Cdma Expansion ?

[Gary A]

About six months ago I stopped in the CAT office in Loei. The guy assured me that within three months my area 50 kilometers south of Loei city would have EV-DO coverage. It DIDN'T happen. Today to my surprise the CAT serviceman stopped by the house and wanted to check the signal. I now have a very good signal. Apparently they do have a new tower online.

Tomorrow I will go to Loei and buy a new Rev A CCU 680 modem for 10,995 baht. If all goes well, I'll be hooked up tomorrow and give you a report and speed test. He did caution me that it would not work in the Hutch coverage areas.

I bought a new Moto Q phone and eventually found out it was locked to Telus Canada. Useless. I sent it back and HOPE to get my money returned.

[dave_boo]

About six months ago I stopped in the CAT office in Loei. The guy assured me that within three months my area 50 kilometers south of Loei city would have EV-DO coverage. It DIDN'T happen. Today to my surprise the CAT serviceman stopped by the house and wanted to check the signal. I now have a very good signal. Apparently they do have a new tower online.

Tomorrow I will go to Loei and buy a new Rev A CCU 680 modem for 10,995 baht. If all goes well, I'll be hooked up tomorrow and give you a report and speed test. He did caution me that it would not work in the Hutch coverage areas.

I bought a new Moto Q phone and eventually found out it was locked to Telus Canada. Useless. I sent it back and HOPE to get my money returned.

First, good to hear that CAT is expanding in your area.

Seondly, try and get the Novatel Ovation MC727. It's a lot cheaper and also Rev.A.

Thirdly, sorry about your phone....

[Gary A]

The service guy only had the 680 with him. I'll take a look for the MC727 when I get to their office.

[HDRIDER]

Hi

I have the CCU 680, have heard there is a new on the market, should be a little faster than 680, it was in Phuket gazette a few weeks ago, try to get that one, think CAT dont buy more 680

This is TV speedtest

Download Speed: 1798 kbps (224.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 325 kbps (40.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 660 ms

08 December 2008 08:00:32

Edited December 8, 2008 by HDRIDER

[Gary A]

I'm sitting at the Ford dealer getting my car serviced and have just left the CAT shop. I'm sitting inside and using the CCU 680 modem. They did have the MC727 but the serviceman told me that he really would rather I bought this one because they have had problems with that one. I took his word for it.

Here is my current speed;

Last Result:

Download Speed: 1106 kbps (138.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 232 kbps (29 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 403 ms

Monday, December 08, 2008 14:41:30

Not that fast but MUCH better than I have ever had before. I'll run another speed test at home with the desktop.

[Gary A]

At home on the desk top computer;

Last Result:

Download Speed: 913 kbps (114.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 223 kbps (27.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 373 ms

Monday, December 08, 2008 18:03:00

It shows slower but it's really not noticeable. If it remains like this I'll be perfectly happy. About five times faster on download and ten times faster on upload than EDGE.

[ThaiLife]

I'm sitting at the Ford dealer getting my car serviced and have just left the CAT shop. I'm sitting inside and using the CCU 680 modem. They did have the MC727 but the serviceman told me that he really would rather I bought this one because they have had problems with that one. I took his word for it.

Here is my current speed;

Last Result:

Download Speed: 1106 kbps (138.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 232 kbps (29 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 403 ms

Monday, December 08, 2008 14:41:30

Not that fast but MUCH better than I have ever had before. I'll run another speed test at home with the desktop.

Hi Gary , I went to my local CAT office to day to check out the modems, and I was told by the manageress that they only now had the

MC727 , did the engineer give you any idea what the problem was with the MC727 ..?

Thanks

[ThaiLife]

Ive just checked out the CCU-680

http://www.cmotech.com/english/products/pro_04.html

and it does not run on Mac OS X , which I need, but the MC727 does run on a Mac so it looks like if I want to use the CAT CDMA , I will have to go with the MC727

Any one else using a MC727 ..?

