47 minutes ago, SAFETY FIRST said:

I was replying to Sam Drucker comments top of this page. 

Why don't you read this comment and get yourself up to speed. 

 

I've had a few friends from the States that came to visit me and they have had similar issues. 

 

My friend works in China, he came to visit me recently, has a Realme Q3 Pro 5G, has a 5G AIS sim but cannot get a 5G signal.

He's been into the Central Festival AIS office and the technician told him his 5G phone is not compatible with Thailand 5G network. 

 

That would be nonsense; since AIS use n28 and his phone supports n28. Even if they used n41, his phone also supports n41. So there must be another reason.

 

1, 28, 40, 41, 77, 78, 79 SA/NSA

 

Try to imagine n41 not as a narrow band sitting on exactly one frequency. A phone supporting n41 will be able to see the whole frequency range.

 

A personal attack has been removed

The 5G bands needed for Thailand are n28, n41 & n258. The first two are the ones in current use.

 

 

On 12/10/2021 at 12:21 PM, Sam Drucker said:

Have a few data points to add here.

 

I've had the same AIS prepaid number for more than 15 years now. Used to live in Thailand full time, but for the last 8 years been working in the States, and just visiting here from time to time. I just arrived a few weeks ago with my USA-purchased Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G (unlocked, SM-N986U1), and popped my Thai SIM card in when I got here. Signed up for a 5G data plan, but never got the 5G symbol; just LTE.

 

Went into an AIS shop in Bangkok, thinking maybe it was a configuration setting issue. They worked with it, then told me I needed a new SIM card. So in goes a new SIM card, they fiddled with my account settings on their computer, then hand the phone back to me (like we're all done.) I look at the phone, and it's just the same as when I walked in the door;  just an LTE symbol.

 

So I asked about that, they seemed puzzled, then asked a colleague. He says it takes 1 hour for everything on the network to reset. Okay, whatever. I go back to the hotel, it's still the same. Check the next morning, it's still the same. I realize "I don't know" still isn't part of the vocabulary here.

 

Fly up to Khon Kaen, see AIS 5G ads all over the place up there too. I check with an AIS office there. They worked with it there quite a bit, and with my account settings and packages. Three people huddled on it. Finally, they pulled one of their floor model Note 20 Ultra 5Gs, and popped my SIM card in it. Light it up, and it's got 5G. Put my SIM card back in my phone, and it's back to LTE. At least now we know it's a hardware/out of market equipment issue.

 

I thought with 5G those days would have been behind us. Unfortunately, not.

Any ideas here? Is it different 5G frequency bands used here, compared to the States? Or some other incompatibility?

 

One final point: The wife and daughter have US-purchased Galaxy A71 5G phones. Theirs don't pull in 5G either.   

2, 5, 41, 66, 71 mmWave/Sub6 - US-purchased Galaxy A71 5G (SM-A716U) is also missing n28.

 

Though it should pick up n41 wherever available.

If you're having trouble getting an AIS SIMM to connect to 5G in a phone that definitely supports band n41, that's an issue that might require a call to AIS for their help.  I put a AIS Power 4 SIMM in a new 5G phone and bought a 5G topup package and it still wasn't working.  After a couple of days of trying everything that I could think of to no avail, I called AIS and it turned out that there was something that needed to be enabled on their end.

Also, if you're trying to find out which 5G band your phone is connected to rather than just whether it's connected to 5G, on Samsung phones you can find that out by dialing *#0011# and then looking for a parameter called NR_BAND.

At this moment I'm using AIS 4g and streaming Netflix. I find my service is on par with my PlanetFiber DSL. I have not tried AIS 5g. However, if I could get s strong signal in my room I would use it as a hotspot and cancel/ not renew my Planet Fiber DSL. Cable is not an option at my location. Only DSL or Cell.

3 hours ago, JBond009 said:

At this moment I'm using AIS 4g and streaming Netflix. I find my service is on par with my PlanetFiber DSL. I have not tried AIS 5g. However, if I could get s strong signal in my room I would use it as a hotspot and cancel/ not renew my Planet Fiber DSL. Cable is not an option at my location. Only DSL or Cell.

What is PlanetFiber?