in Malaysia or Singapore ?

There are two choices for international bandwidth in Thailand. The first is an international telecoms provider, and pay CAT a whopping "half-circuit" fee. The second is CAT's own gateway (IIG). You can see the map at:

http://www.ntl.nectec.or.th/internet/map/current.html

CAT recently reduced the cost of IIG significantly as its response to the government's broadband campaign, but declined to do the same for half-circuit costs. The end result is within a year or two (most int'l bandwidth contracts are 3 years) all ISPs will be forced to use IIG or die. Voila! Monopoly!

[BEJ]

There are two choices for international bandwidth in Thailand. The first is an international telecoms provider, and pay CAT a whopping "half-circuit" fee. The second is CAT's own gateway (IIG). You can see the map at:

http://www.ntl.nectec.or.th/internet/map/current.html

I looked at it, last update shows that Asia Infonet(TA) have a 2.4Gbps(STM-16) link to NIX(domestic internet exchange) as well as a STM-1(155.52Mbps) to Dacom, Korea and a STM-1 to IIG(international internet gateway located in Thailand). Current capacity bought at IIG were approx. 959 Mbps while capacity available out to international destinations were 1306 Mbps, hence a surplus of available capacity. TA have 2.4G of domestic capasity and 300M of international and rank 1st among the ISP's for local and international capacity. I have done a traffic/capacity analysis and are assuming that TA/CAT uses modern traffic management/packet switching/queing methods and that links between local exchanges(DSLAMs/ADMs) are unexhausted. I have based my estimates on average of 10 Gigabytes transfer per subscriber/month and ignored dial-up subscribers(normally less than 1G transfer/month). For a 50/50 share between local and international usage i found that current capasity will accomodate up to 35,000 subscribers. for a 80/20 share up to 70,000 users and 20/80 up to 15,000 users. The domestic capacity will accomodate more than 100,000 users. These figures are maximums for reasonable perfomance, recommended are up to 80 % of available bandwidth. Normally backbone operators will allow burst(overutilisation) during peak traffic hours as long as their usage over a given period of time not exceeds available bandwidth on their circuit. Thanks to Camerata who provided me with the link to Nectec. More stats are available on http://www.ntl.nectec.or.th/internet. Traffic stats on NIX and NECTEC are available per hour/day but i have yet to find traffic statistics for IIG.

[camerata]

Traffic stats on NIX and NECTEC are available per hour/day but i have yet to find traffic statistics for IIG.

http://www.ntl.nectec.or.th/internet/route...report_iig.html