Tt&t, Cat, Hi-net And September

[Upcountry]

Hi heard today, through my Thai relatives, that my TT&T Hinet connection is going to go away at the end of the month. TT&T called today to explain this. I know they didn't get the whole story, but apparently CAT is getting out of the Internet business or going away altogether (I though it was just dropping "PLC"). I actually didn't know that as CAT would fall, so would fall TT&T, but that's another story.

I haven't seen anything about this in the news (Post Database, etc.).

I searched this forum section of TV, and found one entry in the Adsl Speed / Price In Thailand? that referred to a TT&T Maxnet speed increase recently. How does this sync with TT&T/Cat going away?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

I'll try calling 997 in the morning to see if anyone at TT&T can help me in English. My family sounded pretty clear that there was no upgrade option via TT&T though.

What would be the best choice for another service? I've been paying 999 Baht for 1024 broadband.

Suggestion for a pinned topic - updated price comparison chart of all Thai broadband service options.

UC

Edited August 21, 2007 by Upcountry

[wpcoe]

I don't know about your HiNet connection going away, but I suspect what you are hearing about is mentioned in this aptly named thread: Tt&t ( Maxnet), has it's own gateway now. Apparently TT&T has it's own internet gateway, without needing to use the CAT gateway now. To quote from the opening post: "Nothing get's routed through the CAT IIG, everything goes through their [TT&T's] own gateway..."

That thread makes it sound like this has already occurred, so I'm not sure what you've heard will happen at the end of the month.

[monty]

If I recall correctly, the first ADSL offering on a TT&T phoneline whas Hinet, where TT&T supplies the ADSL connectivity and the CAT acts as the Internet Provider (ISP).

Since then TT&T has started up their own ISP section called Maxnet.

Maxnet is definitely not the same as Hinet, although both get delivered through the same TT&T ADSL capable phoneline!

Basically when you have an ADSL capable TT&T line, you are free to choose which ISP you are going to use. Most people nowadays use Maxnet, but you can also ask to use JI-net, CSloxinfo, KSC or any other ISP which has an agreement with TT&T.

In short, if CAT's hinet stops, you'll have to migrate to Maxnet or one of the other ISP's. Probably only an application form to fill out along with signed copies of passport and visa page and of you go!

Nothing much to do with the IIG, probably CAT is slowly going to pull out of the ISP business. They will still provide an IIG service to the ISP's, but if they want to remain in that business they will have to start lowering their price to keep competitive now that the market has opened up.

[Upcountry]

Well, I just got off the phone with TT&T.

They confirmed that we have to go in with the house registration doc, etc., and change to Maxnet because of CAT stopping their service.

Sadly, the speed bump up to 2mbs only applies to subscribers who have had Maxnet for a year already. Even though we've had Hinet for several years, we don't qualify for the faster speed. How retarded is that?

Forced to change, no promo required! I don't even want the USB modem they will give us for free (support guy called it a router, go figure).

In order to get 2mbs, we'd have to sign up for a different package that will cost 5k Baht per month. No thanks.

Hopefully the phone rep correctly confirmed that Maxnet will allow me to use my smtp/pop connections outside Thailand (CAT required a specific request for each one to avoid using their smtp) and no download filters (torrent, etc.).

Anyway, no additional fees or cost just to change from Hinet to Maxnet. Didn't ask them about JI-net. I thing CSLoxinfo requires a TOT number, because we looked into this a few months ago. The bureaucratic goofs at the local TOT office didn't care enough to verify that they could service our house down the street, so we never followed up on that.

[Sunny Valentine]

I have CSloxinfo on TT&T phoneline as of recently, because Maxnet just sucked big time all the time. The worrying thing is that in order to get the CSlox Connection (1024/512 for 1500 Bt +VAT) I have to keep the Maxnet 1024/512 too! That's what I have been told by both CSLoxinfo and TT&T in Pattaya.

Loxinfo is so far reliable and reasonably fast (for Thai (Sub)Standards that is), but paying now almost 2800 Bt a month including phone line is quite a bit.

Before I had TOT line and Internet (2700 +VAT for 1024 / 512, which was fast on DL speed once it worked (about 18 out of 24 hours, 5 or 6 days out of 7), but the ping times were out of this world .... Never ever again! Their service was non-existant too.

Sunny

[Upcountry]

The worrying thing is that in order to get the CSlox Connection (1024/512 for 1500 Bt +VAT) I have to keep the Maxnet 1024/512 too!

Bizzare! But it sounds like getting TOT is not an answer if their support isn't good.

At least the TT&T office has people who speak just enough English to get things done.

My Hinet connection has been fairly stable recently, so I'm hoping the change won't take me down for days and then be inconsistent, but that would be par for the course.

UC

[Upcountry]

Okay, I feel a responsibility here to give you an update after my dear and wonderful wife visited the TT&T office for me today.

