Mobile Chaos: Dropped-call Frustrations Mounting

[george]

Dropped-call frustrations mounting

TOT says AIS must speed up its work

BANGKOK: -- With mobile phone users' frustration mounting over the inability to make calls, mainly to numbers on the Advanced Info Service (AIS) network, industry executives are scrambling for solutions.

TOT Corporation says the problem rests with AIS, which was supposed to have beefed up its gateway to the TOT network by June 5, which would have improved cross-network call handling. AIS says it needs another two or three weeks to complete the work, given the technical and procurement challenges.

Meanwhile, second-ranked DTAC says 85% of call attempts made by its customers to AIS numbers are ending in failure. Third-ranked mobile provider TA Orange says the failure rate for its customers is 86%, compared with the ``normal'' average of 40%.

Fixed-line phone customers have also been feeling the pinch, ever since TOT called on all operators to terminate their direct interconnection arrangements and to route all of their calls through TOT starting on June 5.

That was the date by which the state telecom enterprise expected its gateway would be ready to handle whatever came its way, assuming AIS was ready.

Direct interconnections involving individual operators had been standard practice for years, with TOT and its state enterprise sibling CAT Telecom turning a blind eye to the legality of the arrangements.

The issue has come to a head in recent months as all operators feel the strain of accommodating a surge in mobile usage, spurred mainly by their own cut-rate calling plans. DTAC at one point accused AIS of deliberately blocking calls from customers of the No. 2 provider.

Under the solution brokered by TOT, AIS was to install an additional 960 digital trunk interconnect points to TOT gateways, while DTAC would set up 700 points and TA Orange 480, enabling TOT to accommodate a combined 64,000 cross-network calls simultaneously.

TOT president Teeravit Charuwat said DTAC had installed 645 connection points but AIS was far behind in its work. The result, he said, had been severe traffic problems, in particular between the peak evening hours of 5 and 10 pm.

``TOT should not be blamed now since the problem is because of AIS,'' he said.

However, an AIS executive said the company would be able to complete the connection expansion within this month, and would transfer its interconnection links with DTAC to TOT immediately.

The executive, who asked not to be named, attributed the delay mainly to time-consuming technical procedures.

He said AIS and TOT had 1,600 circuit cards linked directly with each other. AIS also has direct interconnection gateways with 500 circuit cards with DTAC, 200 with TA Orange and 100 with the provincial fixed-line telephone operator TT&T.

``If TOT wants us to quickly complete the interconnection expansion, we could shut down existing direct links with DTAC, TA Orange and TT&T immediately to meet the requirement,'' he said.

He also said that the heavy pricing promotions, offering mobile calling rates as low as 25 satang a minute, had caused call traffic to triple and led to connection problems.

Thana Thienachariya, chief commercial officer of DTAC, said that to resolve the congestion problem at its root, AIS should continue to upgrade its existing direct interconnection links with the DTAC network together with increasing links with the TOT gateways.

``TOT interconnection facilities alone would not be adequate to accommodate call traffic for all operators,'' he said.

Mr Thana said the connection problem was now an industry-wide one and that rather than pointing fingers at each other, all operators should co-operate in the interests of consumers.

However, AIS maintains that additional direct interconnection links with DTAC would require TOT TOT approval, since AIS is its contracting party under the original concession agreement.

--Bangkok Post 2005-06-13

[sriracha john]

Amazingly brazen for the TOT boss to criticize AIS, but good for him, irregardless.

Waiting for the follow-up headline:

TOT Boss Quits

TOT president Teeravit Charuwat stepped down today from his post due to personal family problems.

[LPCustom69]

Why doesn't everyone just dump AIS and their shitty service?

John

[hkt83100]

Why doesn't everyone just dump AIS and their shitty service?

