Your experience with SIM card routers

[userabcd]

12 minutes ago, topt said:

@Mickeymaus I am curious about the data shown on the TV screen - is that generated by a specific app or ?

Thanks

You Tube - Enable stats for nerds.

[Mickeymaus]

16 minutes ago, topt said:

@Mickeymaus I am curious about the data shown on the TV screen - is that generated by a specific app or ?

Thanks

You can show them for instance in the YouTube app on the TV or in the YouTube app on Android. I will explain it here for the YouTube app on Android. You click on the user icon in this case the P. Then Settings and under the first entry you should find "Enable stats for nerds". This you have to switch on. 

 

For my tests I used the TV. 

 

 

[topt]

4 minutes ago, userabcd said:

You Tube - Enable stats for nerds.

Shame, rarely use You Tube.

[NanLaew]

So, what's the OP's overall opinion on AIS versus DTAC for the "average" user?

[Mickeymaus]

26 minutes ago, NanLaew said:

So, what's the OP's overall opinion on AIS versus DTAC for the "average" user?

I will post the location comparison and the fireworks impact within the next few days. Sorry - was too busy with other things. ????

[Mickeymaus]

So here are the promised results for the location comparison. Don't expect too much. 

 

We tested the same packages of AIS and DTAC at the same time with the same 3BB test server in Chonburi. My device was in Central Pattaya and the other one was in a not so densely populated area - about 1 km east of Mini Siam in Pattaya.

 

The AIS and DTAC packages were 30 Mbps with unlimited data. First we checked at my place whether both devices are comparable in speed and yes, to my surprise they were. My device was the SIM card router and the other device was an older iPhone 6s Plus.

 

I don't have that much data for AIS because I had this idea just before my AIS SIM expired. Nevertheless, I bought the same AIS and DTAC SIM cards for the test partner. With router and all SIM cards the costs were now a whopping 1400 (fourteen hundred) Baht ????. I hope you appreciate that ????. 

 

Regardless of location, there was one major difference between AIS and DTAC network performance - the upload speed. At DTAC it was much lower. At both SIMs and locations the speeds mostly slowed down in the evening.

 

At my location in Central Pattaya the speed (particularly download) was mostly slower than at the other location. In general, DTAC seemed limited to around 30 Mbps at my location. But that was not the case at the other location. 

 

AIS showed higher speed variations than DTAC. I was able to reach very high speeds with AIS, especially very early in the morning (not shown in the pictures. I did a lot of tests alone).

 

Tomorrow I'll post the results that I got during the Fireworks Festival in Central Pattaya. Did all those many people slow down my DTAC internet connection? There was a number in the news of hundreds of thousands of people. Whatever... There were very many and many streaming.

 

[Mickeymaus]

Central Pattaya Fireworks Festival ????.  According to the news apparently 400,000 were in Central Pattaya and saw it. Whatever... ???? And I tried to use the 4G DTAC internet with my SIM card router in my condo in Central Pattaya. They also wrote that the cellphone towers were overloaded ????. 

 

I did many tests throughout the day with DTAC (see picture). Also during the fireworks (yes, I was at home) and I was surprised. I had better performance that day than on some other days. I have no explanation for this. I am not far away from the Central Festival Mall next to the beach. For me nothing was overloaded.

 

Regarding the entire test period I can only repeat what I have written before already. Here at my location I could use the internet (almost) without any problems. However, I had (often) problems with 4K YouTube videos. Lower resolutions were mostly no problem. But you will have to test at your location different providers with your devices and the Internet contents that you use.

 

Also remember that my tests were tests that only included me as an internet user. If you're not the only internet user, 4G might not be fast enough. More users may require higher bandwidth due to higher data volume.

 

[edgarfriendly]

On 9/27/2022 at 12:43 PM, HauptmannUK said:

Back in February I bought a '4G LTE 300Mbps' router from Lazada for ฿900.  Worked very well with AIS 15Mbps SIM.  No issues - I get a good strong signal from AIS here near Pratamnak. I think they pretty much all work just fine if you have a solid cell signal.

I also had a tiny 'pocket' 4G router that I took when travelling. That also worked great if you got a decent 4G signal. Unfortunately left it in a coffee shop somewhere.....

I have just had 3BB Fibre Internet installed (I need high speed for gaming) so the 4G router is for sale if you want it at ฿400. 

