Best Gprs Solution In Thailand?

[meadish_sweetball]

I just came back from Sweden, and brought a damaged SonyEricsson T610 with me (it had fallen into the sea and the buttons were not working properly) from my mate's shop. Since the price of labour is so high in Sweden, it is rarely worth it to fix damaged mobile phones. Here in Thailand on the other hand, I figured the price of labour might be low enough to make it worthwhile, so I asked my mate if I could take a discarded phone with me and see if they could fix it here.

The Thai tech indeed managed to fix the phone, which now seems normal.

I would like to start using the WAP and GPRS functionality in the phone, but it does not work with my 1-2-Call SIM card (so far). I can use the normal GSM net for standard tasks though (phone calls and SMS) without a problem though.

I get the following error message:

Wrong access point name (APN). Communication error. Try again or contact your WAP service provider.

I assume I must register the phone with D-TAC or AIS and sign up for a monthly subscription - right?

Which one would be better? Does Orange also have this service? I will probably use GPRS quite a lot, mainly to send and receive email. I am in Chiang Mai, if it matters.

If anyone has done their research and would care to share their experience with me, that'd be great.

Cheers,

Meadish

[Englishman]

Just call AIS call centre and they'll send you the settings for your phone by text message. When you accept that message, they'll automatically install.

Also, they'll tell you the correct settings for your laptop to access the internet.

Works fine for me in deepest Surin.

[autonomous_unit]

I assume I must register the phone with D-TAC or AIS and sign up for a monthly subscription - right?

Which one would be better? Does Orange also have this service? I will probably use GPRS quite a lot, mainly to send and receive email. I am in Chiang Mai, if it matters.

You can use GPRS with DTAC pre-paid cards, and I would assume the same for the AIS ones. The rate is 0.1 baht/KB (~100 baht/MB), if I remember correctly.

If you will be using it a lot as I am, you can get a flat-rate GPRS add-on service to a subscription based AIS voice plan. I think it is 500 baht/month additional. The voice minutes end up being more expensive but this is offset by my GPRS use. At the metered rate above, my monthly GPRS usage would probably reach 20,000 baht from email, web browsing, and the infrequent large download...

[stumonster]

I use my pre-paid AIS card for GPRS connection to the internet.

from my laptop dial up the number to dial is *99# no name or pwd

I did not have to ring anybody, the info was there aalready

connection name AIS-GPRS-INTERNET

data bearer GPRS

access point name internet

user name none

prompt password no

password ****

authentication normal

gateway ip address 203.170.229.34

homepage http://wap.mobilelife.co.th

conection security off

session mode permanent

advanced settings

device IP address dynamic

primary name server 0.0.0.0

secondary name server 0.0.0.0

server address none

port number 0

[meadish_sweetball]

Thank you for the information, all of you!

Stumonster, thanks to you especially. I just followed your settings instructions, and now I'm wapping already.

Now, the question is how to configure the phone to send and receive e-mail from my regular account... I don't seem to get it to work. What does the category "mailbox" mean...? I have already entered the complete e-mail address (e.g. [email protected]). I tried entering "meadish" in the field "mailbox", but that did not work... Any suggestions?

[stumonster]

to check my email via my phone I use a browser on my phone and do it via the web interface.because I have the symbian OS I can use the opera mini browser or netfront.

if the T610 has bluetooth(or you have the interface cable) you can use your laptop or a desktop to utilise the gprs modem on your phone and utilise the internet in the normal fashion. A usb bluetooth dongle costs 700-1100 baht.

[meadish_sweetball]

I realized I don't need bluetooth, the IR connection works fine as well. I am told the connection speed is 115.2 (as opposed to 50.6 with my dialup connection), but it seems a little bit slower. I assume they are quoting the maximum speed?

Is there anywhere where ringtones actually are FREE and can be downloaded to the computer and not the cell phone?? I only seem to find sites in Europe and US that require you to pay something like £ 2.95 for someone who has ripped off the latest Britney Spears on their Casio keyboard and think they deserve a fortune for the trouble.

[monty]

The indicated speed you see is the speed between your computer and your phone, not the speed between phone and isp!

The theoretical speed should be some 43kbps, practically it'll be somewhere between 28.8 and 33.6 kbps...

[stumonster]

I posted on another GPRS thread a link to a page explaining GPRS classes. the class of the GPRS determines how many data upload/download streams it can use, this allows you to determine max theoretical speeds.

I use the bluetooth for convienence, but my phone does not have an IR port. I can also use the bluetooth connection to my comp to browse the internet on my phone, be connected to IM networks and control winamp.With the infrared port you can also use it as the remote control of your tv,stereo air cond etc .

as for ring tones if you convert the music to a midi file it should play. I just use an mp3 song which works fine.( also made some sound clips of friends to use as their incoming call sound on my phone.

if your phone is symbian OS, bemused is a good program to use to manage your phone files from your PC.( it will comm via serial port,IR or BT)

I have been having fun working out what my phone can do, a 102Mhz ARM processor and 4 meg ram is a lot more power than the old trash80.

[bartender100]

http://www.reqwireless.com/

Is a good place if you don't have a sybian phone,Ihave it on trial,and it seems ok,they also have an e-mail viewer for hotmail,be nice if somebody could "crack" it.

Stumonster

I tried to connect the way you said,but found it very expensive,about B150 for 20 mins connection.