No Landline Available - Any Other Options?

[scorecard]

Any suggestions very welcome and very much appreciated.

I recently posed mentioning that the landline to my house in View Talay Villas area has been resold by TT&T to another subscriber.

New tenant in the house is using satellite phone / IPSTAR Loxinfo service but this is proving to be very expensive, around 9,000Baht per month.

Can any member please share if there are different Loxinfo IPSTAR 'packages' available. Perhaps: 24 hours service with no limit on time spent on-line. Or, number of hours on-line per month fixed, with further hours charged per hour or minute. Or maybe other packages??? (Requirment is for normal household use: telephone, internet, and Skype)

Also, does this type of service incur additional fees if Skype is also used??

Also, I'm told that the contract is for one year (less than one year not available). Any member aware of Loxinfo allowing early cancellation of the contract?

On a different note, can any member please share details of any alternative telephone / internet services available. I read recently on this forum (but now can't find the post) about a mobile phone service/handset which can be used to connect notebook computer to internet and can also be used for Skype. Would very much appreciate any information members can share on this.

Thanks.

[Guest Reimar]

Any suggestions very welcome and very much appreciated.

I recently posed mentioning that the landline to my house in View Talay Villas area has been resold by TT&T to another subscriber.

New tenant in the house is using satellite phone / IPSTAR Loxinfo service but this is proving to be very expensive, around 9,000Baht per month.

Can any member please share if there are different Loxinfo IPSTAR 'packages' available. Perhaps: 24 hours service with no limit on time spent on-line. Or, number of hours on-line per month fixed, with further hours charged per hour or minute. Or maybe other packages??? (Requirment is for normal household use: telephone, internet, and Skype)

Also, does this type of service incur additional fees if Skype is also used??

Also, I'm told that the contract is for one year (less than one year not available). Any member aware of Loxinfo allowing early cancellation of the contract?

On a different note, can any member please share details of any alternative telephone / internet services available. I read recently on this forum (but now can't find the post) about a mobile phone service/handset which can be used to connect notebook computer to internet and can also be used for Skype. Would very much appreciate any information members can share on this.

Thanks.

Hutch = CDMA

Dtac = Edge

AIS = GPRS, Edge

CAT = CDMA

TOT = IP-Star

All first 4 solution on Mobile phohne or Air-Card pp.

You need to check which service is available in your area.

Cheers.

[scorecard]

Any suggestions very welcome and very much appreciated.

I recently posed mentioning that the landline to my house in View Talay Villas area has been resold by TT&T to another subscriber.

New tenant in the house is using satellite phone / IPSTAR Loxinfo service but this is proving to be very expensive, around 9,000Baht per month.

Can any member please share if there are different Loxinfo IPSTAR 'packages' available. Perhaps: 24 hours service with no limit on time spent on-line. Or, number of hours on-line per month fixed, with further hours charged per hour or minute. Or maybe other packages??? (Requirment is for normal household use: telephone, internet, and Skype)

Also, does this type of service incur additional fees if Skype is also used??

Also, I'm told that the contract is for one year (less than one year not available). Any member aware of Loxinfo allowing early cancellation of the contract?

On a different note, can any member please share details of any alternative telephone / internet services available. I read recently on this forum (but now can't find the post) about a mobile phone service/handset which can be used to connect notebook computer to internet and can also be used for Skype. Would very much appreciate any information members can share on this.

Thanks.

Hutch = CDMA

Dtac = Edge

AIS = GPRS, Edge

CAT = CDMA

TOT = IP-Star

All first 4 solution on Mobile phohne or Air-Card pp.

You need to check which service is available in your area.

Cheers.

Dear Reimar,

Thanks for your reply and the details you enclosed.

To be honest all of this is quite new to me, i'm not very IT / telecom savvy, and I'm quite lost. So do you mind if I ask a few more questions. Here goes:

1. Can I subscribe to a satellite phone service in Thailand without services such as internet? If so, do you know please if there are any other satellite phone options available in Thailand (with or without internet service). I mean other than Loxinfo.

2. I guess your meaning that internet connection is available through a specific type of mobile mobile phone services offered by:

Hutch = CDMA

Dtac = Edge

AIS = GPRS, Edge

CAT = CDMA

Any comments on the reliability of these services?

3. Not sure what your meaning by 'Air-Card pp.'. Would you please share some more details on this.

Thanks again, much appreciated.

[MMR]

3. Not sure what your meaning by 'Air-Card pp.'. Would you please share some more details on this.

An air card is wireless internet adapter (with service from your mobile provider) that fits into the pc card slot of your laptop.

Edited September 23, 2008 by MMR

[monty]

First question, why do you really need a phone line (apart from the ability to get internet service through it)?