Did u sell that router?

 

 

[Mickeymaus]

I have thought this topic is finished after the last tests with the SIM packages at different locations and at the fireworks festival here in Pattaya. And I tested True Move, AIS and DTAC. And then someone in this forum mentioned the TOT NT Thunder package with unlimited data and speed for 999 Baht a year. I had to test it. I continue here at my old posting since I will use the same hardware and perform the same tests. Then you can compare the new results with the old ones.

 

The new Internet packages are:

 

DTAC 30 Mbps with unlimited data for 1 month with free calls to all networks - 203.70 Baht + delivery from Lazada. I took the package with the free calls because it was at this time cheaper than the same package without free calls. 

TOT NT 8 Mbps with unlimited data for 1 month - 89 Baht from TOT NT Pattaya. 

TOT NT Thunder with unlimited speed and unlimited data for 1 month - 199 Baht from TOT NT Pattaya. The 1 year package is 999 Baht. 

 

My 3BB ADSL will not participate this time. I paused it. You can do this for 3 months 2 times a year. 1 month with active service needs to be between these 3 months. It is 631.30 Baht per month. 

 

I never mentioned the hardware in detail. Here is it:

 

Router: D-Link DWR-921 with CAT 4 (max 150/50 Mbps). 

Tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Plus LTE with Android 11 with CAT 21 (max 1400/300 Mbps). 

Phone: iPhone 6s plus of a friend with CAT 6 (max 300/50 Mbps) 

 

TV: the last produced 3D TV - LG 65UH850T - technically the latest features at this time. 

 

More the next days. 

 

[Mickeymaus]

My first impression of the NT Thunder package. All I can say is WOW. Tests were done with the router at 87% signal strength (I haven't looked for a better spot yet). The first picture shows a result with the Ookla SpeedTest app and the second one tests with testmy.net and the browser. 

 

But let's see if this experience can be maintained in the next days. I will run various tests including video streaming at different times with all 3 SIM cards and also in the router and in my tablet with CAT 21. But I doubt the phone companies provide CAT 21. We'll see if there's a big difference between the router with CAT 4 and the tablet with CAT 21.

 

[Mickeymaus]

Today I tested the TOT NT Thunder unlimited speed and unlimited data SIM in the router and in the tablet Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 plus with LTE. I did the same with the DTAC 30 Mbps unlimited data SIM. The TOT NT 8 Mbps with unlimited data I tested only in the router. It is limited to 8 Mbps and it will not be faster in the tablet. 

 

The router has CAT 4 (150/50 Mbps) and the tablet - there are two different specifications on the net - CAT 21 (1400/300) and CAT 20 (2000/150 Mbps). Whatever. I couldn't find out the maximum CAT version that DTAC and TOT support here at my location. 

 

First the signal strength. The first picture shows the NT Thunder in the tablet. DTAC is pretty much the same. The strength is not perfect but still acceptable. 

 

The next picture shows the DTAC SIM in the router. This SIM and the Thunder are pretty much the same. In the router I get 80 to 90 percent. 

 

The last picture shows the TOT 8 Mbps SIM. It always shows 100 percent in the router. I did not test it in the tablet. But what I can say about the 8 Mbps already. You get this speed and normal Internet usage is no problem including YouTube and TikTok. It could be faster but it is clearly limited to 8 to 10 Mbps and this at download and upload. 4K videos? Sadly not but still very good. More later at the video tests. 

 

Next will be the speed tests for the DTAC and TOT Thunder SIM in den router and in the tablet and the 8 Mbps TOT SIM in the router. After this I will post the 4K video tests.

 

 

[Mickeymaus]

Now to the speed tests. Here again the warning. These tests are at my location with my devices. At your location it might be worse or better. You can only find this out by testing. With my results I only want to give you an idea. Especially "delicate" is the Thunder package. It is a data only SIM and when I applied I had to enter the latitude and longitude of my location and the system told me if it MIGHT be possible at my location. But more how I got all these SIMs later. Especially in the case of the Thunder SIM it wasn't easy...

 

Let's start with the TOT NT Thunder. It has unlimited speed (the sky is the limit ????) and unlimited data.

 

The first 2 pictures show the Thunder package in the router and the next two pictures in the tablet. At the picture 4 you see the problem of testmy.net. It is more a speedtest lottery. The lowest value is 72 Mbps and the highest value almost twice as much with 140 Mbps. But some posters insist on these results and therefore I post them. The red number at testmy.net test is the upload speed. 

