TA (True) ADSL Service

[kabal1234]

Hi,

Anyone (Lopburi?) been playing around with the new international/unlimited service yet? I guess it only came into play today, but any initial impressions would be appreciated. Specifically, does it use Private or Public IP's. I just need clarification p2p is gonna work before I order it.

Cheers

[lopburi3]

LINK

The above is the current price/option list (but only in Thai as translation has not been posted yet).

I just downloaded 5 megs at 52k average speed from US on upgraded 256 service.

Speed checks were a little over 400 to McAfee earlier, now 501 kbps.

K-Lite connected.

[chingy_]

look like for this price it'll beat ToT flat out.

[kabal1234]

Lopburi,

Did you try a p2p transfer? Can you confirm there's no problems here?

Cheers

[lopburi3]

Did you try a p2p transfer?

K-Lite (clean Kazza) is p2p and it works.

[kabal1234]

Oh, ok, thanks Lopburi, I wasn't familiar with "K-Lite".

So what ADSL modems would you recommend? The ones TA offer are all USB. I'd like to track down a PCI card...heard USB modems use a fair amount of power and their fair share of CPU cycles too. The way I read it is that it just has to be PPPoE compatible, is that right?

[lopburi3]

So what ADSL modems would you recommend? The ones TA offer are all USB. I'd like to track down a PCI card...heard USB modems use a fair amount of power and their fair share of CPU cycles too. The way I read it is that it just has to be PPPoE compatible, is that right?

They provide software setup for the modems they recommend but guess any would be ok if you can set it up. Don't believe the modem is using much computer time (believe the problem you are thinking about applied to WinModems and the only 56k USB unit I had was crap on my 500 Celeron machine. Have had no problem at all with this ZyXEL 630 ADSL modem.

[Firefoxx]

The general impression from the Thai ADSL board is that the speed is slightly slower than normal and seems to be unstable. I've tested my speed and it's swung between 100k and 500k, within 5 minutes, which is not what it normally does. There is a new clause added to the contract which says that speed is not guaranteed (it wasn't guaranteed before, but it wasn't written out as clearly). Anyways, there still seem to be some people experiencing problems. If you haven't subscribed yet, you might want to wait, since this is just the beginning. If you do subscribe, remember that the minimum is 6 months, and you pay a fine if you want to terminate before that period.

About modems: In general, all USB devices use cpu cycles, that's just the nature of the interface. For stuff like keyboards and mice, it's no problem since they send very little information, and intermittently at that. For stuff like portable harddisks it gets to be a problem, since large amounts of data are transferred continuously. For broadband modems, it's a bit in between, and probably not a problem with a properly configured modern computer.

I've use a USB modem (sold by TA for 8,000 baht to me when the price was really around 1,000) with TA's service for quite a few years. It's ok, but it has quite a few quirks that I've learned to live with. Other people have not been so lucky.

A PCI modem is not recommended. They're just not as compatible or as reliable. The are the cheapest.

Generally, the best broadband modem is an Ethernet modem, since they use an ethernet connection to your computer rather than USB. However, plain ethernet modems are hard to find in Thailand, and usually you'll see ethernet modem/routers (a router with a built-in ADSL modem). They can act as plain ethernet modems, but you're paying a lot. If you want to share the link, you might as well buy a ethernet modem/router. The cheapest is around 3-4k baht.

[MadFrankie]

the modem/routers usually have a hub/switch aswell, so connection sharing is made easy

[scratt]

Hi there...

Over here in Nonthaburi I am getting consistent speeds.

I was testing true out with the basic 256/128 40 hours international connection and am so pleased with the 'free' upgrade to 512/256 Unlimited that I have asked them to up it to 1Meg...

1000Baht for 24/7 1Meg connection... That is almost half the price I was paying in the Uk for a 512 connection!! Wicked!

Fast, consistent downloads and internet access 24/7... Very nice!

