Satellite / Ubc / Internet In Hua Hin

[bendix]

As I mentioned before I'm moving down there soon, and I'll be telecommuting to my job in Hua Hin.

In BKK, I've always lived in a condo where stuff like UBC and internet has been taken care of. Now I've bought a house down there and I'm going to need to figure all this out myself.

1) Is internet connection and quality as bad as I'm led to believe? I need an ok-ish ADSL connection

2) What's the story with UBC? Is connecting simple? Or do people prefer to go the satellite dish route and pay a once off fee? I'm not a great tv watcher but would like the usual channels . Star World, CNN, BBC, the Thai channels, sports etc.

Any pointers would be appreciated.

[darrendsd]

i've had internet connection here for about 18 months now and had no real problems

started off with 2 meg broadband from CAT excellent service but a little bit pricey at 2800 a month

wanted to save a bit of cash so after 6 months with CAT changed to TT&T, speed 512/256 not bad for 790 a month plus phone line at 107 a month

have just upped the speed [cannot remember what speed to] and i must say i have never had any problems and am overall very satisfied with the service i get

not got ubc so cannot advise you there but i do beleive that the 2 main sports channels, [which show the motor racing, live football etc] are due to be taken off this month, not just in hh but all over thailand

[Netfan]

I've got the TOT ADSL. it's not bad. connected thru the regular phone line. The speed goes up and down. 1,000 baht per month unlimited. I can download bittorrents at a slow speed- 25kbs. Theres a TOT office across the road from Market Village. My phone line was already installed so TOT just came over with the modem. Not sure what the situation is with getting phone lines installed in new homes. I used to have the Hutch wireless satillite connection- didnt like it- too slow.

UBC is UBC. When it rains expect the signal to go in and out, although it is better now than before. They use an independent contractor in Hua Hin to come and set it up. I live in a condo with the dish on the roof and it took 3 weeks from the time the office girl made the initial call to Bangkok until i actually had the box installed. I think they have some options for homes- you can buy the dish or rent it. Theres also a couple of shops along Petchkasem Road between Bangkok Bank and the stoplight that should sell dishes and boxes.

The local cable system is pretty weak, unless you love Fox News. The typical movie channel showing VCD versions of western movies, sometimes in English, an Aussie channel, the German channel and a 24 hour Japanese wrestling channel. And a version of Eurosport that shows track and field and soccer from 2 years ago. All for about 300 baht a month, I think.

[BlackRussian]

I have ADSL from TOT, working good and without downtime but a bit slowly. Don't wait from them declared speed. I was subscribed to 512k plan and the speed according to bandwidthplace test was 305.8 kilobits per second. But now I upgraded my subscription to 1024k and bandwidthplace shows only 85.8 kilobits per second. So you can save 300 Baht/Mo choosing 512k plan:)

[cheshiremusicman]

I've been using the TT&T Maxnet 256/128kbps package since March of this year and it has been ok. Total cost per month was 1163B, but recently I paid for 12 months in advance and got 15% discount - hope that I don't live to regret this.

I have had one 'outage' that lasted 2 days and the cause was given as 'problems outside'; very enlightning!

Overall am happy with the package - no phone as such, as they say that we are still awaiting allocation of phone numbers here in HH, don't know how true this statement is - maybe someone can fill me in on this. We use 'Skype' and this has proved a godsend. Ideally I would like a faster download speed ( not bothered about upload as I don't play games online ) and will call into the TT&T office to see what, if anything, they have to offer at a reasonable price.

Using the http://myspeed.streamguys.com/myspeed test I get an average download speed of about 180kbps ad upload of about 70.