[Gary A]

I'm sitting at the Ford dealer getting my car serviced and have just left the CAT shop. I'm sitting inside and using the CCU 680 modem. They did have the MC727 but the serviceman told me that he really would rather I bought this one because they have had problems with that one. I took his word for it.

Here is my current speed;

Last Result:

Download Speed: 1106 kbps (138.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 232 kbps (29 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 403 ms

Monday, December 08, 2008 14:41:30

Not that fast but MUCH better than I have ever had before. I'll run another speed test at home with the desktop.

Hi Gary , I went to my local CAT office to day to check out the modems, and I was told by the manageress that they only now had the

MC727 , did the engineer give you any idea what the problem was with the MC727 ..?

Thanks

He didn't say and it's possible that he just wanted me to spend the extra baht. In any case if I had any problems I didn't want him to be able to say it was because of the cheaper modem.

[ThaiLife]

Thanks Gary, Looks like I will have to do a bit more searching to see if any one else is having a problem with the MC727

[Gary A]

It appears that CAT is not going to scrap CDMA because they are still building towers. I have a new one near me. I told a friend of mine about EV-DO. He is VERY disgusted with Ipstar (Shitstar). He went to the CAT office in Krabi and was disappointed that his area has no coverage. After talking to the area CAT manager, he found out that there are three new towers being built near him. He went and had a look and saw that they were actually started on the new towers. They are expected to go online in February.

[ThaiLife]

Ive just read that may be the CCU 680 unit does work on a Mac , but I am still searching for confirmation , the other thing that the MC727 has is an external antenna connection socket , can some one confirm that the CCU 680 also has the same external antenna connection socket on it please ..? , one more question -

do you have to buy the modem from CAT to use their system ?

[ThaiLife]

Any one know ... do you have to buy the modem from CAT to use their system ?

Thanks

[Gary A]

Ive just read that may be the CCU 680 unit does work on a Mac , but I am still searching for confirmation , the other thing that the MC727 has is an external antenna connection socket , can some one confirm that the CCU 680 also has the same external antenna connection socket on it please ..? , one more question -

do you have to buy the modem from CAT to use their system ?

The CCU 680 does have an antenna jack. The roof top antenna and lead in wire cost about 3,500 baht.

ADDED - I bought a Moto Q phone from the US and they refused service. They told me that the phone or modem is programmed for CAT service at the factory. True or not, I have no idea. As it turned out, the phone was locked to Telus Canada so it was useless anyways.

Edited December 10, 2008 by Gary A

[ThaiLife]

Thanks Gary, ive just read this from a Phuket blog ..

We went to the Phuket Town CAT office last week with my MacBook and tested both. Windows wise, I should think you get the same performance… But we spent a good 3 hours in their office testing initially the MC727 and then the CCU-680 on the Mac. We could get around twice the speed with the CCU-680 compared with the MC727. The MC727 Mac drivers were awful; we couldn’t connect half the time, kept having to change the modem settings, and because it’s so new there was hardly any information available online. The CCU-680 however had a ton of information online and once we got it working we could connect/disconnect at will. I wanted the MC727 as it was cheaper and newer, but until they sort-out the drivers for Mac (and Linux) I would recommend that anyone wanting to use it on a non-Windows platform should go for the CCU-680.

And as I use a Mac , it looks like from the guy's experience above the MC727 may not be the way to go, my problem now is that when I went to my local CAT office they only had the MC727 , hence my question do you have to buy a modem from CAT to use their system.

[lemsip]

I live in roi-et provence 17 k/m from nearest CAT tower bought the MC727 about a week ago,already had external antenna as I had there very slow phone system{internet}.The office staff where addement it would not work,they didnt even no it could take external antenna.they said it could only work within a 5km radius of nearest tower.anyway after lot of arguing,me statting that if i get signal for there phone system it should work with MC727.It does work and Im very happy with it also it works with vista 64bit phone system did not.Im still pissed off because I asked them for CCU 680 5 months ago.