1,000 baht, for Maxnet Indy "1024/512" gets me:

1 - 2 months free

2 - Free ADSL router modem (real Ethernet port, not USB) [ ASUS AAM 6000EV/Z2 ]*

3 - 2.5mb down on September first (forget about that misinformation I got from the rep earlier today - he was a *997 Hinet guy not a 1103 Maxnet guy)

4 - No more CAT (though to tell you the truth I always had more confidence in help I got from CAT than what I got from TT&T personnel).

They offer discounts for advance payment (7% for 6 months, 15% for 12 months).

So, still not a great deal by western standards, but definitely a big improvement over my old setup.

The acid test will be on September 1st!

* any feedback from users of this unit would be appreciated. I have a D-link router that I use now, and hopefully I can keep using that without too much trouble.

Edited August 22, 2007 by Upcountry

[Lordfoul]

Upcountry,

Thanks for the heads up on this... I noticed on TTT site http://www.maxnet.co.th/product_Indy.php that there are restrictions on VOIP and P2P .. I wonder if that will change with the upgrade to 2.5MB.

Hi-net worked so well for me over the last couple of years I am really dreading the change.

Okay, I feel a responsibility here to give you an update after my dear and wonderful wife visited the TT&T office for me today.

1,000 baht, for Maxnet Indy "1024/512" gets me:

1 - 2 months free

2 - Free ADSL router modem (real Ethernet port, not USB) [ ASUS AAM 6000EV/Z2 ]*

3 - 2.5mb down on September first (forget about that misinformation I got from the rep earlier today - he was a *997 Hinet guy not a 1103 Maxnet guy)

4 - No more CAT (though to tell you the truth I always had more confidence in help I got from CAT than what I got from TT&T personnel).

They offer discounts for advance payment (7% for 6 months, 15% for 12 months).

So, still not a great deal by western standards, but definitely a big improvement over my old setup.

The acid test will be on September 1st!

* any feedback from users of this unit would be appreciated. I have a D-link router that I use now, and hopefully I can keep using that without too much trouble.

[Upcountry]

Upcountry,

Thanks for the heads up on this... I noticed on TTT site http://www.maxnet.co.th/product_Indy.php that there are restrictions on VOIP and P2P .. I wonder if that will change with the upgrade to 2.5MB.

Drat!

I asked the TT&T Hinet support rep about restrictions, and he said there were none.

If there are, I made the wrong decision.

If VOIP restrictions mess up my Skype (Out) usage I'm really screwed, and loosing P2P freedom will tick me off more than some of the other provider mismanagements I've had to put up with in this pond.

With Hinet, youtube and torrentspy were blocked for a long time. The latter is available now. I don't get the evil eye for youtube anymore, but still haven't got it to load in my few attempts. I guess that's what they do now (the "destination" is 'unreachable"). If that is what they mean by P2P restrictions, I guess it is the same old SNAFU. But if they really try to block my use of the Internet, it is shopping time again.

Thank you for the heads up on this.

Ok, I see: "limited bandwidth for international VoIP/P2P". What does that mean exactly? Is it different than Hinet? What service is better in this regard, I wonder.

[Lordfoul]

Yeah, Voip and P2P access are my main requirements also .. Hinet is/was great I often had downloads of over 100kBs and Voip always worked well.

I know people who have the business Maxnet packages .. and they have had a lot of network outages.. I wonder if the new TTT gateway and the bump in speed will fix this.

The "Evil Eye" was due to MCOT it seems they lifted restrictions on most sites when the new cyber crime law went into effect last month.

I am really not sure if there are any real options for broadband (at least here in Chiang Mai) TTT made sure an ISP that used their lines would have worse service than Maxnet provided (this is according to KSC and CSloxinfo reps I spoke with last year)

In the past I heard the True Cable (not DSL) worked well but I never tested it myself.

I probably will just end up testing the maxnet service.

Upcountry,

Thanks for the heads up on this... I noticed on TTT site http://www.maxnet.co.th/product_Indy.php that there are restrictions on VOIP and P2P .. I wonder if that will change with the upgrade to 2.5MB.

Drat!

I asked the TT&T Hinet support rep about restrictions, and he said there were none.

If there are, I made the wrong decision.

If VOIP restrictions mess up my Skype (Out) usage I'm really screwed, and loosing P2P freedom will tick me off more than some of the other provider mismanagements I've had to put up with in this pond.

With Hinet, youtube and torrentspy were blocked for a long time. The latter is available now. I don't get the evil eye for youtube anymore, but still haven't got it to load in my few attempts. I guess that's what they do now (the "destination" is 'unreachable"). If that is what they mean by P2P restrictions, I guess it is the same old SNAFU. But if they really try to block my use of the Internet, it is shopping time again.

Thank you for the heads up on this.

