Thailand's Truly Bad Internet!

[mommysboy]

The following story appeared today (Fri) in Bangkok Post. Personally, I'm truly fed up with the cXXX internet.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/teleco...he-superhighway

If i had to pick out just a few words : "complaints are mounting about broadband speeds that are much lower than advertised, and not speeds worthy of the multimedia age."

I assume the words in green are the wrong way round.

[nikster]

There really isn't anything new in this article - it's a fluff piece. I'd say reading some ThaiVisa threads is more informative.

In my experience the providers do actually provide the speed they advertise for domestic connections - that's more or less working, and possibly more so than in other countries. e.g. I always get the promised 3Mbit speeds to Bangkok.

For international connections, the situation has been getting worse.

It's my guess though that the operators offering the newer higher speeds are actually doing so in anticipation of the opening of the Asia - USA underseas cable which will significantly up the international bandwidth available in Thailand. I think it's something like 30 - 50% more bandwidth as soon as that gets switched on.

[GungaDin]

There really isn't anything new in this article - it's a fluff piece. I'd say reading some ThaiVisa threads is more informative.

True!

For international connections, the situation has been getting worse.

It's my guess though that the operators offering the newer higher speeds are actually doing so in anticipation of the opening of the Asia - USA underseas cable which will significantly up the international bandwidth available in Thailand. I think it's something like 30 - 50% more bandwidth as soon as that gets switched on.

Any idea when that might happen?

[Crushdepth]

I think it's something like 30 - 50% more bandwidth as soon as that gets switched on.

Unless the ISPs actually buy some of that bandwidth it will make no difference whatsoever. The ISPs aren't limited by Thailand's physical capacity at present, there needs to be some reasonable regulation of their business practices / marketing claims.

[nikster]

I think it's something like 30 - 50% more bandwidth as soon as that gets switched on.

Unless the ISPs actually buy some of that bandwidth it will make no difference whatsoever. The ISPs aren't limited by Thailand's physical capacity at present, there needs to be some reasonable regulation of their business practices / marketing claims.

As long as there's fierce competition that will sort itself out quickly. I don't know where you get the information that they're not using all the physical capacity but market forces should engage at some point and make it so (nearly) all the capacity is sold/bought, otherwise it would just lie idle and lose money. Clearly the ISPs will stall buying more unless they lose customers in droves but eventually they'll do it.

As far as I know CAT financed the Thailand part of the underseas cable so at the very least CAT should get faster, unfair as that is...

Regulation is an option but given that that's not really working very well even in western countries, i doubt it would have an impact in a 3rd world country like Thailand. What I could imagine is that the government forces the backend providers to charge reasonable rates though.

[mommysboy]

I think it's something like 30 - 50% more bandwidth as soon as that gets switched on.

Unless the ISPs actually buy some of that bandwidth it will make no difference whatsoever. The ISPs aren't limited by Thailand's physical capacity at present, there needs to be some reasonable regulation of their business practices / marketing claims.

I think this is the main point: it's not because of inability, for whatever reason Thai operators charge top dollar for really poor service. International bandwith appears to be expensive but surely all countries have the same predicament, and anyway I don't think domestic service is discernably better.

Thai internet seems to be much more expensive than the UK for example so difficult to argue that the price is too cheap to run a profitable service.

Also in my experience it's not just a case of 1mb line being .5, but of it being 100th of MB at times.

Plain poor. Complete rip off, and increasingly metaphoric for Thailand in general.

[elkangorito]

And don't forget that the cabling for the internet (here in Thailand) is still predominantly "figure 8" cable with a catenary. This, in terms of the western world, is prehistoric & only serves to introduce more losses into an already degraded system.

Running cables in Thailand is as simple as running a piece of string from place to place. In actual fact, running telecommunication cable is very complex, if losses are to be avoided.

[Pattayatony]

The following story appeared today (Fri) in Bangkok Post. Personally, I'm truly fed up with the cXXX internet.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/teleco...he-superhighway

If i had to pick out just a few words : "complaints are mounting about broadband speeds that are much lower than advertised, and not speeds worthy of the multimedia age."

I assume the words in green are the wrong way round.

If you think Thailand is bad you should try Cambodia .....It Sucks....

[Pattayatony]

The following story appeared today (Fri) in Bangkok Post. Personally, I'm truly fed up with the cXXX internet.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/teleco...he-superhighway

If i had to pick out just a few words : "complaints are mounting about broadband speeds that are much lower than advertised, and not speeds worthy of the multimedia age."

I assume the words in green are the wrong way round.

If you think Thailand is bad you should try Cambodia .....It Sucks....

And Very Expensive............

