Hi Folk ... although I have a home near the Payap Uni in Chiangmai, I still need to keep my business running here in the UK and a reliable internet and email link from Chiangmai would be of great help. Anyone able to advise regarding setting up in that area with 'phone and hopefully broadband ?? THANKS!

I would definately look into an alternative to land line technology if I were you. I have broadband in the house, but such are the vagaries of the line connections, we do not stay connected for long, and have to re-boot the computer to get logged on again. After the initial 1 year period is up then I will go down the wire free route, if at all possible.

I've got Loxinfo broadband on a tot line.It gets a little slow sometime,but it's not too bad.

Cost is THB1000 per month.

EDGE technology should be available in Chiang Mai soon, if not now already. Nearly all of central Bangkok is enabled for it. GPRS should certainly be available. Both allow you to use your cell phone (if enabled for GPRS and/or EDGE) as a modem for a wireless connection to the internet. GPRS is about 250kbps and Edge around 384kpbs.

The new Nokia 6630 is EDGE enabled but expensive at 25000B.

Search for posts by Crushdepth as he has a URL to a wonderful FAQ and tutorial on the subject in one of his posts.

P.S. The cell conncets to the net via EDGE/GPRS and to the computer via either Infrared or Bluetooth. Bluetooth is much preferred as you wont need any physical alignment so the phone can sit anywhere.