Hi-speed Wireless 3g Internet

[up2you2]

At the risk of repeating previous posts I would like to set up a new one that is solely devoted to CAT Telecom's 3G CAT LOAD EV-DO.

There are two other services / products they offer, so not to get confused it would be greatly appreciated if we can just stick to the above mentioned.

This new 3G service is specifically aimed at internet users, two subscription rates are on offer:

590 Baht + VAT for 20 hours a month, excess hours over that limit charged at 25 Baht per hour.

790 Baht + VAT gives you an unlimited service.

For this they are promising internal speeds within Thailand of 3.1Mbps down and 1.8Mbps up, enough to blow over your coffee in their promotional leaflet.

The CAT dongle you need to purchase to connect to this service costs 2,500 Baht.

The questions that of course we all want to know is just reliable this new service is, and what kind of speeds you have experienced, and we can come to expect.

So that we are all on the same page, I would like to suggest that we all record our speeds on the following site:

http://www.live-access.com/PhuketInternet.aspx/

To do this please drop Khun Woody an email //e-mail removed as per forum rules - admin// and he will provide you with a password.

And to measure our speeds we all go to:

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

and specifically click on the San Francisco, CA destination.

[selftaopath]

GREAT. I just sent you an email w/ the results. Can you suggest a name brand for this dongle? I think they are also called mobile internet modems???Sorry if I sound confused :-) this is all new to me but important.

Thanks,

Keoki

[woodyleonhard]

GREAT. I just sent you an email w/ the results. Can you suggest a name brand for this dongle? I think they are also called mobile internet modems???Sorry if I sound confused :-) this is all new to me but important.

Thanks,

Keoki

Keoki -

It's the MC 727 or 760. Review here: http://gizmodo.com/304604/novatel-mc727-us...as-microsd-slot

Basically, the "LOAD" service is the old EV-DO Rev A - which is still the fastest and most reliable wireless Internet in Thailand. There are two separate systems in Thailand, one operated by CAT, the other by Hutch. Apparently CAT bought Hutch's rights, but I haven't heard anything about integrating the two systems. To a first approximation, if you live around Bangkok, you need the Hutch system. If you live outside of Bangkok, you need CAT's.

Some day real 3G (by which I mean HSPA or HSDPA) will be available, but the government seems to be occupied with somewhat more pressing matters at the moment.

My email address was expurgated in the OP. (Thanks, oh Mighty Mods! You just saved me a ton of spam.) Please feel free to email me at Woody at Khun Woody dot com (no spaces).

Edited May 1, 2010 by woodyleonhard

[TigertheCat]

Great thread,is this service available all over Thailand.

I live in the sticks about 20K outside Pattaya and am using an EDGE modem via AIS but its quite slow so would like a faster option,I cannot get the Hutch service so I am told by the shop as out of range.

[nikster]

Using primarily in the north of Thailand. Currently and over the last few months extremely reliable. 4 month period last year where it was unusable as they rolled out network changes and had some bugs.

TIT. What you wlll find in Thailand is that service quality changes over time. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. But this is not a static thing

[thaigold]

3G is now available throughout most of Bangkok. There are several service providers;TOT;TRUE; IEC; MOJO and several others. Be advised that many people say the service at TRUE is so bad, it defies description.

Edited May 2, 2010 by thaigold

[Frenske]

The 3g modems from cat are now on sale and still cost 6500thb. The speed over the past one and a half year that I'm using the loader subscrption, is very variable, but an everage of 250 kilobyte downspeed is not enough for the 840thb, tax included. Unfortunately I have no other choice at the moment. I have to admit that the connection is quite reliable, no problems getting connected.