John

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very simple: 1) because I am using it for 7 years now and a lot of people have the number and 2) because it is still much much better than (my secondary) DTAC or Orange here (Phuket). The others got an absolutely lousy coverage on the island

Edited June 13, 2005 by hkt83100

[thymode91]

Why doesn't everyone just dump AIS and their shitty service?

John

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ohh man... i can't dump AIS co'z they got a powerful signal anywhere unlike the ranked 2 and 3 provider . the call charges were high but I still like them... I am using AIS since year 2001.

[Orion76]

Was trying to call my own mobile from the home phone to test something and got a busy signal 4 out of 5 tries, now I know why...

Unfortunately "dumping" AIS is not an option, I've had the same number for 6 years now and generally the reception is better than that of the other providers.

[ChiangMaiMike]

Anyone know the email address so I can complain to AIS directly? It's been terrible here in Chiang Mai since I guess the 5th...

[sbk]

Would dump them but the only way to make a call with an orange phone is to walk 10m out to the sandbar and make a call from the ocean. DTAC isn't much better. AIS is the only one with full coverage on koh phangan.

[Thanh-BKK]

Marketing!!

Hi there. I have been frustrated with this issue since months. I use Hutch, had never gotten any problem. Nowadays, i can't connect to my boyfriend (AIS postpaid) during the evening at all.... using my Hutch (postpaid as well), a D-TAC pre-paid or a landline. Even with the AIS pre-paid it becomes difficult! There i get a busy signal or a dead line, while via Hutch and D-TAC i get a message that "the destination network is currently busy". The NETWORK, not the number!!

I am here since 4 1/2 years by now and have tested the networks. Telecommunication/mobile phones is one of my hobnbies.... i had so far GSM 1800, AIS, Orange, D-TAC, Hutch. The only one i never tried is ThaiMobile. The best results i lways had with Hutch - every call connected, never dropped. That's why i'm with them since almost two years now.

However what i also noticed, aside from the inability to reach someone in first place - calls that go thru are usully dropped within 45 seconds. Also friends complain that many of their calls drop below one minute..... and hearing that brings me to a conspiracy theory.

EVERY mobile provider (except ThaiMobile) has launched a promotion with the "25 satang/minute". And with ALL of them, the FIRST minute is overpriced - up to 5 Baht for that first minute! Clever marketing, they know well that 90% of all calls made are shorter than one minute - voice mails etc.

So now simultaneously all networks suddenly start dropping calls within the first minute, coinciding with their promotions that charge inflated prices for the first minute........ looks to me like *someone* has an even better marketing strategy here! If they are not naturally hanging up before the 25 satang-minutes kick in, disconnect them and force them to dial again.... for another expensive "first minute".

And even if it's really just a technical issue...... the networks don't hurry with upgrading their gateways because as long as it is like it is, they earn much more. Too many "first minutes"..............

Oh, why i get this idea? Because i have been duped by Hutch, too..... Buying a new phone with a better camera (VGA resolution plus flash) just BECAUSE of it's better camera........ then finding out that it's completely useless, since Hutch has crippled the phone's software in a way that i can no more be connected with a computer (the older model could!) so that users are forced to send the pictures they take via e-mail - at ten Baht apiece - and the phone's software (naturally from factory) does not support sending VGA sized images because they're too large files! Now i got a phone that can take nice quality big pictures - and i can't get those out of the phone. Asking Hutch then "what the ###### is the "VGA Smart Camera" for??"

Answer: "Marketing, Sir. We are sorry for your inconvenience".

Needless to say, refunds are not possible and a software upgrade is "not possible" even tough Hutch employees have the same model for their personal use that CAN be connected to a PC. (a function called "PC Image Mode" has been blocked in the phones sold to the general public). I have seen it myself.

(if it were a car, i might smash it up in front of the dealership. But if i'd trash my phone in front of the Hutch salespeople they would laugh and say "next")

Regards......

Thanh

[mnoorsapl]

Got 2 HPs, AIS and DTAC. AIS is the better choice.

[dotcom]

``TOT should not be blamed now since the problem is because of AIS,'' he said.

