Question is how long before it comes to Thailand. I would sign up tomorrow if allowed to do so. See http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/winds/index_e.html (scroll down to the story below the Satelite image) to see the latest that will eventually affect us all.

The major news services have carried the story since last evening. I have been looking for specifics;

like: will it be available in Thailand, what will it cost, how soon, etc. etc.

Unless it is very, very expensive, I see a mass migration toward it.

My ADSL from TOT has been off for nearly 3 weeks and is slowly coming back up this morning.

Question is how long before it comes to Thailand. I would sign up tomorrow if allowed to do so. See http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/winds/index_e.html (scroll down to the story below the Satelite image) to see the latest that will eventually affect us all.

Fast but it will come at a price.

There are currently other satellite services available over Thailand, but prices are very high, multiples of what ipstar charges...

Yes back in the early days of broadband even before I had IPstar and some months 15k baht bills, thjere was inmarsat and other expensive solutions (many for the sailing community) that I looked at.. The inmarsat broadband system priced out at over 1000 USD per month back then.

Usually Sat systems have high ping times so forget Skype, gaming, etc etc..

I think it will depend on the technology. iPstar effectively allow multiple users on one transponder whereas the other expensive services I think required you to pay for a dedicated 1/8 or maybe 1/16 or 1/32 ? of a transponder

Yes back in the early days of broadband even before I had IPstar and some months 15k baht bills, thjere was inmarsat and other expensive solutions (many for the sailing community) that I looked at.. The inmarsat broadband system priced out at over 1000 USD per month back then.

Usually Sat systems have high ping times so forget Skype, gaming, etc etc..

Very correct!

They simply can't make radio waves move faster then the speed of light!

Just going up from your dish to the satellite, down to the ground station and all the way back again takes the radio waves a tad under 500 msec. Which in internet terms is pretty high latency!

Add to that the time lost in the switches/transponders on the satellite and at the ground station, you'll be looking at over 600 msec.

In short, when using adsl, pinging to the USA should take around 300 msec, use a satellite and you're up to 1000 msec!

For the numbers people, geostationary satellites, when right over your head, are 36,000 km high. Total roundtrip comes to 144,000 km and the speed of radiowaves (in a vacuum, slower in the atmosphere) is a tad under 300,000km/sec.

So, just for your signals to reach the ground station (Bangkok for iPSTAR)and come back to you, they have to travel the equivalent of 3.5 times round the earth!

download speeds would be good but upload wouldnt be much better than adsl now. and forget about online gaming or streaming anything since ping times would be at least 800+.

japan is already wired to the wazoo. this satellite is for people in the provinces.

id say youre better off crossing your fingers that the new pipeline to the us in late 08 will modernize net capacity somewhat.

download speeds would be good but upload wouldnt be much better than adsl now. and forget about online gaming or streaming anything since ping times would be at least 800+.

japan is already wired to the wazoo. this satellite is for people in the provinces.

id say youre better off crossing your fingers that the new pipeline to the us in late 08 will modernize net capacity somewhat.

Pretty much sums it up.

The local (domestic) capacity is pretty good in Thailand, it's just the limited international bandwidth, combined with the poor management of the little capacity they have, creating the majority of the complaints!

On top of it they have a very impressive fiber backbone throughout Thailand, mostly unused...