Connecting Til The Web Via Mobile Phone

[Sophon]

I have read the different topics on connecting to the Web in Thailand using mobile phones, and it seems that at the moment the recommended phone to buy for this purpose is the Nokia 3110 Classic. It looks like a nice phone at a very reasonable price, and I have been trying to decide to buy the phone in Thailand or back home (Denmark).

However, browsing through the different web sites selling mobile phones I have noticed that different phones support different classes of GPRS and EDGE. That has made me reconsider if I should buy the 3110 Classic or go for the Nokia 3600 Slide instead.

Nokia 3110 Classic:

GPRS class 10, 32-48 kbps

EDGE class 10, 236.8 kbps

Nokia 3600 Slide:

GPRS class 32, 100 kbps

EDGE class 32, 296 kbps

So potentially the 3600 Slide is able to support higher data transfer speeds both with GPRS and EDGE. But will that actually make any difference when used in Thailand, or are the transfer speeds limited anyway by the the technology used by DTAC and AIS (now and/or in the foreseeable future)?

The 3600 Slide is somewhat more expensive (just under double the price of the 3110 Classic), but it also have better specifications in other areas. It's slightly smaller (but also slightly heavier), has a better display, 3.2 mega pixel camera (compared to 1.3 for the 3110 Classic) and has larger internal memory (also supports larger microSD cards than the 3110). As far as I can see, the only thing I would lose going with the 3600 Slide is the infrared port. However, although nice to have, these features just aren't that crucial to me, so the deciding factor will probably be whether I can get better data transfer rates with the 3600 Slide compared to the 3110 Classic.

So does anyone know if the GPRS/EDGE class supported by your phone makes any practical difference when using the phone in Thailand (more specifically in Bangkok)? General comments about the Nokia 3600 Slider are also very welcome.

Thans in advance for your input.

Sophon

[Gary A]

I have a Nokia E51 and an old Samsung E370. The Nokia is obviously a much better phone and the specifications are way higher also. Connecting the Nokia with Bluetooth or the data cable or connecting the Samsung with just Bluetooth makes no difference in the connection speed. I had a Nokia N80 and before that a Nokia 6230. I could tell absolutely no difference in connection speed between any of them.

I really hate the Samsung as a phone but there is no difference in connection speed so that's all the Samsung is used for. My wife has a Nokia 6500 Slider. She loves it. I have tested it with EDGE and it works exactly the same as the other phones, no better and no worse.

[monty]

The class 32 phone won't be any faster.

Class 32 means 5 time slots down and 1 up.

Class 10 is 4 slots down and 1 up.

1 time slot can support up to 59,2 kbps, hence the class 10 delivers up to 236.8 kbps and the class 32 296 kbps.

Edge actually supports up to 8 slots down giving a 476 kbps download speed (the Solomon Edge USB modem supports 8 slots down), but as there are only a limited amount of time slots available per transmitter, most mobile networks, including AIS and Dtac, limit the available slots to 4 per data connection.

[Sophon]

The class 32 phone won't be any faster.

Class 32 means 5 time slots down and 1 up.

Class 10 is 4 slots down and 1 up.

1 time slot can support up to 59,2 kbps, hence the class 10 delivers up to 236.8 kbps and the class 32 296 kbps.

Edge actually supports up to 8 slots down giving a 476 kbps download speed (the Solomon Edge USB modem supports 8 slots down), but as there are only a limited amount of time slots available per transmitter, most mobile networks, including AIS and Dtac, limit the available slots to 4 per data connection.

Thanks to you both for the replies.

It seems that there are no advantage to the speeds using different classes of Edge, and I must admit that I expected as much. The "normal" Edge speed will be sufficient for me anyway, but is there any chance that the GPRS speeds will be better with the 3600 Slide, just for those times when Edge is unavailable or if I am in an area without Edge coverage?

Thanks again.

Sophon

[monty]

Doubt it, with regular GPRS it's the same story, the class 32 is faster because it allows for more down stream time slots, but again the local operators won't allow more slots, so no gain!

The coding/transmission technology itself hasn't really changed for a while now, so we're still getting the exact same speed per time slot. The amount of time slots is the only thing they can fiddle with.