Vehicle-mounted Sat Internet

[thewordfactory]

Hi,

I want to know if it's possible mount a sat dish on a 4WD and find a suitable service provider in Thailand and how much it would cost.

Any ideas?

[NanLaew]

Sat dish for what? TV? Internet?

[bkkjames]

storm chasing? does thailand get tornados?

[thewordfactory]

storm chasing? does thailand get tornados?

Just internet, where the phones don't work

[astral]

Are you going to be browsing whilst you drive??

[thewordfactory]

<BR>Are you going to be browsing whilst you drive??<BR><BR><BR>

<BR><BR><BR>Yeah I thought they might be, was just looking for a ball-park figure and whether there were any possibilities in Thailand.<BR>Basically it's to set up a mobile system, a base station, for live transmission of photos and video from anywhere we choose and so we might be able to bounce basic internet service to base stations elsewhere.<BR><BR>

[garyh]

TOT offered me IPstar that is a sat system, you would have to get some way to align the dish every time you want to use it.

[monty]

Forget about it.

Internet through satellite is a two way affair, i.e. you are sending transmissions upward as well.

Needs a fairly big dish, AFAIK not available for consumers, anyway you'd probably need a full sized truck for it, much like television crews use.

Best you'll get is GPRS/EDGE, available virtually throughout Thailand. Get two sets, one running on AIS the other on Dtac. This will see you have access in maybe 90% of Thailand. Cheap as well. Not fast but usable.

[garyh]

Forget about it.

Internet through satellite is a two way affair, i.e. you are sending transmissions upward as well.

Needs a fairly big dish, AFAIK not available for consumers, anyway you'd probably need a full sized truck for it, much like television crews use.

Best you'll get is GPRS/EDGE, available virtually throughout Thailand. Get two sets, one running on AIS the other on Dtac. This will see you have access in maybe 90% of Thailand. Cheap as well. Not fast but usable.

I doubt you would need a truck to carry this

http://www.ipstar.com/en/case_cs_ip_rural.html

[monty]

You would if you'd see the mechanical wizardry needed to dynamically align a dish like that while on the move.

I know from when installing those dishes that alignment towards the satellite needs to be very exact!

[simon43]

Use the Inmarsat BGAN service (Google it). Simple alignment, portable/mobile equipment, very easy to use if you really have to keep in touch!

(FYI, I used a BGAN terminal several years ago in darkest Issan when I really, really had to keep in touch....)

Simon

[NanLaew]

^ Agreed. if you really need to surf the net in the boonies, BGAN would be the best solution for your remotest travels but the hardware isn't exactly cheap and for the limited usage I think you will have, I doubt any of the service providers will give you any price breaks.

I have a portable NERA M-4 ISDN/HSD system (precursor to the BGAN) but it just gathers dust now.

That system cost around US$9000 and 'average' monthly bill was never less than US$1400 (all client reimbursable). Hardware and rates* may be around half that now as there is more competition and better technology but GPRS/EDGE per Monty's suggestion would be better.

* Just did a quick search and saw HSD rates of US$6.56/min so I won't be turning mine back on just yet!