All the best,

scratt

p.s. I use a Prolink Hurricane 9000P router. 2000Baht from Pantip. Really neat and complies with the need for PPPoE connection on whatever modem you have... otherwise the new 'truehisp' service will not work for you...

[Firefoxx]

Actually PPPoA works too. If you buy the modem in Thailand, just ask the shop whether it works with TA/True, they should know.

For anyone interested, the link (Thai, click on the flag in upper right to get English version) is here:

http://www.telecomasia.co.th/index.php?nam...ail&promo_id=20

The table's headings are: X modem speed, ADSL speed, price for people with True number, price for people without true numbers (you get a phone line, but you only get the adsl signal on the line, no phone connection). Initail fee is free for people with phone, 1000 baht for those without. People with UBC can get the modem for a special price.

Strange price differences between the speeds. Note that the uploads speeds for the megabit level speeds are all at 512k.

It also seems that people are now getting public IP's, which is good, since this means that your p2p programs will probably work right out of the box.

I frankly am very amazed, nay, shocked, that Thailand has decent broadband for decent prices. I was hoping for within 5 years, since I've shouted and whined and whatnot at these providers for this type of service for 5 years now. I didn't expect Thailand to get it right this soon.

So far, the speeds are very good, although not steady, from what people in the webboard say (and from my own observations). Let's hope that this doesn't change for the worse.

[chingy_]

im gonna sign up on this package 2560/512 for 1,150bbaht, let see how fast it goes, im a speed freak when it come to adsl

[ChiangMaiThai]

Is this unlimited deal available in Chiang Mai? What company's phone line do you have to have? Anyone have a link to more information from true?

[kabal1234]

I know the service is available to True and Non-True customers, but I don't know if it is available in your area. Their website is www.telecomasia.co.th

[lopburi3]

Is this unlimited deal available in Chiang Mai? What company's phone line do you have to have? Anyone have a link to more information from true?

Second posting this thread (LINK).

This is for Bangkok only. Sorry. But perhaps it is the start of something good. Already some others have started to drop price.

[scratt]

Hi Firefoxx...

It's interesting that you say PPPoA works too...

According to the tech guys at TA the new connection truehisp does not support it...

I am not syaing you are wrong... I am just curious as to how you know that it works for sure.

PPPoA definitely worked for the truelocal and trueadsl connections, I know.

Cheers,

scratt

[Firefoxx]

Well, actually I don't know for sure, since I don't use the normal package. However, the modems that True sells come with drivers that default to PPPoA, so it would be a tech support nightmare to make PPPoA suddenly not work. The original network did support both PPPoA and PPPoE, and I don't know why they would take support of one protocol out.

An update on the True situation:

If you check out here

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

you'll see that most of True's international link is now provided by CAT via IIG. It used to be 155mbps Dacom (korea) and 155mbps from some other place I forget. Anyways, today there have been widespread reports of VERY bad performance. I have also experienced it firsthand (my download dropped from full 512k bandwidth to 16k, no kidding). It may just be a temporary result of bad configs or changes, but it might just be the state of things to come, since CAT's international links are known to be far from stellar (witness hinet).

Anyone who's not made up their mind yet might just wait a while and see what happens.

[BEJ]

Anyways, today there have been widespread reports of VERY bad performance. I have also experienced it firsthand (my download dropped from full 512k bandwidth to 16k, no kidding). It may just be a temporary result of bad configs or changes, but it might just be the state of things to come, since CAT's international links are known to be far from stellar (witness hinet).

