New ISP To Offer Free WiFi In Hua Hin

[george]

New ISP to offer free WiFi in Hua Hin

HUA HIN : Wide Access Co, an internet service provider startup, is introducing Thailand's first free city-wide internet access in Hua Hin under a five-year investment plan of 75 million baht.

The company plans to spend an additional 75 million baht to offer free WiFi access in another five nearby provinces by the end of this year.

Founder and CEO Sunti Medhavikul said the project was initially aimed at providing free internet community service for education and tourism at a speed of 100 kilobits per second (kbps).

Wide Access is a joint venture between Benchachinda Co, a company founded by the Bencharongkul family, and Sunti Medhavikul, a former executive of the mobile operator DTAC.

Founded in mid-2008, the company has registered capital of five million baht. The Bencharongkul family, the founding family of DTAC, holds a 20% stake in the company.

Wide Access was granted a Type 1 licence (for operators without their own networks) to provide internet access service from the National Telecommunications Commission.

Mr Sunti said Hua Hin residents and tourists could now experience internet access at the speed of 100 kbps for free with built-in privacy protection.

"We would offer premium fee-based services such as wireless voice over IP and video streamng at a higher speed of up to 1 Mbps by August," he said.

The open wireless network will offer broadband to all Hua Hin residents and tourists, covering the area of one square kilometre, to be expanded to eight square kilometres over the next three months.

Spanning 86 sq km, Hua Hin has a population of 100,000, 40,000 of whom live within the eight square kilometres of the targeted network coverage.

Approximatley 1.2 million foreign tourists visit Hua Hin annually, generating eight billion baht of revenue to the local people.

With the service, Mr Sunti said, users can access the internet from their WiFi-enabled computers or PDAs in most part of the resort city.

After registering, they can browse for 60 minutes at a time after which they need to log on again.

The network will also be capable of supporting a broad range of applications for residential, small business and commercial users.

Mr Sunti said he chose to launch the network in Hua Hin because it was a well-known tourist destination where people had high purchasing power.

Vichai Bencharongkul, president of Benchachinda Co, said the joint investment would add value to Benchachinda's existing rental leased line business and expand broadband internet access into the retail customer segment

He said the penetration of Thailand's broadband internet was still low, at only 2%, or 7% of total households.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-02-23

[ianc66]

Select items from the Nations report on this:

To get the free service, users have to register as members to receive a user name and password that will pop up automatically when they log on to the Hua Hin City Wide portal site. Another way of starting up is to register by way of a short message (SMS) to 488 6999, to receive a user name and password for the Bt3 cost of an SMS message......

The service caters only for outdoor use, since the wireless mesh network gateways are mounted on electricity poles alongside roads, with 10 gateways covering every one sq km. If users want to hook up with Hua Hin City Wide from indoors, they must buy a repeater called Wide Mini to install at home.....

The company will deploy wireless Internet access covering eight sq km at three different frequencies - 2.4, 5.4 and 5.7 gigahertz - and at a limited speed of 100 kilobits per second, free of charge to both Hua Hin citizens and tourists....

My comments

Users will have to register where how? I can't seems to find a website. http://wideaccess.com/ is down. Sent an SMS get reply 'The keyword entered is invalid. Please use one of these: answer.' I sent 3 more SMS with variations on answer. Don't work.

Earlier in an email to friends I said:-

The Wi-Fi sounds good I'll take my netbook in tonight and give it a test (assuming that registering is on online and doesn't involve taking two photocopies of your passport, your tabien baan and all four grandparents to an office in Dan Sing Khon which is open only on the 31st of the month.....).

Looks like I got the registration scheme about right

Outdoor use only must buy a wide mini 5.4 and 5.7 Ghz thats not wi fi.

3 baht SMS and buying a wide mini is a strange definition of free.

I will go into town soon and report. I f I see anything on 2.4GHz

[ianc66]

Went into town earlier and did a test on Phetkasem Rd. outside Wat Hua Hin.

Briefly it works albeit a little sluggishly. My netbook found citywidehuahin WiFi which is unencrypted which leads to a logon page which offers online logon or SMS. Couldn't get the online form to work. SMS 'huahin' (case matters) to 4886999 got me a a username and password, good until 30/06/09. The username leads me to believe that I might be the first real user.

Thinking about it I assume the frequencies mentioned 2.4 is for WiFi 5.4 and 5.7 for the backhaul.

Just speculation since the reports in the Bangkok Post and Nation are full of holes.

Note to editors: if the news conference is about computing send an IT correspondent who might ask a few questions, not the cookery correspondent.

[stgrhe]

Any updated info on this?

[khongniam]

At Ae´s Place 2B in Soi Hua Hin 56 - Khao Noi 13/19 - next to the "Dinosour" Market

you get FREE WiFi as customer .

delices Food from 30 THB, Drinks from 15 THB, Call to Europe from 5 THB/Min. u.m.m.

look also in Internet under www aesplace2b com

[wpcoe]

Just curious if this system is still up and running. Any recent users actually get connected, and if so, how is the connection?

[d0ndela]

it is still up and running, cannot comment on the quality as I never use it.

[CDNinKS]

I used it a few weeks ago while waiting for the car to get washed at the shop near the south end of town on the east side of the road. Access was quick with the SMS system and the speed seemed fine for basic surfing.

[bigbadthaijohn]

Does anyone know what area is covered by the network?

[wpcoe]

Thanks for the confirmation. I'm in a Hua Hin guesthouse on Soi 80 now, and decided to bring my notebook computer based on your feedback. The throughput is slow, but better than nothing, and the price is right! I'm not doing much surfing, as pages often take several minutes to load, but for short text e-mails the system is fine.