Hutch/cat "air Card"

[BillyZ]

A few months ago, I shelled out 18,000 baht for an Air Card. I was assured by a few of my friends here in Rayong that it was awesome and the answer to the problem of getting connected away from the metropolis.

After a few weeks of getting the right forms together (half of that time was spent getting the Hutch people to tell me what all I needed) I finally got set up on the 500 mb/month package.

Right away, getting connected was not easy. At (from) the Sattahip Port where I work, I have to drive 4 kilometers to get one bar of reception. Where we're building our new house, in Eastern Star, not far from Ban Chang, no bars of reception and it's a good kilometer to town before I get anything.

At my current house, I get intermittent reception downstairs, sometimes no reception. Upstairs, I can connect most of the time with decent download/upload rates. If it wasn’t for the upstairs reception, I would have already had cancelled my contract with Hutch/CAT.

To top it all off, I was in Pattaya a few weeks ago, about 200 meters away from the CAT building on the south road (with a direct line of sight to the big radio tower they have there, if it is what they use for the Air Card transmissions) and I had ZERO bars of reception on my 'Watcher'. And this is pretty much in the middle of Pattaya. NO reception. And no-to-poor reception for the Patpong area (most of the 5 times I've been up to Bkk since I got the card).

When I call the Hutch people, I'm always talking to a 'technician' who has very little knowledge with computers. I'm always put on hold so she/he can ask someone else and even after 15, 20 minutes I'm not given any helpful advice as to what the problem might be or when there might be a stronger signal in this area.

(One problem I also had was a conflict with the drivers. What I figured out [on my own] was that when I took out the other PCMCIA card (Smart Media adapter) the driver problems went away. So that was one problem sorted out.)

When I signed up, I was assured that there was "complete coverage" from Saraburi to Trat to Hua Hin, and everywhere in between. Well, sadly, that's just not the case. And it should be noted that in 99% of the areas I can't get reception with my Air Card, my AIS phone has 5 bars of reception, even (literally) at the end of the road at Chuksamet Port in Sattahip.

I can’t imagine that the Hutch mobile phones work this poorly. This Air Card is supposed to act just like a mobile phone (you’re given your own phone number when you sign up for the package), only with a laptop. But after this experience, I don’t think I could ever buy one of their phones!

So if you're thinking of getting this service, take consider my plight and don’t take the sales pitch as gospel. If you know someone with an Air Card, definitely have them come over to where you will be using yours and see what the reception is like. Even if you can connect, quite often you will loose the connection AND/OR the transfer rate will be very poor. So give it a good test.

I wouldn’t recommend anyone buying into the program (especially with the Air Cards at 18,000 baht!) without doing this first.

[Richard-BKK]

Hello BillyZ,

It is common know-how that the mobile network of Hutch/CAT (CDMA-2000) is poorly supported outside Bangkok.

[monty]

Billy,

Are you sure there's not a technical problem with your card?

I have a yacht and have perfect reception on the sea in front of Pattaya.

When I sail to Sattahip I only have a small dead spot in the Koh Khram area, probably because of the mountain between the sea and sattahip town.

I know severeal people using the aircard in the Pattaya area, and nonoe of them have the same problems you seem to have...May something fishy with that small (and fragile) antenna you hook up to the card...

[BillyZ]

What I'll probably need to do is take the notebook with the card up to their shop in Chonburi city, as they do not have technical support in Pattaya. This card/antennae has had this problem from day one, out of the box. That would actually be the easy fix, even though I would have to take a day off from work. What I fear, as Richard has mentioned, is that this is due more to (a lack of) network support in the areas where I need it the most. I'll let you know what comes out of it.

[fourbaht]

Just incase anyone is interested, I purchased a Sierra Air card that works on any GSM sim card

I run mine from an orange pay as you go, it is not the most cost effective however it is conveinient as you are able to change the sim to get the best sevice depending on your location.

I use mine on Koh Samet where Orange it head and shoulders above the rest, card was 16k baht

[BillyZ]

I'm a bit confused on that one. How do you use your SIM card with your Air Card? Not that I'm looking to do that, but it might be helpful for someone else some other time...

Just incase anyone is interested, I purchased a Sierra Air card that works on any GSM sim card

I run mine from an orange pay as you go, it is not the most cost effective however it is conveinient as you are able to change the sim to get the best sevice depending on your location.

I use mine on Koh Samet where Orange it head and shoulders above the rest, card was 16k baht

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[fourbaht]

The Sierra air card has a slot for any GSM card, orange and AIS 12call are both GSM, one call to them will get you connected to GPRS.

It is a different aircard to the Hutch one, I was just giving iy as an alternative option.

[Richard-BKK]

Hello fourbaht,

The Hutch/CAT network is not a GSM network, it is a CDMA-2000 network.

With kind regards,

Richard