Anyway works great just plug it in usb and thats it,speed with download manager is around 200KB/s upload around 40KB/s.

[ThaiLife]

Thanks for that, I got the CAT manager to check where the nearest CAT tower was from me, and its about 3 km away ( I went to have a look to see it for my self ) its the Mac side of things I am worried about , I did think about taking my Mac to the CAT

office and ask them to try the MC727 out , but the iMac 24 inch is a bit big to carry around.

[lemsip]

Take your Mac to office they will test it.3km away form tower you should get top speed available+no external antenna I think if you ask they will even let you test for 1 day pay first of course,Roi-et office let me test.not work get money back.

[ThaiLife]

Hi, Yes I am going to pack up the iMac and take it to the CAT office , ive just found a CAT sub office in my area that has both the MC727 & CCU-680 in stock so I will ask them to try both on my Mac, and ive just learnt this ..

You must buy your modem from CAT. CAT’s CDMA network does not use SIM cards. Your subscription is tied to your device.

which now answers my original question .

[Gregory Morozov]

If you have troubles installing your modem on Mac, you can use CDMA sharing wireless router.

However, I have the reason to believe what all three modems can be used on Mac.

[nikster]

I'm sitting at the Ford dealer getting my car serviced and have just left the CAT shop. I'm sitting inside and using the CCU 680 modem. They did have the MC727 but the serviceman told me that he really would rather I bought this one because they have had problems with that one. I took his word for it.

Here is my current speed;

Last Result:

Download Speed: 1106 kbps (138.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 232 kbps (29 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 403 ms

Monday, December 08, 2008 14:41:30

Not that fast but MUCH better than I have ever had before. I'll run another speed test at home with the desktop.

EV-DO Rev. A, woo-hoo! I am going to have to get a new modem then... I have a CCU-650 which only does EV-DO 1x. Main difference is that the upload speed sucks. Whereas, yours and HDRIDERs upload speed is great.

Can we now put to rest the rumors that CAT is going to turn off CDMA? I mean.. I always said that would make no sense, and I saw some CDMA promotion vans in Chiang Mai so I kinda think CAT is going to try to make some money off of this...

@ThaiLife thanks for the report on Mac drivers, that was a bit iffy with the CCU-650. It works but you have to know how to make it...

Edited December 16, 2008 by nikster

[Gary A]

Speed test today;

Last Result:

Download Speed: 1511 kbps (188.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 242 kbps (30.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 442 ms

Wed Dec 17 2008 07:56:33 GMT+0700 (SE Asia Standard Time)

I think the best part is that it may slow down but it never quits. I'm REALLY happy so far.

[thaicbr]

Biggest problem of course is why oh why can't Hutch and CAT sort them selves out so you can roam on each others networks they are the same for gods sake but they are just pig headed. Hutch is the retail concession for Cat in the Bankok/central area but then Cat decided to reneage on the expansion deal to go it alone in the rest of the country.

just dumb.

Allan

[HDRIDER]

HI

Mind you its not all the time i get this speed, only on Thai visa speed test :-)

Last Result:

Download Speed: 1664 kbps (208 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 362 kbps (45.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 428 ms

17 December 2008 09:07:02

This is to SF in USA

Last Result:

Download Speed: 796 kbps (99.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 420 kbps (52.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

[chiang mai]

I've been using CCU6680 in Patong for about four months, I live on the hillside above the CAT offices and reception is very good. But service delivery is very very intermittent, some days it works just fine and other days it crawls so slowly that any Speedtest abandons all efforts to measure throughput. Because the CAT office is so close I now go and see them whenever service is really bad for more than one or two days and we have these bizarre discussions that are the same every time. Service is OK, it's your PC, no it's not it's your network/service - and back and forth it goes. Eventually they will admit that network expansion and roll out activities do interrupt service, I know that but just wish they would come clean on the fact rather than denying their service has delivery problems.