 

Perhaps there are higher speeds possible. I tested a couple of times and not until I got the highest results. 

 

At this occasion a remark - the max 3BB VDSL download speed was between 50 and 60 Mbps. 

 

Next will be the DTAC SIM. 
 

[matchar]

4 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

Now to the speed tests. Here again the warning. These tests are at my location with my devices. At your location it might be worse or better. You can only find this out by testing. With my results I only want to give you an idea. Especially "delicate" is the Thunder package. It is a data only SIM and when I applied I had to enter the latitude and longitude of my location and the system told me if it MIGHT be possible at my location. But more how I got all these SIMs later. Especially in the case of the Thunder SIM it wasn't easy...

 

Let's start with the TOT NT Thunder. It has unlimited speed (the sky is the limit ????) and unlimited data.

 

The first 2 pictures show the Thunder package in the router and the next two pictures in the tablet. At the picture 4 you see the problem of testmy.net. It is more a speedtest lottery. The lowest value is 72 Mbps and the highest value almost twice as much with 140 Mbps. But some posters insist on these results and therefore I post them. The red number at testmy.net test is the upload speed. 

 

Perhaps there are higher speeds possible. I tested a couple of times and not until I got the highest results. 

 

At this occasion a remark - the max 3BB VDSL download speed was between 50 and 60 Mbps. 

 

Next will be the DTAC SIM. 
 

As I expected the TOT thunder is approximately 3 times faster in the tablet compared to the router.

 

From what I understand, TOT have 60 MHz of spectrum on band 40 so devices that support 3CA (carrier aggregation) can have 3×20MHz simultaneous connections to increase the speed.

 

I also have the same TOT thunder SIM card but it's a shame that decent routers above CAT 4 are so expensive.

[Mickeymaus]

29 minutes ago, matchar said:

As I expected the TOT thunder is approximately 3 times faster in the tablet compared to the router.

 

From what I understand, TOT have 60 MHz of spectrum on band 40 so devices that support 3CA (carrier aggregation) can have 3×20MHz simultaneous connections to increase the speed.

 

I also have the same TOT thunder SIM card but it's a shame that decent routers above CAT 4 are so expensive.

Later I will test it with CAT 6 and let you know if it makes a difference to CAT 4, CAT 20/CAT 21. Perhaps I will also test CAT 3 to give an idea to users of old devices. 

[Mickeymaus]

All tests (speed and video) were done on the same day pretty close together to be more comparable (also the Thunder speed tests that I posted yesterday). 

 

Now the speed test for the DTAC 30 Mbps and the TOT NT 8 Mbps - both with unlimited data. The first 2 pictures show the DTAC SIM in the tablet and the next two in the router. There is not much difference since the speed is limited to 30 Mbps. Both devices can easily handle this speed.

 

The last 2 pictures show the TOT NT 8 Mbps in the router. It runs at full speed too because it is limited at 8 Mbps and the router has no problem with this. I had the feeling that it could be much faster. But you get what you have paid for. Surprising was the constant 100 percent signal strength. I never had this with an other SIM.

 

I don't have a CAT 6 router but I will also test the Thunder with my Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8.0. According to the specification that I found on the Internet it has CAT 6. I want to find out if CAT 6 makes a difference. But of course I don't know to what extent this is comparable to a CAT 6 router. And finally I will test with my old Samsung Note II with CAT 3. All these tests later since my old tablet is currently with a friend.

 

Next will be the 4K video tests. 

 

[NextG]

20 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

Now to the speed tests. Here again the warning. These tests are at my location with my devices. At your location it might be worse or better. You can only find this out by testing. With my results I only want to give you an idea. Especially "delicate" is the Thunder package. It is a data only SIM and when I applied I had to enter the latitude and longitude of my location and the system told me if it MIGHT be possible at my location. But more how I got all these SIMs later. Especially in the case of the Thunder SIM it wasn't easy...

 

Let's start with the TOT NT Thunder. It has unlimited speed (the sky is the limit ????) and unlimited data.

 

The first 2 pictures show the Thunder package in the router and the next two pictures in the tablet. At the picture 4 you see the problem of testmy.net. It is more a speedtest lottery. The lowest value is 72 Mbps and the highest value almost twice as much with 140 Mbps. But some posters insist on these results and therefore I post them. The red number at testmy.net test is the upload speed. 

