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Posted

I'm not sure if it's an issue of censorship in this country, or an indictment on the state of 3G in Thailand, but the Kindle is now available for delivery to most countries in the world.

Thailand is one of the countries (along with Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in Asean where they won't ship it).

For Singapore I can only imagine it's due to censorship issues rather than infrastructure. But they'll ship Kindles to the Philippines, Myanmar (!!), Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and even Timor-Leste.

Posted
I'm not sure if it's an issue of censorship in this country, or an indictment on the state of 3G in Thailand, but the Kindle is now available for delivery to most countries in the world.

Thailand is one of the countries (along with Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in Asean where they won't ship it).

For Singapore I can only imagine it's due to censorship issues rather than infrastructure. But they'll ship Kindles to the Philippines, Myanmar (!!), Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and even Timor-Leste.

will they connect to the cellular system anywhere now?

Posted
I'm not sure if it's an issue of censorship in this country, or an indictment on the state of 3G in Thailand, but the Kindle is now available for delivery to most countries in the world.

Thailand is one of the countries (along with Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in Asean where they won't ship it).

For Singapore I can only imagine it's due to censorship issues rather than infrastructure. But they'll ship Kindles to the Philippines, Myanmar (!!), Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and even Timor-Leste.

will they connect to the cellular system anywhere now?

Here's the map. Thailand is showing EDGE/GPRS.

http://client0.cellmaps.com/tabs.html#cellmaps_intl_tab

Posted (edited)
I'm not sure if it's an issue of censorship in this country, or an indictment on the state of 3G in Thailand, but the Kindle is now available for delivery to most countries in the world.

Thailand is one of the countries (along with Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in Asean where they won't ship it).

For Singapore I can only imagine it's due to censorship issues rather than infrastructure. But they'll ship Kindles to the Philippines, Myanmar (!!), Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and even Timor-Leste.

will they connect to the cellular system anywhere now?

They will connect for downloading books for free in over 80 countries... (Edit: To confirm there are 81 countries where you can order it where whispernet works, but it also says it works for downloading in countries where AT&T has roaming agreements, which is apparently over 100 countries... - i.e. you "might" be able to download while in Thailand?? - you just can't order it here...)

But the free Internet browser you get in the US is only available in Hong Kong, Japan and Mexico (presumably because it's an AT&T 3G SIM (HSDPA), so Amazon is paying for your bandwidth use).

The SIM will obviously work faster with 3G networks, but should also work with GPRS/EDGE.

Books that you have to pay for are delivered free to your Kindle. However, books from Amazon that are "free" cost $0.99 per Mb over wireless, compared to 15c per Mb in the US. (or you can download them to your PC and transfer them using the USB cable for free).

Edited by bkk_mike
Posted

does the latest update give it this capability? or is it in the latest ones ( now that reduced the price I notice too)

( I bought mine a few weeks ago)

Posted

No it's a new model it wont be added to the older version.

Now the question is how do you pay does it still have to be a US registered credit card for those countries that now support wireless download. ie is this just for those US credit card holders while travelling in those new countries or is it for anyone with payment with any credit card.

Also will the titles be limited in those countries since I can imagine that the publisher of the book has final say in whether to allow their titles to be downloaded outside the USA or not???

hmmm...

Posted

Good news seems with the release of the international. Amazon have lifted the US Credit Card restriction for payment for kindle titles.

Where as before you needed to use a US Credit card or Gift vouchers purchased with a non us credit card if you did not have one.

You can now use a international card. Just purchased using my Singapore Visa for my kindle 2 works without a problem now.

  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

Yes - have got a few books now (am still in HK for a couple more weeks, so don't know if it works in Thailand yet).

If it does, I no longer have to head into the centre of Bangkok to buy a book in English (yay).

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Am back in Thailand, and can confirm that the new Kindle seems to work here. Even the web browser seems to work (so far) although that might be because I had it delivered to HK.

Obviously the Kindle store is a lot slower than it is in HK (no 3G here), but it does work...

Now the question is - why won't Amazon ship it to Thailand if it works here?

