Beware Cat Telecom Service In Chiang Mai

[chirunr]

After reading generally favorable reports of CAT's internet service in Chiang Mai, I applied on 26 November 2009 for their "Standard" 4/1 Mbps service, at a cost of 990 baht/month. Finally, they came and installed on 19 December. Initially, download speed was satisfactory, but day by day it deteriorated, and finally became useless for any international connection such as Yahoo, YouTube, etc. My condo is about 150 meters from Kad Suan Kaew, on Huay Kaew Road.

I went to their office on Superhighway, and they advised that an upgrade to their "Premium" 2/1 Mbps service would deliver far faster connections. So, on 12 January 2010, I signed CAT's mandatory 1-year contract for "Premium" service, at a cost of 1,790 per month. Altogether I paid them 20,685.24 on my VISA Charge Card. Service improved marginally over their "Standard" service, but was still far from satisfactory. I called them almost daily, trying to get anything close to premium service, and visited their office three times. All to no avail. Service remained steadfastly so slow as to be almost useless.

Two days ago, I checked my connection speed again using my CAT service; and then took my laptop to two neighbors, one using TT&T service, and the other TOT. In all cases, I connected to a server in San Francisco, CA. Here are the results for ISP Provider, Download Speed, Upload Speed, Latency, Cost/Month and Package:

CAT: 0.57 Mb/s, 0.26 Mb/s, 287 ms, 1790 Baht (Premium Package)

TT&T: 2.62 Mb/s, 0.78 Mb/s, 60 ms, 1090 Baht (Premier Package)

TOT: 2.74 Mb/s, 0.31 Mb/s, 301 ms, 790 Baht (Standard Package)

Once again, this morning I went to CAT's office on Superhighway, showed them the above test results, and asked that they either provide me with the premium service promised, OR cancel the service and make a full refund. They said that they could not improve service, so I filled out a form to cancel, and handed them back their router. They said that a refund would be at least a month in coming, and that I would have to forfeit one-half the fee paid for breaking the contract.

They want to play hard ball, so I play hard ball. I have called the American bank that issued my VISA card, and have claimed that I was defrauded (which I certainly was), and have put a STOP-PAYMENT on the charge.

I cannot adequately express my disgust at the "service" I got from CAT, and would advise any other potential user to exercise extreme caution against being defrauded by them, as I was.

[Artamus]

I think a lot of the problems around internet speed depends on where you are. In my area of Chiang Mai both CAT and TOT are not providing fixed connections anymore as the system is at capacity. I had to go with the CAT mobile solution (which is just about adequate mostly). It's high time one of the local providers realised they are missing a huge business opportunity to provide a good technical solution, even at a premium price.

[thaimiller]

I have no problem with CAT telecom and as I have stated on a few post's in the past its the best internet service I have ever had in 6 years in Thailand. I have the premium 2/1 package and the speeds are as follows Download 1858 and upload 902 pretty much what I pay for really.

[mobiryder]

my wife has arranged for CAT to be installed tomorrow... whatever the 'fastest' speed is... i'll report back what I end up with out here in Hang Dong

[FarangCravings]

my wife has arranged for CAT to be installed tomorrow... whatever the 'fastest' speed is... i'll report back what I end up with out here in Hang Dong

I dont think its the speed thats the issue I have the Maxnet 3mb package and it works great AT NIGHT after midnight in the day it sucks for online gaming or some video streaming i tested speeds both at night when I get the best service and in the daytime when it sucks and the speeds are the same, however its night and day (pun intended) on how diff it is

It has to be a bandwidth issue with too many users bogging down the lines

am I wrong

Edited January 22, 2010 by FarangCravings