 

Perhaps there are higher speeds possible. I tested a couple of times and not until I got the highest results. 

 

At this occasion a remark - the max 3BB VDSL download speed was between 50 and 60 Mbps. 

 

Next will be the DTAC SIM. 
 

Thunder SIM is easy to buy online via Shopee from the official stockist. More difficult via NT website. 

[Mickeymaus]

3 minutes ago, NextG said:

Thunder SIM is easy to buy online via Shopee from the official stockist. More difficult via NT website. 

This is correct. I will write how I got the SIMs later.

[NextG]

What about your location? Approximate will do. Together with how high the floor you are on. All relevant information. 

[Mickeymaus]

Just now, NextG said:

What about your location? Approximate will do. Together with how high the floor you are on. All relevant information. 

I wrote this already before many times. It is Central Pattaya and I am on a floor lower than 5. TOT NT likes it if it you are not higher. But it might work without a problem. You will have to test it at your location anyway.

 

I got with the Thunder 500 MB and 7 days for testing. After this I can return it or activate it. I am not sure if you will have this option if you are at a higher floor because they mention this several times.

 

I had the feeling that they care a lot that it will work at your location. I also had to enter not only the floor but also the longitude and latitude of my condo location at the application. I entered by accident a wrong location. No way to continue. Just the message that this area is not covered. 

[NextG]

12 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

I wrote this already before many times. It is Central Pattaya and I am on a floor lower than 5. TOT NT likes it if it you are not higher. But it might work without a problem. You will have to test it at your location anyway.

 

I got with the Thunder 500 MB and 7 days for testing. After this I can return it or activate it. I am not sure if you will have this option if you are at a higher floor because they mention this several times.

 

I had the feeling that they care a lot that it will work at your location. I also had to enter not only the floor but also the longitude and latitude of my condo location at the application. I entered by accident a wrong location. No way to continue. Just the message that this area is not covered. 

At least that information with regard to height of location  will be easier to find ????
Where did you have to enter the location information? During the Shopee purchase?

[Mickeymaus]

7 minutes ago, NextG said:

At least that information with regard to height of location  will be easier to find ????
Where did you have to enter the location information? During the Shopee purchase?

Please be patient. I will cover the whole procedure how I got and activated each SIM later. Then I will also talk about perhaps necessary router and phone / tablet settings. 

[NextG]

4 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

Please be patient. I will cover the whole procedure how I got and activated each SIM later. Then I will also talk about perhaps necessary router and phone / tablet settings. 

I am patient. ???? It’s normal to ask questions to which you want the answers.

I did not request an immediate response. But thank you replying promptly anyway. 

[NextG]

It’s not a problem for me to order a SIM even if I cannot return it. Though I’m sure that it won’t be an issue to do so. 

[matchar]

I'm using the Thunder SIM in my 8th floor condo in BKK. It still works but the signal is not great.

[Mickeymaus]

7 hours ago, matchar said:

I'm using the Thunder SIM in my 8th floor condo in BKK. It still works but the signal is not great.

Thank you for sharing your experience with the TOT NT Thunder. I only can write about my experience and so far it has been great. Others might have a completely different experience - perhaps even better or perhaps worse. 

 

Therefore I am very interested in the experience others have with this package. I created a topic for this. Please let me know your experience there. 

 

 

 

 

[Mickeymaus]

Now the video tests.

 

Speed tests are nice but the video tests show if a high data speed and data volume can be sustained for a long time. 

 

They were done with the TV connected via WiFi to the tablet as access point. But also connected via LAN cable to the router. There was no speed difference if the TV was connected via WiFi to the router instead of the LAN cable. 

 

Tablet WiFi access point - - > TV
Router LAN - - > TV or Router WiFi - - >TV 

 

The tests were done with the YouTube app of the LG SMART TV. 

 

The stats that you see on the screen I get if I switch on the "Nerd Mode" of the LG YouTube app. You can get the same with the YouTube app on your mobile device but it will look differently. 

 

At all tests 4K resolution was forced in the settings. I took the same videos that I took at my tests months ago. Since I added additional tests later it is not correct anymore that I did all the tests at the same time. 

