I have connected with both AIS & DTAC using an EDGE mobile but I cannot get 'international' web sites. I get Google Thailand for example, but not US & UK newspaper sites (I use IE7 & firefox - same). Any ideas - have I got to change a browser setting or is this it?

I have no idea what your problem is but both AIS and Dtac are better than my previous Shitstar (Ipstar) satellite Internet service was. Either connects to wherever I want to connect to.

thanks for all this info people . . great stuff. after reading it through a few times, i think i have it all down. one question: why is it important to have an edge phone (nokia/edge seems to be preferred) - will non edge phones work?

thanks for all this info people . . great stuff. after reading it through a few times, i think i have it all down. one question: why is it important to have an edge phone (nokia/edge seems to be preferred) - will non edge phones work?

Non-EDGE phones will work, but you'll be limited to GPRS speeds (which admitedly will also happen if there's a problem with EDGE in the area you're at). If you're willing to go from ~144 kbit/s on EDGE down to ~60 kbit/s on GPRS (if you're lucky!), than don't worry about buying an EDGE capable phone.

thanks for all this info people . . great stuff. after reading it through a few times, i think i have it all down. one question: why is it important to have an edge phone (nokia/edge seems to be preferred) - will non edge phones work?

Non-EDGE phones will work, but you'll be limited to GPRS speeds (which admitedly will also happen if there's a problem with EDGE in the area you're at). If you're willing to go from ~144 kbit/s on EDGE down to ~60 kbit/s on GPRS (if you're lucky!), than don't worry about buying an EDGE capable phone.

thanks dave_boo. anyone know the coverage range for hutch? looks like central thailand and the eastern seaboard mainly . . does it work down in samui/phangnang/koh tao?

From the Hutch MBI website here is the coverage

http://www.hutch.co.th/networkcoverage/website/map_eng.htm

From the Hutch MBI website here is the coverage

http://www.hutch.co.th/networkcoverage/website/map_eng.htm

thanks longball! looks like the samui area is out of hutch range . .

Dialed customer service (1678, followed by 7 for English operator), asked the lovely lady for a 1 week unlimited GPRS package.

Received an SMS with the new, 249 Baht lower credit, followed 10 seconds later with an SMS stating that he has now 1 week of unlimited GPRS.

It actually takes off 266 baht including VAT and 3 baht for the call to customer service. AIS one month unlimitied is 999 baht + VAT so it works out about the same but DTAC is vastly superior.

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge. We're about to relocate to Nong Sung/Chiaphum district. Is dtac better even in Isaan?

Being w/out internet is unthinkable now. :-) How things change eh?

Thanks,

Keoki

From the Hutch MBI website here is the coverage

http://www.hutch.co.th/networkcoverage/website/map_eng.htm

thanks longball! looks like the samui area is out of hutch range . .

Samui is covered by CAT CDMA, which is much better than Hutch. They'll merge eventually - CAT runs the Hutch network and actually already bought them out - but given the speed with which these companies operate it could take years. So until then some areas are covered by Hutch, others by CAT, CAT us using CDMA-EV-DO everywhere so it's way faster. I have heard Hutch is switching to EV-DO but not sure on the status. I am sure they've upgraded all the stations already so why wouldn't they....