Cat For Internet

[Captain Haddock]

I've just moved to Nakhon Sri Thammarat and I live more than 5km from the town exchange, and I have no land line at my house. So if I want internet for my desktop and PS3 I know I could use a mobile phone and I've been reading about the problems that way entails. I want to download stuff and I can't get DTAC reception at my house, due to a large hill blocking the signal. I can get 12Call, though.

I just visited TOT, CAT and the GSM shops in town, and having looked at their info, it seems that over a year the best value for unlimited hours/month is CAT, including the start-up costs. They use some sort of wireless system - the provided terminal looks like a normal landline phone but with an aerial, but they said they can't guarantee their service. TOT offered their satellite service, but it is more expensive than GSM's moblie service, and has slower maximum speeds too. CAT seems the cheapest and fastest, but that's if it works - remember, I can get 12Call, but not DTAC at my house.

Does anyone know anything about CAT? Should I be considering a satellite dish, if that could be used for comparably-priced internet usage? And if I use a satellite dish, presumably I could get various TV stations too (including Malaysia channels)?

Cheers...

[dave_boo]

I've just moved to Nakhon Sri Thammarat and I live more than 5km from the town exchange, and I have no land line at my house. So if I want internet for my desktop and PS3 I know I could use a mobile phone and I've been reading about the problems that way entails. I want to download stuff and I can't get DTAC reception at my house, due to a large hill blocking the signal. I can get 12Call, though.

I just visited TOT, CAT and the GSM shops in town, and having looked at their info, it seems that over a year the best value for unlimited hours/month is CAT, including the start-up costs. They use some sort of wireless system - the provided terminal looks like a normal landline phone but with an aerial, but they said they can't guarantee their service. TOT offered their satellite service, but it is more expensive than GSM's moblie service, and has slower maximum speeds too. CAT seems the cheapest and fastest, but that's if it works - remember, I can get 12Call, but not DTAC at my house.

Be careful with that terminal; it only supports CDMA 1x RTT. I.E. your speed will be limited to only a maximum of 153 kb/s. Everyone says that CAT is really good about letting you try the modem out in your house and returning it the SAME DAY if it doesn't work. If you want the faster speeds, you're going to have to pony up more money; that will set you back some 11 000THB for EV-DO. If you look at this thread, you'll get an idea of the speed acheivable with an EV-DO device(courtusey of Slackula). Also of note, you're going to have to use your computer to dial up the internet, this will obviously neccesitate having two devices on at the same time if you want to get on the internet with your PS3.

Also of concern is ping. Over mobile phone connections it can be quite bad. As in the best I've seen was ~400ms with it ranging up to 700. Not something you want when you're gaming!

Does anyone know anything about CAT? Should I be considering a satellite dish, if that could be used for comparably-priced internet usage? And if I use a satellite dish, presumably I could get various TV stations too (including Malaysia channels)?

Cheers...

[nikster]

Satellite service in Thailand is horrific, so forget about that.

That leaves AIS EDGE and CAT. Since CAT (not Hutch, right?) is offering you the terminal, I am pretty sure EV-DO is available in your area. The terminal is very slow so I don't think that makes a lot of sense - better to get the USB modem CCU-650 as dave_boo has pointed out above.

Drawbacks are it's 1 machine only unless you do some tinkering or you have a Mac (which makes it easy to share a connection). And it's more expensive to buy.

Advantage is that it's by far the best connection you can get. I am very happy with mine. It has slow upload speed but it's very stable, reliable, and download speeds are great. Lag is slightly worse than DSL but it's Ok. It's no contest with AIS GPRS.

[HDRIDER]

Hi

Go for the 680 card from CAT, a lot better than the 650

[dave_boo]

Hi

Go for the 680 card from CAT, a lot better than the 650

My understanding is that the 680 has Rev. A. Have you noticed an increase in your speeds since using it?