 

First for your understanding some explanations - sorry for this but otherwise you might not understand the tests. If you are not interested continue reading at vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

 

You see in the stats for instance the Current Resolution 3840x2160@60 or @24. This resolution is 4K also called UHD and 60 and 24 is the frame rate. 

 

The next smaller resolution is 2560x1440. This is QHD (Quad HD) or 2K.

 

The next resolution would be 1920x1080 FHD (Full HD). No SIM had a problem with this. So it will not be mentioned anymore. 

 

Now let's make a pixel calculation:

 

4K is 3840 x 2160 = 8,294,400 pixel 
2K is 2560 x 1440 = 3,686,400 pixel 

 

4K has 2.25 more pixels than 2K. Therefore it will need a lot more data. Then you have the frame rate - pictures per second. 60 frames need of course more data than 24 frames. But due to compression the data volume also depends on the compression quality and this on the amount of pixel changes from frame to frame and other things. A longer topic with key frames and...and... 

 

But back to the real life experience. There is a difference between the 4K and 2K display quality. But 2K is still very good. And let's use a mobile device and not a 4K TV. Let's take my big tablet. The screen has 12.4 inches (about 31.5 cm). The resolution is 2800x1752. This is better than 2K but not 4K.

On the Stats for Nerds display you can see the current resolution and the frame rate. Next to it is the highest resolution available for this video. 

 

You see also the Connection Speed at this moment. It changes all the time. 

 

You see the Network Activity. It shows when data are downloaded. If the area is black no further downloads were needed at this time. 

 

You see the Buffer Health. It shows how long the video can be played without downloading new data. The buffer size is limited so it will not grow indefinitely. 

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

 

First the tests with the tablet as an access point and a wireless WiFi connection to the TV. Here I wanted to know what is possible with the SIMs without the CAT 4 router as a bottleneck. These tests were carried out in the evening. I did many tests. Here only examples. 

 

The first 2 pictures are with the DTAC SIM and the last one with the Thunder at 4K @60 frames.

 

You can see at the Network Activity the black areas. This means nothing could be downloaded because the buffer was full already. Then I took the tablet to a different room so that a wall was between tablet and TV. Still no problems

 

Long story short, both SIMs couldn't have done better at 4K with 60 and 24 frames. Sadly ???? I couldn't test 8K ????????????????. Later I will post a GoFundMe link ????. 

Next will be the video tests using the SIMs in the router. 

 

[NextG]

23 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

Please be patient. I will cover the whole procedure how I got and activated each SIM later. Then I will also talk about perhaps necessary router and phone / tablet settings. 

After all that, you still didn’t address the question that I asked, even on your new thread. Nor did you cover how you ordered it. 

[Mickeymaus]

35 minutes ago, NextG said:

After all that, you still didn’t address the question that I asked, even on your new thread. Nor did you cover how you ordered it. 

Next will be the video test with the SIM cards in the router.

Next will be how I got the SIM cards, how I activated them and settings in the phone and tablet and router. 

Next will be a test with a CAT 6 tablet as access point to check if CAT 6 is better than CAT 4. Since I don't have a CAT 6 router (yet) it perhaps gives me an idea. Of course a real CAT 6 router might behave differently. 

Last will be problems I encountered with the SIMs. 

 

I don't know if I will post every day. It is some work... I do this for the members here. For me the decision is clear already because I did all tests already. But my decision at the end. 
 

[NextG]

8 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

Next will be the video test with the SIM cards in the router.

Next will be how I got the SIM cards, how I activated them and settings in the phone and tablet and router. 

Next will be a test with a CAT 6 tablet as access point to check if CAT 6 is better than CAT 4. Since I don't have a CAT 6 router (yet) it perhaps gives me an idea. Of course a real CAT 6 router might behave differently. 

Last will be problems I encountered with the SIMs. 

 

I don't know if I will post every day. It is some work... I do this for the members here. For me the decision is clear already because I did all tests already. But my decision at the end. 
 

I guess if someone is waiting to purchase a SIM, how it is purchased and activated is more important than how it performs in your personal location. 
Best to leave you to it, since you appear to be having a whale of a time on your own. 

[matchar]

The easiest way to order a Thunder SIM card is on Shopee from the official NT mobile store. Best to order the 30 day SIM first to test the signal is acceptable and make sure your device supports Band 40. I had a decent Huawei 4G router from the UK but unfortunately it doesn't support band 40.