Cell Phone For Gprs Connection

[tutsiwarrior]

I'll soon be purchasing a new cell phone and I want GPRS capability. I'm looking for a moderately priced unit, no camera or super duper features and I would probably want to have a cable connection to the laptop.

Any 'best buy' suggestions?

(retiring now for the 'weekend'...back on Saturday...thanks)

Edited March 10, 2005 by tutsiwarrior

[Phil Conners]

Why not bluetooth to the laptop. I think the cheapest bare-bones GPRS/BTphone is a Sony Ericsson @ around 4000 baht.

There's a huge market in 2nd hand phones in Thailand btw. Seems the Thais love to switch phone all the time to always have the latest-greatest model. For 4000 you can get a very nice mid-range 2nd hand last-years-model Nokia with GPRS/BT.

[pyros]

Hi , since we are talking here on GPRS telephones , which company and how much they charge me for a connection to internet over gprs ??? Is it possible with a pre pay card ??? THX in advance ....

[billd766]

I'll soon be purchasing a new cell phone and I want GPRS capability. I'm looking for a moderately priced unit, no camera or super duper features and I would probably want to have a cable connection to the laptop.

Any 'best buy' suggestions?

(retiring now for the 'weekend'...back on Saturday...thanks)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Tutsi

I use a Nokia 6100 with a genuine Nokia DKU5 cable to connect to my laptop (or desktop). You can pick up a good second hand model for around 5 - 6,000 baht and the cable new is around 2,500. I strongly reccommend a genuine cable for whatever mobile you buy.

I am on a promotion from AIS for 500 baht line rental and 750 baht for up to 3,000 baht of local calls and I have a GPRS promotion of 350 baht for 120 hours of internet access. It works for me and the Nokia 6100 is GPRS/WAP compatible with no camera or any other frilly bits.

AIS set up my laptop and phone but it is not difficult to do.

There are a lot of new mobiles on the market though personally I have used Nokia since 1997 with very few problems.

Best of luck and if you need any more information you can PM me as at the moment I am working in Pakistan for a while.

[Phil Conners]

Don't buy AIS, don't support Toxin

Besides they have the most expensive plans.

You can use GPRS with any prepaid card but it's REALLY EXPENSIVE as you'll quickly find out ... a lot of money per MB and the MB's build up really fast even for very simple stuff.

DTAC has a promotion for unlimited internet, valid 36 months, 999 baht/month. You need a subscription for this.

[stumonster]

You can use GPRS with any prepaid card but it's REALLY EXPENSIVE as you'll quickly find out ... a lot of money per MB and the MB's build up really fast even for very simple stuff.

as far as I have seen you pay for the minutesin thailand, as opposed to most of the rest of the world, and prepaid at 1 baht per minute is acceptable though the GPRS speed is not conducive for surfing big sites .

Tutu - think seroiusly about getting a bluetooth phone and not relying on cable - can be useful when you are in the country and you have to place the phone somewhere that has good reception.

And the other thing probably worthwhile doing is paying the extra money to buy a EDGE phone rather than GPRS because I do believe it will be rolled out quite quickly across the country - why connect at 2-4KB per sec when you could be connected at 10-15KB per sec for the same cost, and as crushdepth has found VOIP works ok via EDGE ( wait till the telecoms wake up to that )

I am going to get a new phone to replace my n-gage in a couple of months and the one I like at the moment is the Nokia 6620 though it has camera - phones would be much cheaper without one.

I will be looking to see if there are any new models before I purchase another phone but at the moment that nokia is the one I like.

the important thing to look at when purchasing a GPRS/EDGE phone is the Class of the device as the is what will limit your maximum connection speed.

[Phil Conners]

Gotta agree with you on the camera thing, why on earth do we need to get a camera in the phone? I need a phone, not a camera. I have a 3mpixel digicam for when I need to take pictures, I never use the camera in my phone. Oh and I don't want it to pretend to be an MP3 player either.

I have a Nokia 6820 which I am very happy with - in fact I had one before, traded through 3 other phones just to end up back with another 6820. If they were to make an EDGE compatible version of it, that would be my next phone.

Oh, and with regard to cost of using the per-mb option on a prepaid card .. I used that for a few hours one afternoon, the price came to around 800 baht. No heavy usage, just a bit of browsing and shell access to a server. This was with a standard AIS subscription which used the same per-mb rate as the prepaid cards.

