Cat Quality?

[Iamemjay]

Out of sheer frustration with TT&T Maxnet - not really the service, which even with my remote location in the far North and having the cheapie 590B plan WAS quite satisfactory for my needs - but because of the sheer and frequent dishonesty of the company in dealing with problems, I have decided to shift camp .... if I can find an OK alternative.

TT&T always used my distance from their nearest "box" (5.8 km) as their bureaucratic excuse, although this was clearly not the problem in most instances when a service issue arose. I don't want the new company to have this excuse, so I'm considering switching to CAT's 3G CDMA service.

CAT are offering a nominal 3.1 mpbs service via their nearest mobile tower for 845B pm after purchase of a suitable modem. (To their credit they are admitting that I can realistically only expect 2 to 1.5 mpbs but even this speed is perfectly OK for me.)

My questions are:

1. What are others' experiences with the CAT service? Does it perform well for normal home requirements? (I realise the answer to this will to a certain extent depends on geographic location.)

2. Do I have to buy the modem CAT are offering (EC226 USB CDMA for 6500B) or if not, what is a good alternative one? (I would most definitely prefer to NOT buy the ISP offered one because of bad experiences in the past (TT&T again!!).

[Donnyboy]

lamemjay,

please give us some feedback once you change to CAT, as I know there must be several people ready to swap from TT&T, and perhaps TOT as well

thanks

[thaimiller]

I changed to CAT's premier 2/1 package about 3 month ago now, perfect, I turn the computer on each day knowing that the internet will work, unlike when I was with Maxnet. The price is more expensive than maxnet at 1995thb a month but for me its worth the price, just for the peace of mind that it works when you need it. I never had to buy a modem with this package it came with the contract, but I do have to hand it back if I finish the contract within the year. I live in the Mae-jo road area near the Rimping.

[Spoonman]

Ive been with CAT for over 12 months, i was initially on the 2/1 standard package, it was terrible, infact no better than the TT&T package i swapped from, i upgraded to the 2/1 premium package, it has been 99% stable for 12 months, i can vaguely recall having two down times, neither were more than 20 minutes, the download speed is consistent, Download a movie in an hour (sometimes less) is the norm anytime of the day or night.

[Iamemjay]

Thanks guys.

I'm receiving fairly consistently good reports about CAT and will probably change to them.

My only remaining concern is about our distance from the nearest CAT tower (about 5km) - but am hoping independent tech. claims that the CDMA system is inherently superior over longer distances, proves true in my case.

Yes Donnyboy, I'll provide feedback once I've given it a decent test. I suspect that none of you are in quite as remote a location as I am - and from the reports I have read, it was CAT's intention to provide a service which would encompass the more remote areas - hence their decision to adopt the CDMA system.... so my experience may provide valuable information.

[SM7WGP]

If you live near the cat office I think its ok but I used it in Maejoo and that was terrible.

I had more connect and reconnect then surfing time

[Iamemjay]

If you live near the cat office I think its ok but I used it in Maejoo and that was terrible.

I had more connect and reconnect then surfing time

Hmm. I'm a little confused here. What is significant about the location of the CAT office? (In my case it's about 15km away). Wouldn't the location of the nearest CAT tower be a more key issue?

At Maejoo how far were you from the tower? I know the country there is flat there so you should have had line-of-sight with the tower, unless it was just too far away.

What did you do? Change ISP? Upgrade to a higher-cost plan?

[SM7WGP]

Im 600m away from the tower in maejoo University so no to far I believe

Never more I Will use cat They even try to rip me off when I wanted to end subscription for Invoice not paid.

So keep all receipts at all time, never know when its your turn.

And If somebody needs a CAT cdma modem I will give it away fore free ,just pm me it costs 11000 baht new one year ago.

I gone for 3G by AIS super

Edited October 21, 2009 by SM7WGP

[gotlost]

Im 600m away from the tower in maejoo University so no to far I believe

Never more I Will use cat They even try to rip me off when I wanted to end subscription for Invoice not paid.

So keep all receipts at all time, never know when its your turn.

And If somebody needs a CAT cdma modem I will give it away fore free ,just pm me it costs 11000 baht new one year ago.

I gone for 3G by AIS super

AIS 3G is the only way to go......

[alant]

Im 600m away from the tower in maejoo University so no to far I believe

Never more I Will use cat They even try to rip me off when I wanted to end subscription for Invoice not paid.

So keep all receipts at all time, never know when its your turn.

And If somebody needs a CAT cdma modem I will give it away fore free ,just pm me it costs 11000 baht new one year ago.

I gone for 3G by AIS super

AIS 3G is the only way to go......

seriously considering ais 3g, are the speeds as claimed really delivered (7.2 mbps)? my tot is really a pain so it is time to review

[SM7WGP]

At the moment you will only get max 3,2 MB but when 3G is ready the speed can be up to 7,2

But you have to wait

[butterisbetter]

Are these 3G connections shared or private. I'm asking because on land lines high speeds are often promised but the lines can be shared by 2,4, 10, or 20 other users depending on the plan. Is that the case with these 3G plans also?

[mnbcm]

Bangkok Post had an interesting article about ISP speeds today. CAT is at the bottom.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/15...-slow-broadband

[db1tau]

I have both TOT ADSL and AIS 3G at the moment. Both deliver about 1.5 Mbit downstream inside thailand and 1.5 Mbit(morning) till 0.2 Mbit(evening) to europe. (the phone has to be connected via USB. with bluetooth i can get only up to about 768 kbit)

Since the 3G plan costs 1500 THB for 30GByte per month, i can't see what's so good about it. I bought it for one month as a backup system if TOT is down, but till now this didn't happen.

I was thinking about CAT CDMA2000 too, but it is quite expensive to buy a modem and maybe the speed to europe in the evening isn't much better. reports on that are welcome...