The only reason I could see is to use a fax machine.

If you do not need the use of a fax machine, you can always get by with mobile phones. Calling costs (both international and domestic) are the same or cheaper if you take the time to find the best suited promotion for you. And you have a lot of extra's available without having to buy equipment, such as call forwarding, voice mail (= answering machine) etc.

For the internet access, I'd forget iPSTAR. It is expensive and speeds are seldom reached, along with very high latency.

To expand a bit more on what Reimar posted:

GPRS/EDGE is the system used by GSM operators to offer internet access (where EDGE is a faster evolution of GPRS). Both AIS and Dtac offer this access on both pre-paid sim cards and post paid contracts.

Expect speeds to be between 50% and 90% of what you would get on a 256/128 kbps ADSL line, or with other words about double to 4 times faster then a good dial up connection.

Very cheap, at between 3 and 7 Baht per hour, but to get that price you will need to subscribe to a GPRS package best suited to your usage pattern. Can be done quite easily on the pre paid simcards from either AIS or Dtac.

GPRS/EDGE is perfectly suited for internet browsing and e-mail, even downloading sizable files can be done in a relative timely matter. Video streaming will not work, internet radio of avreage quality comes in quite good at my location, but this is no guarantee it'll work good where you are.

Speed and quality IS dependent on your location!

CDMA: In your location only offered by Hutch, and they only have the 2000 1X standard, which means that speeds are limited to about 144 kbps, practically this means it's a bit slower then GPRS/EDGE. I wouldn't really recommend this one.

CDMA is also offered by CAT, but unfortunately NOT on the Eastern seaboard, you you are out of luck on that one. CAT's offering uses the EV-DO standard which is much faster with speeds comparable to a 512 kbps ADSL line or even faster on a good day.

The equipment needed to be able to get GPRS/EDGE is relatively cheap, a dedicated USB modem will set you back a tad under 6,000 Baht, but even cheaper, you can buy a Nokia 3110 classic for around 3,500 Baht, which is fully compliant with the faster EDGE system, and is easy to use as a modem with a USB cable and Nokia's PC suite installed on your computer.

Our best hope in the near future will be HSDPA, which DTAC is rolling out as we speak, they'll probably go commercial in the next 6 to 8 months with Bangkok, Chonburi and Phuket province first on the list. They will use the 850 Mhz band, with which a lot equipment (read phones and PDA's) is compatible.

Their system will theoretically be capable of delivering up to 7.2 Mbps, but most real life tests indicate you'd be lucky to get half of that speed (that's between you and the antenna tower) and even less actual internet speed.

Still, at even 25% of rated speed it will be a very viable alternative for an ADSL line, IF the pricing is right!

[Rimmer]

Any suggestions very welcome and very much appreciated.

I recently posed mentioning that the landline to my house in View Talay Villas area has been resold by TT&T to another subscriber.

New tenant in the house is using satellite phone / IPSTAR Loxinfo service but this is proving to be very expensive, around 9,000Baht per month.

Can any member please share if there are different Loxinfo IPSTAR 'packages' available.

The phone lines in VT Villa's don't work so no big loss on that score, bin there done that.

IPStar Loxinfo has a 2500 baht service that will give you 256 kbps connection speed. Worked for me for 5 years at VT Villa's when the management would not fix the phone lines.

[scorecard]

Dear Monty, and all the other members who have kindly offered their advice and experiences.

Monty,

In summary, I think your ultimately suggesting:

' The equipment needed to be able to get GPRS/EDGE is relatively cheap, a dedicated USB modem will set you back a tad under 6,000 Baht, but even cheaper, you can buy a Nokia 3110 classic for around 3,500 Baht, which is fully compliant with the faster EDGE system, and is easy to use as a modem with a USB cable and Nokia's PC suite installed on your computer. '

As I mentioned earlier, i'm not IT / telecoms savvy, so I would very much appreciate is you would you please confirm my interpretation:

- Buy a NOKIA 3100 classic

- Get a cable to connect the NOKIA 3100 handset to the USB port on the notebook computer

- Install Nokia's PC suite on notebook computer (I guess this comes on a CD ROM when purchasing the handset?)

- Subscribe to the GPRS/EDGE services offered by AIS and dtac (check which package best suits personal needs)

Sorry, I do have two more questions

1. I guess taking a GPRS/EDGE package means obtaining a telephone service, but is this also an ISP service or is that somethng additional?

2. Will this support Skype (which is a key requirment of the tenant in my house)?

Thanks again and look forward to your kind advce.