One more word of caution: if you take your CCU680 (USB) device to the CAT office to support your claim that the service is not working, do not let them plug it into their PC to test it. All the PC's in their office have the SECRET.EXE and PHIM NGOI LON.EXE virus's which transfer to the device straight away, I know this for fact.

[nikster]

I've been using CCU6680 in Patong for about four months, I live on the hillside above the CAT offices and reception is very good. But service delivery is very very intermittent, some days it works just fine and other days it crawls so slowly that any Speedtest abandons all efforts to measure throughput. Because the CAT office is so close I now go and see them whenever service is really bad for more than one or two days and we have these bizarre discussions that are the same every time. Service is OK, it's your PC, no it's not it's your network/service - and back and forth it goes. Eventually they will admit that network expansion and roll out activities do interrupt service, I know that but just wish they would come clean on the fact rather than denying their service has delivery problems.

One more word of caution: if you take your CCU680 (USB) device to the CAT office to support your claim that the service is not working, do not let them plug it into their PC to test it. All the PC's in their office have the SECRET.EXE and PHIM NGOI LON.EXE virus's which transfer to the device straight away, I know this for fact.

Come clean? TIT, you should know better than that. All about expectations. Overall I've had pretty good experiences with CAT customer service. When it was down they usually provided a time estimate for when it would be working again. It's not been down much though.

When your speed is slow, did you try disconnecting and reconnecting? That often makes a huge difference for me, though I am not sure if it's the modem, the CDMA network, or the drivers (Mac). In any case, I usually connect, then disconnect, then connect again until my test page loads at over 100KB/s. On slow days I'll settle for 60KB/s.

My test page is the Engadget newsfeed in Safari - Safari has a fantastic RSS display where it will load all images on the newsfeed in parallel, and on Engadget that's over 100 big images. Loading them in parallel means it's maxing out the connection. I must say the RSS display is the main reason I use Safari... Firefox doesn't do that...

[nikster]

Ok got the CCU-680. It seems marginally faster on download than the CCU-650, and faster (as expected) on upload.

Mac software is so-so, it seems to work OK but it put that big fat 3G connectivity symbol on my menu bar, which I don't appreciate very much. So far I didn't find a way to remove that menu bar item...

It draws less power than the 650, or so it would seem. The old one would only operate in the right USB port on my MacBook Pro, this one works on both.

There is no way to switch modems under an existing contract, I was strongly advised to just create a new contract and cancel the old one. Which I did...

Edited December 17, 2008 by nikster

[Gary A]

I got a USB cable with my 680 modem that has two plugs and one socket. The modem seems to work OK with a single plug so I'm not sure why they gave me the double plug cable. In any case, my desk top has plenty of USB ports so I am using the double plug cable. Has anyone had problems with single plug cables?

[croftrobin]

I got a USB cable with my 680 modem that has two plugs and one socket. The modem seems to work OK with a single plug so I'm not sure why they gave me the double plug cable. In any case, my desk top has plenty of USB ports so I am using the double plug cable. Has anyone had problems with single plug cables?

I will buy 1 tomorrow and will report back then.

I ditched my Tot IPSTAR and held off buying CDMA and have been using Edge in the meantime. but recent posts seem to indicate that the CDMA network is in fact not being ditched.

Gary - how far are from your nearest mast as i'm not sure where mine is. I will buy the arial just in case.

[dave_boo]

I got a USB cable with my 680 modem that has two plugs and one socket. The modem seems to work OK with a single plug so I'm not sure why they gave me the double plug cable. In any case, my desk top has plenty of USB ports so I am using the double plug cable. Has anyone had problems with single plug cables?

The dual plugs only offer extra power for those USB ports that do not follow specs. If yours work with one, no problem. If you plug in both ends, no problem.