Edited May 2, 2010 by Frenske

[canopy]

I have an AIS 3G air card that plugs into a USB port that I use in Phetchabun where there is no land line. The reliability is spotty. Sometimes it gets GPRS speed which would be ok with me and that's what I thought I would get. But the problem is frequently each day it gets little or no speed at all; web pages simply time out waiting to connect (both domestic and international), pop3 does not work, just no data comes in at all. 7:30pm can about guarantee there won't be any possibility of loading a simple web page. So it seems the signal is fine, but the AIS infrastructure is inadequate. Having this consistent experience every month I can only conclude AIS will do nothing about it as I have contacted them numerous times and all they do is run all sorts of diagnostic tests but never fix anything. So I am giving up on AIS.

I am wondering if I can use the CAT device mentioned here and if they might be found somewhere outside Bangkok?

[nikster]

I have an AIS 3G air card that plugs into a USB port that I use in Phetchabun where there is no land line. The reliability is spotty. Sometimes it gets GPRS speed which would be ok with me and that's what I thought I would get. But the problem is frequently each day it gets little or no speed at all; web pages simply time out waiting to connect (both domestic and international), pop3 does not work, just no data comes in at all. 7:30pm can about guarantee there won't be any possibility of loading a simple web page. So it seems the signal is fine, but the AIS infrastructure is inadequate. Having this consistent experience every month I can only conclude AIS will do nothing about it as I have contacted them numerous times and all they do is run all sorts of diagnostic tests but never fix anything. So I am giving up on AIS.

I am wondering if I can use the CAT device mentioned here and if they might be found somewhere outside Bangkok?

They have them at any CAT shop. I have also seen independent dealers sell them in Pantip Plaza Chiang Mai, but these seem to be gone now. CAT is advertising CDMA all over the place now you should have no trouble.

I get over 1Mbps on CAT CDMA so no issues with speed. It very much depends on where you are though. Signal strength, and problems with the local towers can limit the speeds...

See my recent post on True 3G vs CAT CDMA for speed tests. I have since re-tested True, and it's very much up and down, I have been getting anything from 150 kbps to 5 Mbps on True 3G.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Cat-Cdma-Vs-...3g-t354239.html

See here for modems. Make sure to get one that does "EV-DO Rev. A". They still sell one that's only 1x, which is 10 to 20 times slower...

http://www.catcdma.com/product/product.htm

Edited May 4, 2010 by nikster

[Nana]

Great thread,is this service available all over Thailand.

I live in the sticks about 20K outside Pattaya and am using an EDGE modem via AIS but its quite slow so would like a faster option,I cannot get the Hutch service so I am told by the shop as out of range.

I am repeating a post from another tread:

I bought a Cat CDMA usb dongle and signed up for a 790 baht a month unlimited package 3 weeks ago. Works perfect here in Chaiyaphum.

I was under the impression that I could use it almost everywhere in Thailand. So I brought it with me on a holiday trip to Pratchuap Kiri Khan, Kanchanaburi, Bangkok, Chonburi, Rayong, Chantaburi and Trat. I couldn't connect any of these places, and was starting to think that there was something wrong with my usb modem.

When staying on Koh Chang I called CAT and asked why I couldnt connect. I was told that there is not yet any coverage in south east and central Thailand including Prachuap.

All places where I tried the modem showed full signal strength.

Check out the coverage area map from CAT : http://www.catcdma.com/about_as/coveragearea/index.htm

As you see there is not indicated any coverage in 25 Changwat in central and southeastern Thailand

Nana

[chrgrims]

i have cat cdma in petchabun. works well, by far the best service available.

[tommet]

Thanks for this thread - I have a few questions..

Are the USB modems from CAT locked to their CDMA network?

I already have a USB modem that purports to handle CDMA (no idea what rev etc.) - does anyone know if I could just get a 3G sim card from CAT and try that in the modem I already have?

Also - if one wanted to set up a aerial with line-of-sight to the local CDMA mast, how might one set about finding where the mast is?

Edited June 7, 2010 by tommet

[wpcoe]

I'm a luddite not familiar with "wireless internet."

With the deals in the OP, is it *required* that one purchase the dongle from CAT for B2500? I have a Nokia 3110 classic phone, which I think I was told when I bought it, could be used as a "wireless internet modem" when connected to my computer via a cable. Is that true? Could I use my phone vs buying the dongle?