[Crushdepth]

If you have a mobile phone, most (all?) of the phone companies can provide wireless internet access over the mobile phone network (via GPRS, EDGE or CDMA). You can access this using a wireless modem which is a standard feature of most modern mobile phones, or you can buy a separate modem or 'aircard' that does the same thing if you prefer.

You then link your mobile phone (containing the modem) to your computer using a data cable, infra red port or by bluetooth if your phone has it (the latter is most convenient). In the case of a separate USB modem, they plug into your computer directly.

The wireless internet service is generally an extra payment on top of your normal mobile phone account fee, but it is pretty cheap. I pay about 200 baht for 40 hours of access a month (thorugh DTAC). There are 'unlimited' plans available too (I think around 1,000 baht a month).

MY experience with Skype over EDGE is that the latency made it unusable for voice (text chatting is fine), but perhaps the slightly faster CDMA (Hutch) network might be better (I haven't tried it).

[longball53098]

I am on Hutch CDMA and Skype voice does not work. Text chats are OK. The same for Yahoo voice calls and chats. Hutch does not offer a high speed anymore. The MBI package I have is unlimited usage for 999 baht per month and the speed is maxed out at 153 kbps with an average of about 95 to 110.

CAT offers the EV-DO high speed but not available in the Pattaya/Rayong area

[Farma]

My wife was using her mobile phone connected to the laptop via Bluetooth for skype and internet. Unfortunately this method wasn’t fast enough for Skype to work properly.

I’ve purchased an AIS Huawei E220 USB modem (aircard) including 100 hours gprs/edge access for 6,900b. I had some minor hiccups as the AIS software wasn’t suitable for Vista. This was fixed by the AIS office in Siam paragon who connected the aircard to an XP laptop to upgrade the firmware for vista.

In Jomtien this morning using the E220 aircard with GPRS/EDGE TH GSM I have a received top transfer rate of 246 kbps and sent top 123.7 kbps. I haven’t tried the aircard for skype yet.

I did an unscientific simultaneous comparison between the phone Bluetooth method against the aircard. The aircard opened the webpages in 2/3rd the time taken by the Bluetooth connection.

[scorecard]

PART OF MESSAGE FROM MONTY

" b]GPRS/EDGE[/b] is the system used by GSM operators to offer internet access (where EDGE is a faster evolution of GPRS). Both AIS and Dtac offer this access on both pre-paid sim cards and post paid contracts.

Expect speeds to be between 50% and 90% of what you would get on a 256/128 kbps ADSL line, or with other words about double to 4 times faster then a good dial up connection.

Very cheap, at between 3 and 7 Baht per hour, but to get that price you will need to subscribe to a GPRS package best suited to your usage pattern. Can be done quite easily on the pre paid simcards from either AIS or Dtac.

GPRS/EDGE is perfectly suited for internet browsing and e-mail, even downloading sizable files can be done in a relative timely matter. Video streaming will not work, internet radio of avreage quality comes in quite good at my location, but this is no guarantee it'll work good where you are.

Speed and quality IS dependent on your location!"

Dear Monty,

Can I ask for your comment on the AIS and Dtac services you outlined above regarding Skype.

Realize of course no guarantees, and depends on location, but would appreciate your comment please.

Thanks and regards

[zorro1]

keep in mind for Skype you need a descent speed or the drop outs will drive you nuts

[longball53098]

On my Hutch system where I see the problem using Skype voice is the upload/transmission side. The lower speeds for upload and the latency do not allow for a reliable outgoing transmisson of the voice but seem to be ok for the keyed chat message. I have no doubt the typed message is a packet much smaller than voice so the system can handle that much better

If using Skype is a very important factor in what you end up with I would seriously investigate this before you purchase anything.

[monty]

Dear Monty,

Can I ask for your comment on the AIS and Dtac services you outlined above regarding Skype.

Realize of course no guarantees, and depends on location, but would appreciate your comment please.

Thanks and regards

Sorry, have to disappoint you here. VOIP (skype, voip discount, telephone service over the internet in general) will not work properly.

The main problem is the fact that any mobile phone operator will give priority to phone calls, meaning every time a few people are calling in your immediate area, your internet speed will slow down, or even stop altogether for a few seconds.

This is not important when surfing or downloading. but completely renders VOIP useless.

Ultimately speed is not the most important factor for VOIP, but latency, packet drops and stability. A very stable 60 kbps (both ways) can give you acceptable skype, but using EDGE the speed can vary between 20 kbps (sound breaking up) and 200 kbps (perfect sound) several times within a few seconds.

And with the top upload speed being not high, you often get the effect that you hear the other party perfect but they cannot hear you properly...

VOIP does work with iPSTAR, BUT the high latency means that you can have a few seconds delay, so you have to wait until the other party stops speaking before replying and vice versa...