No one would ever dream of blaming you.

Rather than solving problems let us focus on who should not be blamed.

Until recently AIS had more capacity then it needed & leased bandwidth to the upstarts. Then TOT interjected itself between the carriers & now there is not enough capacity. Will leave it to the reader to decide where the fault lies.

Thai Government = Incompetent.

Edited June 13, 2005 by dotcom

[Crushdepth]

Just amazed that they would wait until they had such a problem and try to fix it afterwards.

[Thanh-BKK]

And a comment on Hutch, every friend of mine having one did their best trying to get rid of it. I don't know where you live, but in Bangkok in most areas it's virtually impossible to call up a Hutch phone. If you live here, they must have improved lately.

It's a lot easier to set up a 900 MHz (like AIS) transmitter than 1800 MHz (like DTAC, Orange and DigitalGSM 1800) as it is broadcasting at higher power, and so are the phones, meaning each transmitter can cover a lot larger area than of PCN 1800, on top of that 900 MHz signal tends to easier penetrate walls, so you don't have to set up so many mini-transmitters to cover the basements, etc.

The downsides of 900 MHz though are that the batteries are drained in half the time, radiation is twice as high (2W vs. 1W of PCN) and the sound quality is usually inferior, but if you wanted lifelike sound, you should go for CDMA.

Sorry for making it this long...

Tom

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi there

Hutch has VASTLY improved. I don't know of a single place in BKK where i would not get signal. Even in bnasements and elevators (!) where any kind of GSM signal drops dead, i can still stay on the phone. Up country is a different issue - Hutch's network so far covers only central Thailand. On the way between BKK and Aranyaprathet there are a couple of dead spots, but those are very small areas. In both places btw AIS has no coverage either, but amazingly GSM1800, D-TAC and even Orange DO have coverage. AIS phones switch to GSM1800 in those areas.

About GSM 900 vs 1800, to set up a base station is roughly the same amount of work required. True is that PCN 1800 networks work with a lot smaller cells, therefor need a lot more transmitters/base stations. The good about that is that the network itself usually has "room" for quite a lot more users - more base stations = more people at the same time connected.

The battery wouldn't drain any faster regardless if 900 or 1800 is used - it depends solely on signal strength (weaker signal = higher output power of the phone = higher battery drain). GSM 900 has a max power output of 2 watts, PCN 1800 (also GSM coding) has maximal 1 watt, true. But because of the base stations are closer together (and closer to the respective phone because there are more base stations!) this works out to roughly the same amount of power used. The sound quality on 900 and 1800 is the same, depending if full-rate codecs are used or not. higher frequency = smaller bandwidth, amount of data transferred = same. Most Nokia phones (don't know about others) are able to be set to Half Rate codec, Full Rate or even Enhanced FulL Rate. Half Rate has the worst voice quality since only half the amount of data is transmitted (similar to compression in music - the higher you compress, the lower the quality becomes but the smaller the amount of data becomes) but it too has the lowest battery consumption.

CDMA as in Hutch does transmitt at WAY lower output powers, many people are not aware of that! The phones usually transmitt no higher than max 0.5 Watts. But still they use up MORE battery while talking because, as opposed to GSM, the signal is not "pulsed", rather streamed. That and the fact that it uses lower transmitting power makes for no interference when you place a Hutch phone near a radio, for example. Do that with any GSM and you hear the typical "GSM noise". Hutch uses the 800 MHz band, which grants an even better penetration of walls etc and is the reason for Hutch phones to continue working in, for example, elevators.

Since i do use Hutch, i can not complain of being "unreachable". In fact everyone, always, gets thru to ME. That is when THEY get a line on their network But i myself have trouble to call into any of the GSM networks in the evening, particular between about 17.00 to 20.00. I can't reach my boyfriend with any of the numbers i have available (Hutch, D-TAC, TRUE landline, even AIS pre-paid). Trying to call my D-TAC from the Hutch usually works, the other way round also. Friends who use Orange are usually contactable via Hutch as well. But AIS makes the most trouble.

