3g Coming Soon?

[BugJackBaron]

Hey dudes and dudettes. I was walking through the new IT mall

"Digital World" (across from Siam Paragon) and some

people were demonstrating the NEW 3G system.

It will be offered at first in the Siam Paragon area only.

You use a simple USB device(not much bigger than a usb stick)

to connect.

Does this mean the end of dominance of Wi-Fi? Will we be able to connect

our laptops anywhere?

Stay tuned and find out!

[arkom]

Hey dudes and dudettes. I was walking through the new IT mall

"Digital World" (across from Siam Paragon) and some

people were demonstrating the NEW 3G system.

It will be offered at first in the Siam Paragon area only.

You use a simple USB device(not much bigger than a usb stick)

to connect.

Does this mean the end of dominance of Wi-Fi? Will we be able to connect

our laptops anywhere?

Stay tuned and find out!

Hopefully!!! Now I can stop using my apartments crappy service, but we are so behind considering the US and Europe are starting offer 4G.

[RubbaJohnny]

The govt plan to launch aseries of hotspots along the new rail line called the G string

The spots willbe called G spots

Those who wish to come early are sent Orchid premature lounge ,while there is a special interests section at The Roman forum rear entry

[phazey]

Coverage area here:

http://www.truemove.com/EN/05_service_3g_3.html

[MJo]

Trial networks running in various frequencies, been running for a while now with very limited coverage.

Wifi is still wifi and 3G has speed limitations compared to proper wifi with broadband speeds and you need USB dongle to connect. However integrated 3G/HSPA modems are now starting to appear in latest netbooks and when available you just need to plug in your sim card direct to your laptop and off you go. Samsung is manufacturing their latest with integrated GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSPA and CDMA EVDO modems but it seems to be available only in selected markets and Thailand or Singapore is not one of them...

If and when there is proper commercial deployment of 3G including HSPA then you can truly be connected almost everywhere and no need for wifi that much except in locations where you can use it for free instead of paying for 3G data.

Government is still delaying 3G networks in Thailand as they have not yet issued licences. It was supposed to happen in 2004 then in 2005 etc... and again this year but now it seems earliest next year.

And 4G (LTE) is coming already, several operators have plans drawn for deployment and most vendors have products to build network infra pretty much ready. Only thing is that no handsets, dongles etc yet. Propably will take couple of years to see first really usable networks in Singapore, HK and Japan with supporting USB dongles.

[moris]

I just subscribed (yesterday) to 3G with AIS in Chiang Mai to try how it works. Got the nokia e52 and connected via bluetooth with my laptop (easy with PC Suite from nokia). Mostly I am using it to check my e-mail directly on the phone.

The plans offered by AIS are per volume not time. I think if you are quite heavy internet user, 3G is still quite expensive. 100 baht/ 500 MB. This can be good for quick e-mail checking though. Don't really know how long will the package (500 MB) last. We'll see in couple of days

[pjclark1]

I still don't see why everyone is so desperate for high speed internet

My Vodafone 950 EDGE/GPRS dongle (2000bht) only gets 460kbs at best.

But works perfectly for web browsing and email almost everywhere in Thailand.

At 200bht a month (for 100hrs access on DTAC) it hardly breaks the bank either.

Edited October 1, 2009 by pjclark1

[BugJackBaron]

I just subscribed (yesterday) to 3G with AIS in Chiang Mai to try how it works. Got the nokia e52 and connected via bluetooth with my laptop (easy with PC Suite from nokia). Mostly I am using it to check my e-mail directly on the phone.

The plans offered by AIS are per volume not time. I think if you are quite heavy internet user, 3G is still quite expensive. 100 baht/ 500 MB. This can be good for quick e-mail checking though. Don't really know how long will the package (500 MB) last. We'll see in couple of days

So it would be too expensive for high use bittorrent pirates like me.

Rats.

[stumonster]

the telcos have to cap the data

if people have a 20-30USD unlimited , always on high speed data , no-one would be usinng sms and normal phone calls , it would all be email , IMs and VIOP+video.

[zzSleepyJohn]

I just subscribed (yesterday) to 3G with AIS in Chiang Mai to try how it works. Got the nokia e52 and connected via bluetooth with my laptop (easy with PC Suite from nokia). Mostly I am using it to check my e-mail directly on the phone.

The plans offered by AIS are per volume not time. I think if you are quite heavy internet user, 3G is still quite expensive. 100 baht/ 500 MB. This can be good for quick e-mail checking though. Don't really know how long will the package (500 MB) last. We'll see in couple of days

How much did it cost you? I already have a dongle (brought from UK and unlocked) and a 99 baht/month AIS GPRS/EDGE subscription. Presumably you had to buy yourself both a new simcard and that 500MB credit.

When I was in UK recently,I found with reasonably careful use that a £10 1GB PAYG top-up lasted me a month.

DTAC used to offer the choice of pre-paying either by time or by megabyte, and since the network was so slow, I always chose the megabyte option, but they've since discontinued that option so now you have to keep on paying while you're watching your pages failing to load I'm a little surprised to hear you can get megabyte credit again. Is this an indication that AIS have actually managed to speed things up?

[EffectiveAnger]

I just bought an EDGE modem with 460.8kbps downlink speed. It cost 1890 baht. It seems pretty fast and reliable. The model is DM 6132U. Does anyone have this? I tried to compare it with the 3G AIS for 3000 baht, but I couldn't justify the higher price. Honestly, I don't quite understand how a 3G works, really.

With my EDGE, I use the one-to-call sim card and I can top up from a 7eleven. The cost was 210baht which gave me 30 hours to use in one month and another 30 minutes of talk time. The modem came with a headset to plug in so I can use it like a phone too. Service rates are as follows:

hours / baht

1 / 20

3 / 30

6 / 50

20 / 100

100 / 350

?? / 999

I wonder if I can use this modem in other countries too if they have the service. I just don't know how widespread this service is worldwide. It seems like this is the solution for people who travel and HATE hotel wi-fi or people who really want a much faster speed.

[stumonster]

When I was in UK recently,I found with reasonably careful use that a £10 1GB PAYG top-up lasted me a month.

if you run a browser with an adblocker and a flash blocker you should be able to trim a fair bit off your usage and increase the speed of your page loads.

[nikster]

the telcos have to cap the data

if people have a 20-30USD unlimited , always on high speed data , no-one would be usinng sms and normal phone calls , it would all be email , IMs and VIOP+video.

I think there's another, more important reason: If people have unlimited and start using 3G 24/7, the limitations of the technology become apparent very quickly. That is, there's only a limited amount of bandwidth to go around and if you have too many simultaneous users in one cell service degrades quite spectacularly. See AT&T in the USA - their 3G network is close to dying from iPhone use alone, and iPhones really don't use all that much bandwidth compared to a laptop.

So I believe that in order for the service to work, they need to bill by bandwidth. How CAT CDMA gets away with unlimited plans, I don't know, but I assume it's just pretty slow in areas where there are many users.