Need Advice Regarding Getting Fast (>= 2mb Down From Us) (as In, For Real, Actually Getting That Speed All The Time) With High (99.x%) Uptime

[somefellow]

I'm posting as I really need some advice... I'm moving to Bangkok soon... I need really fast really reliable internet. To be more concrete, I am looking for about >= 2 megabits/second download speed from the USA, available 24/7 with as close to 100% uptime as possible. I'm wondering if anyone has advice about where to live to get access to good technological infrastructure, such as fast DSL, and whether anyone has experience with other forms of connectivity.

I lived in Bangkok once before and got 3 DSL lines and a load balancing router... but even that didnt work out so great as there were times all 3 were slow. I had two "SME" packages from True and one package from another carrier (I cant remember who), but there were some times, such as 1 pm in the afternoon, that all 3 got slow. I was living in Phayathai.... I am wondering if perhaps living in a different area would offer better DSL speeds (closer to switch office, or in central business district). Also I am open to other options besides DSL, whatever they may be.

I was quoted once for a service called G.Dot by CSLoxinfo. They claimed they could offer a 2048/2048 package that would involve guaranteed speeds to the US, due to their having a 3 GBps int'l fiber optic line that they divided up only among G.dot customers with few enough customers that speeds were guaranteed, 99.9%+ availability, installation of the service to the home (they would run some kind of connectivity to the apartment building and then from my apartment/condo to the connectivity would be on a DSL type link, just from my condo to the basement where the line came in). etc.... for 30,400 baht a month (plus 7% VAT). I was in the middle of investigating this when I moved out of Thailand, so I never experienced it, but if anyone knows if it's any good and their claims are true, let me know! They wanted 6 months of payment up front to get it installed and running, so if it doesnt deliver as advertised, would be a waste of baht indeed.

I'm paranoid enough that even if something like G.Dot lives up to its claims, I would still get a second line of some kind, such as maybe Satellite? Or DSL?

One way or another I will accept what it costs... I *hope* it doesnt get too expensive, but whatever I need to pay to realistically have 24/7, 99%+ uptime of a 2 megabit or better connection to the USA, then I'll have to pay it.

To get access to good net connectivity, I assume it matters where you live... I am interested in buying a condo in bangkok near a BTS station. I assume if I get a condo near a major business district, like in the Silom area, or some business area, faster and more reliable internet will be available due to better local infrastructure. Is this correct? If so, are there any areas in particular to recommend for good internet connectivity?

Looking at international connectivity of thailand, I see that it's now about twice as much intl bandwidth as a year ago... good... hopefully things are improving.

Any advice, please help! Thanks---

[H2oDunc]

I would say no matter what you pay it is not going to happen here in Thailand. You may get 2mb down occasionally, and then not for long, but very much doubt you are going to get anything like it up. I dont know about sat net but landline forget it.

[MJo]

I would say no matter what you pay it is not going to happen here in Thailand. You may get 2mb down occasionally, and then not for long, but very much doubt you are going to get anything like it up. I dont know about sat net but landline forget it.

Sure? My True 2048/512 DSL gives me all the time more speed up than down...

But seriously, maybe some "dedicated" business package could do it. Should be able to do contract with guaranteed speeds nowdays with some security in case they do not deliver what they are promising. Have not done it in BKK but works elsewhere like Jakarta so should be available also here. Then again when the sea cables are giving trouble it's no way you can get decent connection anywhere...

[Pib]

I'm posting as I really need some advice... I'm moving to Bangkok soon... I need really fast really reliable internet. To be more concrete, I am looking for about >= 2 megabits/second download speed from the USA, available 24/7 with as close to 100% uptime as possible. I'm wondering if anyone has advice about where to live to get access to good technological infrastructure, such as fast DSL, and whether anyone has experience with other forms of connectivity.

Recommendation: delay your move to Thailand by about 10 years as you should be able to get the speed/quality of service you are looking for by then.

[Pib]

Deleted--duplicate post to above....my 2MB internet service moving kinda slow tonight...caused duplicate post.

Edited January 20, 2009 by Pib

[Crushdepth]

If highspeed internet is critical to you then Thailand is not a good option for living. Even if you can find the speed, you won't get the reliability. And you have to contend with things like your ISP randomly disconnecting you or resetting the connection several times a day for no apparent reason.

[Prasert]

Not a single Thai ISP can guarantee anything from the border till the States. You'll have to address your requirements to the big backbone providers like Level3, Cable & Wireless, AT&T, etc.

What can be guaranteed is outgoing bandwidth. CSLoxinfo claims they'll offer it, but can't make it happen. CAT is a much better option.

If money is no problem, contact CAT for information and ask what their penalties are for every second the service agreement is not met, due to e.g. linebreaks or domestic disconnects (this is quite normal practice for lines like this). Something you should not do by phone or email, but in person at their main office in Bangkok.

CAT provides these connections mainly on ATM, so you'll require a router with an ATM interface plus the knowledge to configure and maintain it. Unless you also want to pay for these services (and it's not cheap).

Other options: look around on the internet. Shell has her own worldwide network, and they resell parts of their bandwidth to third parties. Another company is Equant. All western companies that do provide services in Thailand with western service standards.

A much better option would be to spend two weeks in Indonesia (and use the internet there!) and then come to Thailand. During the first week you'll really wonder why everyone is complaing about the speeds here!

[spacefruit]

You need your own "pipe" I am told, and this seems only worth it for large companies.

