Wireless Broadband Throughout Thailand?

[Rango]

Hi gang.

A couple of months ago i was in phuket and i was speaking with a gentleman who had a wireless transmitter attached to his laptop. He was french and his english wasn't so good so he had some difficulty explaining the device.

What i was more or less able to understand was that he had become tied of relying on the wireless internet provided by hotels which can be slow at best and downright dodgy at worst. He had visited the local CAT office (i think), and they had sold him a device which allowed him to access wirelss broadband at a very good bit-rate. It was a simple wallet-sized silver box with an antenna and it was plugged into either his USB or Network port. He was very happy and said it could be used anywhere in the country with mobile-network service.

I never saw the guy again, and i have never seen anyone else with a similar device. Has anyone had experience with such a thing? At this point, a contraption of this nature would be endlessly helpful for me.

Any pointers/suggestions would be appreciated.

thx!

[monty]

Hmm,

bit confusing!

CAT indeed has mobile internet, based on their CDMA network. It will work in large parts of Thailand, but certainly not everywhere, most notably Bangkok and vicinity, and the Eastern Seaboard.

If it was from CAT, then what you most probably saw was the C-motech CCU-650 USB EV-DO modem. This device allows download speeds of between 300 and 700 kbps, but only where you have EV-DO reception. Outside EV-DO area's it'll fall back to CDMA 1X, which has a maximum speed of just under 150 kbps (practically more like 80kbps), so not really broadband anymore.

The only other device he would possibly have shown you was a GSM GPRS/EDGE modem.

This device WILL work nationwide, either with a simcard from AIS or one from Dtac inside.

But although usable, I wouldn't call it broadband. Whenever you have EDGE available, it'll deliver download speeds of between 80 and 180 kbps (depending on how heavy the tower your connected to is loaded with phone and data calls).

Again, if you are outside of Edge coverage, this modem will fall back to the slower GPRS standard, with practical speeds of between 30 and 50 kbps.

[LivinLOS]

CAT CDMA system..

Works in all of Thailand except the central (bangkok region) where Hutch provides the network.

Fairly common on phuket, not the fastest connection out there but useable and mobile.

[nikster]

I have it, been using it in Phuket, Samui, Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son... everywhere except Bangkok and Pattaya. I went on a road trip from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and it worked everywhere inbetween, which I found impressive.

Works well. Speed is hit and miss. Sometimes it's very fast, sometimes very slow. I haven't seen anyone in Samui using this so far so I think it must be due to signal strength. I get over 100KB/s (1Mbit!) in some places, and 5KB/s (50Kbit) in others. Upload is slow.

I always try the hotel's internet connection and found that:

- Some are heinously overpriced

- Many are dead slow, slower than my CAT modem

- A few have weird setups which make them unusable for me (like they block all non-standard ports or don't allow VPN...)

I'd say CAT is better 95% of the time so far. Even in the hotels that offer Internet. 800BHT/month unlimited, though you have to buy the USB card which is BHT 13,000.

[andyc2006]

CAT CDMA system..

Works in all of Thailand except the central (bangkok region) where Hutch provides the network.

Fairly common on phuket, not the fastest connection out there but useable and mobile.

Hi, I'm evaluating what to buy for my laptop. I just leased an apartment near Chitlom BTS... would this be one of the "central" regions of BKK where the CAT CDMA moden would NOT work?

What's my best option for high-speed wireless in the Chitlom area?

[stumonster]

I have seen a unit in pantip ( Sunjitech - 2nd floor south east corner ) which was pcmcia or pcexpress ( did not check closely ) but it did EDGE , HSDPA and WCDMA. also it came with an attachment that would allow you to plug the card into a usb port.

it was about 12k baht

[Galong]

I use a Bluetooth USB plug-in thingy for my laptop. If my mobile phone has reception, I can access the internet. The speed is supposed to be 115 kbps, but I seriously doubt that that's the case when my mobile phone reception is just a bar or two. My phone bill hasn't gone up much since doing this, though I don't know how much it actually costs per minute. I don't surf the net with my laptop... just download emails and reply. Oh, and of course, visit the Thai Visa forum.

[monty]

Hi, I'm evaluating what to buy for my laptop. I just leased an apartment near Chitlom BTS... would this be one of the "central" regions of BKK where the CAT CDMA moden would NOT work?

What's my best option for high-speed wireless in the Chitlom area?

The whole of Bangkok (actually the central part pf Thailand) is not served by CAT.

So no, wouldn't work for you.

I think AIS will go commercial in Bangkok and Chiang Mai with 3G in the very near future (May or June), so probably best to hold of a little bit before deciding what to do/buy.

I think they'll go HSDPA, which means you should be able to buy an aircard capable of doing that, and be backwards compatible with the other GSM data systems (GPRS/EDGE) giving you nationwide usability!

[monty]

I use a Bluetooth USB plug-in thingy for my laptop. If my mobile phone has reception, I can access the internet. The speed is supposed to be 115 kbps, but I seriously doubt that that's the case when my mobile phone reception is just a bar or two. My phone bill hasn't gone up much since doing this, though I don't know how much it actually costs per minute. I don't surf the net with my laptop... just download emails and reply. Oh, and of course, visit the Thai Visa forum.

Galong, you probably have a GPRS only USB modem.

The connection speed you see is only between the modem and your computer, and not the speed to the internet!

GPRS theoretically can handle up to 80 kbps.

But you are correct that when you have poor reception, the speed will go down.

In short, you have a maximum of 4 slots available for data, and when you are bang next to the tower with full signal strength, 1 slot can deliver 20 kbps, for a total of 80 kbps.

However, if you are on the edge of the reception, the speed per slot will drop down to 8 kbps, for a total of 32 kbps.

On top of that, if a lot of voice calls are being made, the system will take away some of your 4 slots (voice always has priority!).

So worst case scenario you are left with one single slot giving you 8kbps!

[stumonster]

The speed is supposed to be 115 kbps,

that will be the speed you have set on your com port that you are using for your bluetooth connection - unless you are only getting GPRS you should probably up that to 230400 bps - network connections , bluetooth connection properties , modem config

Monty do you have any information on the charges for HSDPA ?

[monty]

No info on what AIS plans to charge.

Dtac, which will go commercial in Chonburi and Phuket first, said something about charing 499 Baht/month unlimited, in one article, and in another they said the 499 would only include 100 Mb of data transfer!

Guess we'll have to wait!