If there is no line in, how much does it usually cost to get a phone connected.

Lets say the nearest line is 3 km away. (route 24, south east of Khorat)

thanks

There also has to be a number available. Don't know current price but it used to be about USD 1,000 in baht to obtain a number or you waited about 10 years. It may be better now but the only real source of information will be your local telephone office.

Usual price for installation is 3984.50 baht if line and number available

The dropwire length should not exceed 300 meters. The excess length will be charged Baht 350 per every 50 meters.

I do not know the maximum drop wire length permissible but guess that 3km would be too far.

My situation is about the same as yours. I solved the problem by "buying one of the local phones from someone" but have been very unhappy with the landline because of so much downtime. Every little bit of rain will make the line go dead. I am on the list for new phone line but have already been waiting for over 4 years for that to happen and still have no idea of if and when I will see it.

So my recomendation is to forget it and get a cellphone that is GPRS capable, better yet also EDGE capable and with Bluetooth. Get a USB Dongle for bluetooth on your Computer and sign up for a monthly package with either AIS or DTAC for network access. My monthly package is 900 baht for 400 hours of connection time including phone charge, ISP and everything through AIS. There are other packages available for less monthly from them and also I understand that DTAC has an unlimited use plan for something like 999 baht a month. This service works anywhere you can get Cell phone signal and is pretty reliable.

Virtually always have connection of 40k or better and when EDGE is implemented (DTAC is testing it now in BKK) the speed of connect is supposed to be 4 times the speed of GPRS.

Good Luck

Thanks guys.

Wash, what you say is interesting.

Where are you? (roughly)

Is there a Nokia model with those whistles and bells that you know of?

I have to replace my old 3315 so it would make sense to get the 'supermodel'.

Even though I may not rent the house, at least I have a good phone for the future.

err, well, till the next new model in 6 months

Thanks guys.

Wash, what you say is interesting.

Where are you? (roughly)

Is there a Nokia model with those whistles and bells that you know of?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am located about 120 km South East of Nong Khai small place called Khamtakla.

There are many Nokia models that meet the criteria. Go to their website www.nokia.com and you can find lots of them.

Have Fun

Udon,

Did you find your fruit trees?

Udon,

Did you find your fruit trees?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, but it seems that the house needs a fair amount of work to bring it up to a basic western standard. No problem.

Soidog brought up a more important point in an email about living in the sticks.

I'll talk about it in the plantation thread later.

If there is no line in, how much does it usually cost to get a phone connected.

Lets say the nearest line is 3 km away. (route 24, south east of Khorat)

thanks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

our situation at one of our warehouse at chumphon was similar...

we kept pushing with the tel dpartment for a year, they finally installed 2 telephone lines by wireless.

for each phone line they installed a big box, maybe 30cm by 15cm and an antenna.

the line has no dialtone, u gotta dial and wait for like 20 seconsd then u get the ring or engaged tone...

using net on that line is very crappy usually 4kbps...hehe

sendin fax and telephone calls work perfectly.

Yes, we had one of those 'wireless' connections at one time.

It was OK for speech but found it unusable for both internet and fax

When our house build was complete, we wanted to relocate our telephone from the rented house some 300 metres away. My wife went to TT&T who informed her that there was a 3 month waiting list for this service. We went back to the office and enquired why the waiting list was so long. The well informed lady advised us that they had no numbers available. "We already have a bloody number, we just wish the number re-located." "Oh, I didn't think of that," she said!

We had the line in the next day.

May be a bit off topic, however, the mother in law's house was chosen as the first "phone house" for the villiage (near Khamsakaesang). It is a land line phone.

The wife calls her mum probably once a month and calls her mobile which eats into the phone card quite quickly (speaks for 1 to 2 hours) compared to when she calls her friend in England. Anyway, we thought the price of calling the land line would be a lot cheaper than the mobile but it isn't.

Why would that be?