Technically i dont think there are anything wrong with CAT's international pipes out from IIG. As True literally flushed the gates with the update, the pipes became full and every ATM cell queued up like cars in Bangkok rush hour traffic. If you look at the link(http://webcorp.asianet.co.th/eh/linkinter/linkstatus.php) you can see that True doubled their capacity via IIG from 155M to 310M during the day. At the same time they reduced capacity to Korea from 155M to 45M, perhaps a tradeoff with CAT. I looked at traffic stats for True on their STM-1 to IIG. Last week showed an average of 108Mbps traffic, that is 75% average utilisation on their circuit to IIG. I read that True/Asianet have 600,000 users on dial-up, if that is lines/subscribers or added up i dont know, please correct me. Now add upp 600,000 dial-up users, 20,000+ DSL, Cable internet and corporate users sharing 300Mbps of international bandwidth, amasing is all i can say. For example, Nextgentel(my provider) with 65,000 subscribers, DSL exclusively, leases 1Gbps from Global Crossing and a STM-4(622Mbps) from TeliaSonera for backup/redundancy on their international link. They offer ADSL products from 1.5M/384 to app. 8M /864 and speeds are generally guaranteed even to very remote servers.

Now i want to tell you a story about a small village. This village had one merchant and one farmer that produced eggs. Outside the village there were many farmers and merchants but the people in the village could not go outside, that had the mayor decided. Now the farmer said to the merchant if you only sell my eggs i will share 50 % with you. Fine the merchant replied but i have to ask the mayor. The merchant asked the mayor and asked if he only could sell the farmers egg, fine the mayor said but i want my share. So the mayor, merchant and farmer teamed up to sell eggs. How much should the price be asked the merchant ? 5 dollar suggested the farmer. NO, 20 dollar said the mayor. Are you crasy, eggs outside the village only cost 10 cent said the merchant. No problem the mayor replied, people in my village dont know that.

Bottom line, i dont think this is TA's fault. They are eager to offer their customers real broadband, but the way CAT controls the supply gives them a hard time. Technology is not the issue here. Let me give you a practical example. I recently mentioned the Thailand-Indonesia-Singapore(TIS) 320Gbps submarine fiber cable that opened last December. That cable along with many other uses a very recent innovation, DWDM which stands for dense wavelength division multiplexing and has revolutionised telecommunications the last decade or so. The TIS cable have a landing station in Songkla while IIG are located in Bangkok. I dont know if CAT have connected their network to TIS, but i assume they have. For a 10Gbps increase in International bandwidth it would have been a simple operation. First step would have been to provide a 10Gbps dedicated pipe on existing fiber between IIG and Songkla terminal. This would perhaps require CAT to upgrade their equipment to DWDM compliance. My guess is this would cost a few hundred thousands US$ if they hired a contractor. Next stage from Songkla to Singapore via TIS which they already partnered in. Last step is that CAT buy 10G of IP transit from a Tier 1 provider in Singapore. I only managed to get a quote on 12 month contract/ 1Gbps dedicated access but both 2.4 and 10Gbps are available. The quote on 1Gbps were 34,000 US$/month, a 10G connection would have been discounted, my guess is perhaps 250K/month. Are CAT so poor that they cannot afford to upgrade capacity ? I dont think so. The answer is market control, CAT controls the supply, hence the prices. CAT are milking their cows(read ISP's) while they still can. Any opinions ?

[BEJ]

And here are the prices CAT charges for corporate access.

http://www.cat.net.th/corporate_access.html

658,500 + 7%tax = 704,595 Baht/month for a 1,544Mpbs(E1) circuit to IIG not including installation. Thats 17.357 US$/month. Half the price of a 1G connection in Singapore.

[Firefoxx]

Lots of research, nice. I don't have much research, but I do know from living in Thailand for quite some time that goverment entities (even ex-goverment entities) tend to lean towards the profits every time. Huge profits. This means that even the trivial upgrade you mention has probably been passed through several committees and sub-committees, and in the end will probably end up costing tax payers several billion baht. And has a high chance of not working.

Even if CAT were to manage it, I doubt that it would benefit Thais in any way. Prices would still be high (unless CAT came under scrutiny for this particular thing) and CAT would still control everything.

It's stuff like this that made Thailand fall behind so far in the internet race. Thailand started at the same time, but with things like CAT chained to its legs, it didn't get far.