Semi facetiously - Is it that the network is so slow that they lose money on the transmission costs; is it that they can't automatically deduct the customs duty when you order as, in Thailand, the duty rate is at the whim of the customs officer (paper books work as books are exempt of duty)

Edited by bkk_mike
Posted
Semi facetiously - Is it that the network is so slow that they lose money on the transmission costs; is it that they can't automatically deduct the customs duty when you order as, in Thailand, the duty rate is at the whim of the customs officer (paper books work as books are exempt of duty)

I know little about the kindle, but can you not download content through your ISP via wireless router? It seems strange that you would only be able to download content through cell networks.

Posted (edited)
Semi facetiously - Is it that the network is so slow that they lose money on the transmission costs; is it that they can't automatically deduct the customs duty when you order as, in Thailand, the duty rate is at the whim of the customs officer (paper books work as books are exempt of duty)

I know little about the kindle, but can you not download content through your ISP via wireless router? It seems strange that you would only be able to download content through cell networks.

Of course you can hook it up to your PC, and transfer stuff over the USB cable, but you could do that with the old US-only one.

The Kindle has no wi-fi, but it's not like you're the one paying the bill for the 3G.

The international one now works using a built-in HSDPA modem that you are not paying the bill for. (At least not directly - you pay for things you email to yourself to turn up wirelessly on it ($0.99/MB), or it's subsidised by the price of the books when you download them.

It works wirelessly in Thailand because the modem falls back to GPRS/EDGE if there's no HSDPA.

Since the web browser seems to be working so far, I now have a little tablet that is currently giving me free web browsing wirelessly anywhere in Thailand that I can get a cellphone signal. Admittedly, I fully expect the web browsing (but not the book ordering capability) to stop working when Amazon realises I'm no longer in HK as the free web browser is only supposed to work in 4 countries with relatively cheap 3G (the US, Mexico, Japan and Hong Kong).

Just imagine how neat it is if you're sitting on a deckchair at the beach when you finish your book, and you don't even have to get out of the deckchair to browse Amazon to get your next book, download it, and start reading it... (particularly useful if it's a series as even the best bookstores in Thailand don't have a particularly great selection...) - Admittedly, I've already got about 300 books on it (mostly public domain copied on using the USB cable - manybooks.net and gutenberg.org), but also 3 I've bought from Amazon since getting it.

Since they won't deliver the Kindle itself to Thailand, you might have problems ordering books if you've only got a Thai credit card.

Edited by bkk_mike
Posted

@bkk_mike - thanks for the explanation, makes perfect sense. I have been thinking of buying one here in the states before moving to Thailand next summer. As long as I know I download through my ISP via USB I am good, i think giving it wireless functionality would be obvious. That way Amazon doesn't have to pay for the traffic if you are in your home or somewhere where you can get wireless internet access.

Posted (edited)
@bkk_mike - thanks for the explanation, makes perfect sense. I have been thinking of buying one here in the states before moving to Thailand next summer. As long as I know I download through my ISP via USB I am good, i think giving it wireless functionality would be obvious. That way Amazon doesn't have to pay for the traffic if you are in your home or somewhere where you can get wireless internet access.

Actually - what I'm saying is the new model works wirelessly here.

If you're ordering with a US credit card, downloading to your PC and transferring it saves you the $1.99 international wireless charge. (If you're not using a US card, the $2 is already added to the cost of the book, so you might as well receive it wirelessly as theres no benefit to not doing so.) If you're going to be in the US initially, download any of the free books that you think you might read then as they'll cost $2 each to download once abroad.

Yes, agree that Wi-Fi would be a good idea, if only because in most countries it will give you a faster connection (and save Amazon money), although I don't know what that would do to battery life. The support hassle in talking people through connecting out on wireless hotspots might mean it never happens though.

Edited by bkk_mike
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Update. The web browser no longer works in Thailand (they must have realised that it shouldn't have worked here, and put the fix in with the latest update - that also lets it read PDFs natively), but I can still order books with the GPRS/EDGE/3G connection.

  • 1 month later...

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