I don't want to advertise for Hutch here, in fact i am a bit pissed at them for the dupe with the phone and it's useless camera. However their network is superior, the voice quality is crystal clear and it's the only network i know of that supports "noise reduction" - if i'm on a call with another Hutch user and one of us or even both are in noisy environment, we still can hear each other clear as a bell because the background noise is filtered out. It doesn't even matter what phone each of us uses! It's a network feature.

By the way i hav my D-TAC pre-paid SIM registered already - they didn't even require a passport (which i didn't carry when i came across a D-TAC shop and decided just to 'ask for how to do it"). My (german!) driving license was sufficient. No address asked either. They wanted top see the SIM card tough and were amazed at my twin-SIM kit which is the size of an ordinary SIM and has the cut-out chips of two SIM's in it. So it went even without the SIM's serial number and only with the phone number AIS insisted on the passport, have to register that one next time.

Kind regards.....

Thanh

[capt_canada42]

Why doesn't everyone just dump AIS and their shitty service?

John

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very simple: 1) because I am using it for 7 years now and a lot of people have the number and 2) because it is still much much better than (my secondary) DTAC or Orange here (Phuket). The others got an absolutely lousy coverage on the island

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well don't have a heart attack for Christs sake

[kosalija]

Can somebody tell me why i can not get conection with AIS? I call from europe but all the time busy.

[PeaceBlondie]

Could this explain why, around 8 pm, almost every number I call that's in Chiang Mai seems busy? It's the circuits that are busy, not the phone I'm calling? And the person I'm calling hasn't shut his phone off, but is hopelessly standing by to receive my call? Likewise, does that mean that I'm more popular than I thought I was, but everybody who's trying to call me gets a busy signal even though I'm hopelessly standing by?

[samran]

It isn't in AIS' interest to speed up the work. The longer they dither, the more people are going to get fed up and switch over to AIS to make their lives easier.

The Shinawatra family love a monopoly, especially if it is theirs. Witness the governments opposition to mobile number portability, their nobbling of the NTC by stacking it with their cronies, and now this so-called 'problem'. Believe it, this 'technical problem' was engineered deliberately.

[silk123]

Normally a AIS 300baht card wouldn't last 5 days but 2 weeks on orange and i'm still on my first 300baht card and I talk longer.

Fine with me.

I've being all over thailand with 2 years and the girlfriend (who is on the phone the too much) never had a coverage problem with orange even beyond the borders a bit whereas I was being driven mad with bad service from AIS or ASS a better name and their useless customer service.

Can you tell I don't like ass. I was the ass using ass.

Kiss my ass ASS.

[silk123]

It isn't in AIS' interest to speed up the work. The longer they dither, the more people are going to get fed up and switch over to AIS to make their lives easier.

The Shinawatra family love a monopoly, especially if it is theirs. Witness the governments opposition to mobile number portability, their nobbling of the NTC by stacking it with their cronies, and now this so-called 'problem'. Believe it, this 'technical problem' was engineered deliberately.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The more asses switch over.

Best switch away.

[Scott]

Glad to know the problem isn't me. I am rather technologically challenged and mentioned to a friend that I was concerned since I couldn't even use a mobile phone anymore!!

[RDN]

.. second-ranked DTAC says 85% of call attempts made by its customers to AIS numbers are ending in failure...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yep, include me in that number. I'm on DTAC, g/f on AIS. Extremely annoying when can't get through to arrange meeting/pickup etc.

[MaiChai]

In the last two days, calling to my wife in Thailand has considerably improved. I am not sure why, because she is in the same place. I can only think that they have improved connection onto AIS. I'm calling from abroad. It has been pretty bad for a long time.

Anyone else noticed the improvement?