My company puts me in a hotel in BKK that charges B700 per day for ISP access. My purpose for using the CAT program would be to circumvent those exorbitant internet charges. How is the CAT 3G access in Bangkok itself?

[stevehaigh]

i have cat cdma in petchabun. works well, by far the best service available.

is there not ADSL in petchabun? maybe you are far out in the sticks. can you tell us where abouts you are?

thx

[philo]

I will buy this device at CAT Chiang Mai. Is the price THB 2500 or 6500? What documents do you need to sign up for unlimited use (or is it prepaid)? Do you know if there is any limit on the size of files that can be downloaded (i.e. movies and the like)?

Thanks.

[tolsti]

I went out and bought one today signing up to the unlmited package. I got it from the CAT shop in Central Phuket. Cost was 5900 bht for the modem and 2 bht for the SIM. They didn't charge the 2 bht though! Dongle is Ovation MC 760. 3 months free which actually means 2 + the remains of this month. Monthly charge is 845.30 thb all in for unlimited. Looking forward to installing it trying it out.

[g00dgirl]

I last used my CAT CDMA USB modem in Phuket in November 2010 and it was still reasonably fast to use. I suspended the contract because I was not going to use it for a couple of months.

Now I am thinking of taking the USB modem to CAT to make a new contract but after looking at Wooodys speed reporting site and article regarding the future of the CDMA network I am not sure if it's still worth it.

Maybe I should get something else considering I want to visit a few rural regions of Thailand soon. What would be the best alternative for this, a usb stick with a DTAC SIM using EDGE or a true sim? I found AIS has no signal in some of the rural areas I plan to visit. Maybe I should get both and use whatever works best wherever I am.

[g00dgirl]

I decided to subscribe again, since I can cancel anytime and I already had the Novatel MC727 lying around.

They could reactivate my contract it was easy to do, they said it should connect within the next hour.

I downloaded the latest driver from the CAT website and installed the MC727 but it seems I am missing something because I still can't connect. Signal is very good, but the Error when trying to connect is "The PPP link control protocol was terminated".

Do I need some kind of activation (Code) from CAT that they didn't give me?

I used to install this same modem on different computers in the past years and never needed to put any code in though.

[g00dgirl]

I just want to quickly post my resolution to this connection error with CAT CDMA.

Thankfully my Thai is good enough so I could resolve it by phone without going to Central or Phuket city again.

I called CAT office land line in Phuket on 076 216861 and they transfered me to the office in Central, nice, suppose they could have just given me the number and ask me to call myself.

So I explained my error message and what steps I took myself to try and fix it, like downloading the latest drivers for the Novatel MC727 from the CAT website.

The lady asked me to download the drivers for the MC760 instead, asked me to install, reboot and wait until she calls me back in 10 minutes. I got the call back 10 minutes later as promised and by the time I had once again uninstalled the old drivers and mobilink application and cleaned the registry of traces from Novatel.

So I installed the MC760 drivers, not logical but I assumed they probably do a lot of 1st level support and that idea must have come from past experience, they also knew the "PPP" error message.

The drivers are at http://www.catcdma.net/download/driver_manual.htm

So when she called back I put the USB modem in, no errors this time. OS is Win XP SP 3 by the way.

I clicked connect and ... same PPP error message.

She asked me to go to Settings and create a new profile with the following details:

Profile name: cat (not important what it is I am sure)

Username: [email protected]

password: cdmacat

set profile as default: yes

ok

click connect again (no restarting the mobilink or reboot required)

Connected.

Good service from CAT in Central Phuket, saved me a trip to Central.

What's strange is is that I used this modem for a couple of years and installed it several times on XP without having to do any of this and it was working, but well.

Maybe this helps someone else with the same problem.

And finally

speedtest.net to Phuket server

ping 151 ms

down 1.12 Mbps

up 0.39 Mbps

Edited April 30, 2011 by g00dgirl