I know several small companies who wanted to base in Thailand for temporary film prodctions in asia. They all went elsewhere after examining the internet situation.

Shame, I was going to rent them the offices!

[LivinLOS]

I would say no matter what you pay it is not going to happen here in Thailand. You may get 2mb down occasionally, and then not for long, but very much doubt you are going to get anything like it up. I dont know about sat net but landline forget it.

I dont know.. 1 - 2 years back I would have agreed but not any more.

I have the cheapest maxnet premier package.. 1090 baht IIRC.. Also on a TT&T line and I paid the guy for a really clean hookup, getting hooked up cost me 15k (buying a number and a few 100m of cabling) but by paying under the table I have a 'on call' technician who prioritises me if I ever needed it.

I get solid >1.5mit down all day every day.. Peaking at 1.8 or 1.9 Mbit at best.. Thats the cheapest pack they offer.

I cant remember the last outage I had.. My electric power cuts more often then my internet.

So if the cheapest home package gives that.. And I know they have 3Mbit and 4Mbit home packages, I would suspect a solid 2Mbit is possible now.

[somefellow]

Thanks very much for your input guys.

Well, as far as not moving to Thailand is concerned, my wife and children are moving to Bangkok, so I would ideally like to go along with them.... LOL.

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience regarding location? I am sort of guessing that living near a central business area would have faster DSL (closer to main office) and more reliable service (high concentration of businesses in the area requiring fast connectivity).

Also re: the underseas cable thing... I remember when the earthquake took them out a few years ago. I actually was scheduled to fly to bangkok the following day and cancelled my trip as a result of the internet outage. Would the satellite internet bypass the underseas cables?

I am theorizing maybe I can get a load-balancing router, with 3 inputs (well actually I have that already, PEPlink, it's great), and have one of them be some kind of corporate "leased line", the second be a DSL SME package, and the third be a satellite connection. All in all that would add up to a lot, but unless I can get really reliable internet it will be very difficult for me to live in Thailand and i'll just have to pay it.

[somefellow]

Looks like the internet connectivity situation must be improving... from wikipedia, from another URL that the system doesnt let me post

International & Domestic Bandwidth[5]

Month/Year International Bandwidth (Mbit/s) Domestic Bandwidth (Mbit/s)

12/2008 55,095 251,091

12/2007 22,073 157,010

12/2006 9,909 53,773

12/2005 6,808 28,721

12/2004 3,006 21,379

Of course people are using the bandwitch a lot more than before, as well... .but increasing from 10gbps to 55gbps is a pretty huge increase, for international bandwidth

of course when I was in japan they offered 1 gigabit/second fiber optic lines to the home for about $100/month.... so 10 of those would be the entire international connectivity of thailand in 2006 lol

[Crushdepth]

Not a single Thai ISP can guarantee anything from the border till the States. You'll have to address your requirements to the big backbone providers like Level3, Cable & Wireless, AT&T, etc.

What can be guaranteed is outgoing bandwidth. CSLoxinfo claims they'll offer it, but can't make it happen. CAT is a much better option.

If money is no problem, contact CAT for information and ask what their penalties are for every second the service agreement is not met, due to e.g. linebreaks or domestic disconnects (this is quite normal practice for lines like this). Something you should not do by phone or email, but in person at their main office in Bangkok.

We have a contract with INET at work, and pay about 40,000 baht/month for a dedicated 1MB connection. It's fairly good, but not what you'd expect for the price (frankly I don't think its worth it).

Most ISP service agreements contain pathetic provisions that say 'bandwidth not guaranteed'. According to INET's normal service agreement, if they could squeeze a single ping through the connection, it was defined as 'working'!!!! Not only that, but if we wanted to cancel the contract (due to say, poor bandwidth) we would have to pay a hefty penalty. I forget exactly what, but it was something like 3 or 6 months fees.

We refused to sign until they got more reasonable about it (if you don't guarantee bandwidth we don't guarantee to pay!). After a couple of months they finally agreed to an amendment that would let us cancel the contract without penalty, if they failed to supply less than 50% of the agreed bandwidth over a reasonable period of time.

Probably better to just sign up to a couple of different ADSL providers and take your chances that one of them will be working ok (if not great) at any given point in time. But that probably still won't solve your speed issue.

[Pib]

40,000 Baht/month--WOW!!! And I thought my JI-NET 2MB BizConnect connection for 1870 Baht/month is too much, especially after I tried the TOT 2MB Goldcyber for a few months at 1000 Baht. Switched from TOT because the "international" bandwidth varied so much from day to day, hour to hour (100KB to around 1.5MB and https access was always slow); JI-NET has been very reliable and my international bandwidth consistently ranges from 1.0MB to 1.8MB, except on Sunday evening/night when I get around 800KB to 1MB max.

[slackula]

Would the satellite internet bypass the underseas cables?

Yup, they'll fly right over them

[Prasert]

Would the satellite internet bypass the underseas cables?

Yup, they'll fly right over them

We had a corporate TOT IPstar connection for backup.

But.....

The traffic simply goes up from your dish to the satellite and then back down to Bangkok again. All traffic is put on the TOT network.

After a few outages we found out that if there's a problem with TOT in Bangkok on dsl lines, it's also there for the satellite lines. So..... canceled it. They're still sending me their monthly bill by the way....

So if you use IPstar, expect the same internet connectivity problems as on any dsl connection.