Edited March 11, 2005 by madsere

[stats]

I have been very dissapointed with the AIS Internet Service...Im using the Gprs to connect to the internet from my notebook....this week have been like F*c*K S*it

for AIS Service.....Its damm slow and also the network is having problem nowdays...

I dont know why they always have a problem with their system...Called the AIS Customer Service 1175 according to them currently they have a network error....

Only today ive been disconected by the service many times....waits for 1 hour for the AIS system to retore again.....

just telling you guys my experience

tytus

[billd766]

Don't buy AIS, don't support Toxin 

Besides they have the most expensive plans.

You can use GPRS with any prepaid card but it's REALLY EXPENSIVE as you'll quickly find out ... a lot of money per MB and the MB's build up really fast even for very simple stuff.

DTAC has a promotion for unlimited internet, valid 36 months, 999 baht/month.  You need a subscription for this.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Madsere.

I am not supporting Toxin. I am using the best system that works for me. I think that if I pay 350 baht per month for about 4 hours connection to the internet per day it has to be cheaper than 999 baht per month as the other 649 baht would be wasted for me. However different people use different amounts. I have no idea how much it would cost me to have unlimited amounts of time on the internet through AIS as I actually have a life outside of it and I mainly use it for my emails, Thaivisa and a few other things.

There are better things to do nthan sit at a PC all day.

[stats]

billd

do you notice on AIS connection to be slow nowaday ??? coz im using the AIS internet too....Tell me how is ur connection now ???

[billd766]

billd

 

do you notice on AIS connection to be slow nowaday ??? coz im using the AIS internet too....Tell me how is ur connection now ???

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry Tytus

I cant help you on that one at the moment as I am working in Pakistan and there are a few times when the service here makes Thailand look perfect.

Also I usually work the net later in the evening or early morning as there are less people on there.

Edited March 11, 2005 by billd766

[stats]

yeah thats true ...the server is always congested during peak hours....

well its 9pm here in bkk and i think its now very busy...well i usually used my ais service early inthe morning too

[paulfr]

Edge is deployed over nearly all of central Bkk.

So I think it is highly recommended you buy an Edge enabled handset unless you are out of the way upcountry where it may take a year or two for coverage there.

JMHO

[tutsiwarrior]

back again...thanks to everyone regarding the EDGE business, good to know for a new phone.

[OldAsiaHand]

Edge is deployed over nearly all of central Bkk.

JMHO

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Could I ask who has deployed EDGE here? I don't think it's AIS. Didn't they say they are going straight to 3G and that it will not be operational before the end of 2006?

[paulfr]

I think it is DTAC that is first with coverage right now.

http://www.crushdepth.net/downloads/images...map-Bangkok.png

[Crushdepth]

DTAC is the only company that has an EDGE network with usable coverage (AIS had a couple of trial zones down around Siam somewhere but pretty feeble). I heard that 'several' companies are going to roll out large CMDA networks this year. I don't know who (I didn't ask) but you'd think Hutch would have to be one of them.

Edited March 12, 2005 by Crushdepth

[stats]

can any1 tell me why is Thailand still slow in this comunication system ??? Singapore have got 3G for the last 2 years already... I think thailand is still behind

[stumonster]

can any1 tell me why is Thailand still slow in this comunication system ??? Singapore have got 3G for the last 2 years already... I think thailand is still behind

Singapores telecoms are owned by the dictator lee quan yews family , and I don't find them impressive. You cannot get GPRS/EDGE with a pre paid card and on the post paid card you pay by the KB. The only bonus there is with the push to get ADSL into many homes is the package usually includes the linksys modem/router/AP which means an abundance of AP's at default settings.

[stats]

ah thats true the singapapore Pre paid card cant use the GPRS service...too bad

[Phil Conners]

So what? Most of Thailand's telecoms (CAT + AIS) is owned by the Thai equivalent, didn't seem to do anything for the proliferation of decent (or even half-decent) internet technology here.

Thailand is and have always been slow with any communication system. When the rest of the world were comfortably using ADSL and Cable Thailand was still using POTS equipment.

Today when the rest of the world is implementing WiMAX, 8mbps SDSL, 3G Thailand is slowly touching 128 kbps ADSL and 2G/GPRS. Life in the 3rd world, behind the 1st.