Ok, I see: "limited bandwidth for international VoIP/P2P". What does that mean exactly? Is it different than Hinet? What service is better in this regard, I wonder.

[Upcountry]

The latest....

Today my wife says she was actually told by one source (phone or shop, I'm not sure now), that Hinet was not actually going away!

Background. A Thai TT&T rep called during the day and my sister-in-law ended up speaking to her. After getting word that "internet stop", my wife called (the next day). I thought she got the same news, and she went to the TT&T office to sign us up for Maxnet.

But today she said she was actually told that Hinet was not really going away. So, the rep who called was perhaps just "phishing" to get us to switch.

But some of you folks are agreeing with the supposition that CAT is stopping it's broadband support, so I don't know what to think. And I thought that when I called 997 to speak to a Hinet rep he said Hinet was stopping.

I guess I could go to the office to try to cancel the change. It is probably too late, though.

[Upcountry]

The very latest....

I called CAT yesterday. They told me that HiNet continues. It will not be canceled. I didn't get the CAT English speaker to confirm CAT's status though. Ironically, when I mentioned international access, he suggested I get a free trial of "Pnim" 256 at 1090 baht. ... New service? He said he'd have someone call me.

Sure enough, a TT&T rep called to offer me a free trial of "Premier" - i.e., Maxnet 256, as advertised.

http://www.maxnet.co.th/product_Premier.php

It's always tough spelling out or listening to the spelling of email addresses over the phone here, so I'm not sure I got hers right. No response to my email yet, but I'll give Premier a try if I get the username/password.

I wonder who is using this service upcountry, particularly in Phitsanulok. and how it works for them.

[Lordfoul]

You're making me dizzy,

I have used Maxnet Biz package 512kbs (1 step up from Premier) web pages came up a bit quicker than Hinet .. but I experienced frequent drops in service.. some times hours. This was a little less than a year ago, things may have improved.

What kind of speed are you getting now? 256k would be a big drop in speed for me from hinets 2048k ( I actual get closer to 1024k).

The very latest....

I called CAT yesterday. They told me that HiNet continues. It will not be canceled. I didn't get the CAT English speaker to confirm CAT's status though. Ironically, when I mentioned international access, he suggested I get a free trial of "Pnim" 256 at 1090 baht. ... New service? He said he'd have someone call me.

Sure enough, a TT&T rep called to offer me a free trial of "Premier" - i.e., Maxnet 256, as advertised.

http://www.maxnet.co.th/product_Premier.php

It's always tough spelling out or listening to the spelling of email addresses over the phone here, so I'm not sure I got hers right. No response to my email yet, but I'll give Premier a try if I get the username/password.

I wonder who is using this service upcountry, particularly in Phitsanulok. and how it works for them.

[peekint]

I live in Chiang Mai, and I've had the CAT hi-net service via a TT&T line since the first day it started. It was originally 512/256, but over the years migrated to 2048/1024 for the same 999B price.

The problem was mostly reliability. Up-time was atrocious, with regular outages, though that also improved over the years.

My frustration was that, if I surfed at 3am, I could get downloads up to 300K (pretty good for Thailand), but during the day, dial up was actually faster. I discovered that the CAT split for the 999B hinet was 50:1.

So, reluctantly, and after a heated sales pitch by TT&T, I tried their premier at 256/128, figuring if the uptime and access was good, I would upgrade later to the 512/256. Their split was only 10:1 for the Premier service, so it theoretically would be better. But alas, I've terminated it at the end of one month because I discovered that, although there is only a 10:1 share - that share is made whether the other users are on line or not. With CAT, if there was only one user on line (like at 4am), you got the whole bandwidth. TT&T actually THROTTLES your connection to no more than 25.6K average. So, if you do a speed test, it looks like you can get 200K or so download - but that's because the packets are test packets over a short range. If you use a more accurate test, like a large download (not 1 or 2 meg - I mean 500meg) you will find it pegs at EXACTLY 25 kbps over about a 10 minute average.

So, next month I've switched back to HiNet via CAT. It comes on a dedicated line from CAT, does not include a phone number, the speed is 2048/1024 with a 5:1 split and no throttling. The CAT customer service in CM has always been good (even if they often could do nothing but report that the whole system had a problem), so I'm looking forward to seeing how this all works. Its more expensive, of course, at 2600B/month plus VAT. You get what you pay for, I guess.

After a couple of months of experience, I'll report back on my findings.

Just a suggestion on key questions to ask when choosing an ADSL service in Thailand:

1) what is the share ratio on the line? (how many users on that reported 2048 connection, for instance)

2) what is the ex-Thailand limit (TT&T has "undisclosed" limits on overseas data access - very low access for their "home" service, better for "Premier", best for "Business" but not unresticted.

3) what is their data policy on the share? Is it a 10:1 share, even if the other users aren't on line?

Best of Luck to all ADSL'rs