[LivinLOS]

I think it's something like 30 - 50% more bandwidth as soon as that gets switched on.

Unless the ISPs actually buy some of that bandwidth it will make no difference whatsoever. The ISPs aren't limited by Thailand's physical capacity at present, there needs to be some reasonable regulation of their business practices / marketing claims.

I think this is the main point: it's not because of inability, for whatever reason Thai operators charge top dollar for really poor service. International bandwith appears to be expensive but surely all countries have the same predicament, and anyway I don't think domestic service is discernably better.

The CAT has a total monopoly on the resale of the international bandwidth, presumably due to the usual Thai corruption over licenses.

So no, other less corrupt countries dont have this overhead.

[mommysboy]

The following story appeared today (Fri) in Bangkok Post. Personally, I'm truly fed up with the cXXX internet.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/teleco...he-superhighway

If i had to pick out just a few words : "complaints are mounting about broadband speeds that are much lower than advertised, and not speeds worthy of the multimedia age."

I assume the words in green are the wrong way round.

If you think Thailand is bad you should try Cambodia .....It Sucks....

I don't think this has any bearing on the state of Thailand's internet at all!

I mean, so what?

[chivo]

are they just oversubscribing the lines?

[Saraquin]

Heh prolly just some techs pumping the torrents at the major nodes laughing at the rest of us that pay for it ehehehe.

[mommysboy]

Heh prolly just some techs pumping the torrents at the major nodes laughing at the rest of us that pay for it ehehehe.

Yes, probably gross mis use somewwhere along the line too. In fact with Thailand, it's probably a case of just about everything you can think of. Come to think of it a bit silly me getting upset really. I mean after 5 years living here it would be a major surprise if it were any other way! Who am I kidding!

[FarangForce5]

The thing I hate the most about Thai internet service is the unpredictable disconnects I get while posting in forums. I can't count how many times I've been writing a lengthy, well thought out post on a thread only to have my internet connection cut out and I have an incomplete post left in the thread. The thing is I am always too lazy to go back to the thread and finish my post once my internet gets re-connected. Does anyone else here ever have this problem? I find it hard to believe that with all the

[Saraquin]

The thing I hate the most about Thai internet service is the unpredictable disconnects I get while posting in forums. I can't count how many times I've been writing a lengthy, well thought out post on a thread only to have my internet connection cut out and I have an incomplete post left in the thread. The thing is I am always too lazy to go back to the thread and finish my post once my internet gets re-connected. Does anyone else here ever have this problem? I find it hard to believe that with all the

Bummer, maybe copy all of ya post before hitting the button just in case

[David006]

And don't forget that the cabling for the internet (here in Thailand) is still predominantly "figure 8" cable with a catenary. This, in terms of the western world, is prehistoric & only serves to introduce more losses into an already degraded system.

Running cables in Thailand is as simple as running a piece of string from place to place. In actual fact, running telecommunication cable is very complex, if losses are to be avoided.

If your talking about the "drop wire re fig 8 , I think you'll find that is is still being used extensively world wide and is still effective "copper to the home".

Lots of fibre in the ground and aerial does not necessarily mean faster internet as most sites, as aforementioned, go transpacific.

There is a ton of fibre under the pacific a great big star network but it is evident that the recent spate of quakes etc has wrought its havoc and I would suspect ISPs are at the bottom of the pecking order when bandwidth becomes scarce.

The $500milion fibre net to Singapore with a posted 1.92 terabit capacity and completion date of 2008 ( who knows where it is) will certainly improve my fantastic GPRS/edge intl site speed beyond the lightning rate of 2- 9.8 kbs down.... if my provider sees fit.

[canopy]

In my area they are advertising 9 megabit. If the greater speeds do not apply to international then what is the point? I suspect many expats and tourists have no interest at all in domestic speeds. I don't notice Thai's using much domestic bandwidth; just light games, chat, and low bandwidth videos. Just my observation.

On the other hand I can't watch youtube or a news clip without it stuttering most times of the day. I am on TOT and speeds gradually dwindle as the day progresses. Until they fix that, I can't see the point of signing up for a higher speed. If they could just figure out how to make a 1megabit connection actually deliver 1megabit all the time that would make a great deal of difference to me. But that is hard to market and since few people complain I am resignd to the fact they will continue to pocket my fees rather than provide a real connection.

[JR Texas]

Plain poor. Complete rip off, and increasingly metaphoric for Thailand in general.

Yep..........and not much we can do about it if we want internet service. What I can't understand is how Thailand thinks it can compete in the modern world with such crappy internet service. Personally, it is pissing me off to pay money to companies that provide such bad services.