[dannishgung]

I thought my fone was broken because no one call me for 2 days and I cannot call to them either. So now there is no use for mobile fone in Thailand now if the situation continues.

[ufkenmill]

Is the problem with the cell phone system really the fault of AIS or is it the entire system infrastructure that's to blame. Call me crazy but in Chiang Mai I've been having problems connecting numbers ever since a storm about a month ago knocked out what seems like every other stoplight in and around the city.

Can't help but think there's much more of a problem than just "AIS" not upgrading their gateway to TOT. Knowing Thailand, there's probably some major underlying electronic infrastructure problem we don't know about...

Coincidentally, I use Orange and have been very happy with their coverage and service. Everyone likes to talk about how Orange is no good but I've never had any real problems with coverage, even in the mountains my service is better than my fiance's AIS.

[ufkenmill]

and the stoplights are still out all over the city.....nice. A month later and the city can't find the funds to fix the stoplights? How many people have to die before they do something about it...

[MaiChai]

This thread should become everyones moan about mobile phones!

[iang]

The Government here should legislate, the same as the Aussie goverment did a few years ago, to force carriers to 'port' your mobile phone number to another carrier / mobile phone carrier service if the user of that number requests it.

Once phone companies had no hold over you (by your having to stay with one carrier, just to maintain your phone number) and you were allowed to transfer your existing number to any phone company, competition (and thus service levels) hotted up as phone companies had to figure out other ways to stop the 'churning' of numbers and keep their client base.

Portability of your phone number to another phone company here in Thailand would force a similar response from local carriers. It then becomes more of an issue of service rather than just price of the calls. A cheap call rate is useless if you can't get through!

The other thing in Oz that stopped a huge business in stolen phones, was that the carriers were forced to provide a blocking service for lost of stolen phones. Quite simply, if your mobile phone is lost or stolen, you just phone up your service provider to report the loss or theft, provide the phone company with the IMIE number (the I.D. of your handset, not the sim card) of your lost / stolen phone and the phone company sends out a signal to that phone, which blocks the further use of that handset. Change the sim card and the phone is still locked and can not be used.

Theft of mobiles in Oz is now a thing of the past. No point in stealing a phone if it can't then be used and re-sold!

[Merlin]

The other thing in Oz that stopped a huge business in stolen phones, was that the carriers were forced to provide a blocking service for lost of stolen phones. Quite simply, if your mobile phone is lost or stolen, you just phone up your service provider to report the loss or theft, provide the phone company with the IMIE number (the I.D. of your handset, not the sim card) of your lost / stolen phone and the phone company sends out a signal to that phone, which blocks the further use of that handset. Change the sim card and the phone is still locked and can not be used.

Theft of mobiles in Oz is now a thing of the past. No point in stealing a phone if it can't then be used and re-sold!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

those phones now end up here or in Malaysia where unlocking them is a trivial matter. It may have stopped the petty crims or opportunists, but the more organised guys are still in business.

[udon]

The other thing in Oz that stopped a huge business in stolen phones, was that the carriers were forced to provide a blocking service for lost of stolen phones. Quite simply, if your mobile phone is lost or stolen, you just phone up your service provider to report the loss or theft, provide the phone company with the IMIE number (the I.D. of your handset, not the sim card) of your lost / stolen phone and the phone company sends out a signal to that phone, which blocks the further use of that handset. Change the sim card and the phone is still locked and can not be used.

Theft of mobiles in Oz is now a thing of the past. No point in stealing a phone if it can't then be used and re-sold!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

those phones now end up here or in Malaysia where unlocking them is a trivial matter. It may have stopped the petty crims or opportunists, but the more organised guys are still in business.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Merlin are you saying they can change the IMIE number or unlock the IMIE number ?

Thanks

[Merlin]

no, but once the phone is here or in Malaysia, Philippines, China etc they can unlock the carrier lock so it can be used with a local phone company. I can't imagine Telstra or Optus tracking the phone through any number of carriers in Asia