Thailand's CAT Builds Bt6bn Fibre-Optic Network

[robertson468]

I want it NOW!!!!!!!

I'll even pay the 25K for the port.

Sadly, although Pathum Thani is one of the provinces in the initial deployment we're a bit off the beaten track, I don't see getting anything over my rather sad 512/256 in my lifetime

Hmm maybe it is quite a few years ago that you went to the TOT office. Even in the Middle of nowhere TOT offers 12MB speeds down and 1 MB up for 1500 baht or so. Just go there. Even when you are rather far of an exchange you still can get 8MB/1MB.

The sad thing with these kinds of projects is that the government has no clue about what they do. They are too busy stealing money from the people. Bhumjaithai is pocketing billions in road projects which could have spend to narrow the digital divide. If violenc flares up again next year, they will say Ich habe es nicht gewust.

I live in Bophut, Koh Samui and have done the complete circle of TOT, TTNT, CAT and am now with 3BB. All of them set themselves incredibly low standards of service,which they fail to achieve and certainly non of them come anywhere near 12MB upload. I have complained so much, that even I am fed up with hearing myself complain and when I mention" you owe me a refund for failure to provide the service I have paid for", either the phone goes dead, or the person I am stood in front of gives me a beautiful smile and refers me to someone else. Still at least it's an excuse to slink off to the nearest bar for a cool consoling beer. On the other hand in the UK, you would be on an automatic dial system. Remember them? You dial the number and a recording asks you to choose from a menu of options, which you do. You are then asked to choose from another menu of options, which you do, you are then asked to choose from another menu of options at which stage Mrs Metalic pre-recorded voice advises you that all the operators are busy and would you please hold whilst some naff and boring music is playing, and playing, and playing, and playing, and playing, and playing, until after half an hour you realise your phone bill has reached astronomical proportions and hang up in a knee jerk reaction only to realise that you have to start the whole procedure all over again to pass on your complaint, or, as the Company you are phoning hopes - you give so that you don't go into cardiac arrest.

Must finish this quickly before the internet goes down - AGAIN!

[NanaFoods]

Try ThaiVisa's speed test..

Broadband Speed Test

I got 3507 down; 282 up.

[Weirdnews]

Well this is certainly a nice step in long over due upgrades. 3 in one concept is wonderful but where exactly will these 400,000 ports be?

Will they mainly be reserved for the business district or has Cat posted the locations?

Im sure with this small amount of ports there will be some type of reservation list. BBB offers a package of 10mb 1500baht per month

does the 3,000+ fee seem high? or does that package also include the phone/tv? If so what channel line up?

Brain over load need more input please.

[anon467367354]

i know others havee said it but i cant see it happening for anyone outside of the greater bangkok area. what benefit does it bring? does it help grow rice - no

I am really sick of the only in Bangkok mentality. There is a considerable proportion of the population of Thailand which live outside the metropolitan area. Besides if you provide the people in the North and Northeast of Thailand access to a high speed network (and unblock some types of websites) maybe they will develop a preoccupation with something other than the current political situation.

Seems to be a business decision and not one to be taken personally. Seems to me things start in the most populated areas and then spreads to the outskirts. Would it really make sense to start in the rural villages with a project like this?

I don't think a business such as CAT would consider limiting themselves with an "only in Bangkok" decision.

[anon467367354]

I wonder if it has to do with your computers.

Download Speed: 4406 kbps (550.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 623 kbps (77.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 48 ms

Tuesday, June 08, 2010 2:58:09 PM

Speed test to Singapore. I live across the river in Nonthaburi.

I've never had an Internet problem. This is True

[Lunghans]

Try ThaiVisa's speed test..

Broadband Speed Test

I got 3507 down; 282 up.

This is all very nice, but the ThaiVisa servers are in BKK.

This is TOT 12Mbps

Mine is:

Download Speed: 10.644 Mbps

Upload Speed: 0.73 Mbps

Not bad

Lets try a server outside Thailand like Hongkong

Download Speed: 6.23 Mbps

Upload Speed: 0.72 Mbps

Losing already

Now Amsterdam:

Download Speed: 4.09 Mbps

Upload Speed: 0.29 Mbps

Not much left

Now New York:

Download Speed: 0.644 Mbps

Upload Speed: 0.43 Mbps

Sucks!!!!

So this is the reality of Thai internet.

[Acharn]

This reminds me of how Thaksin made his first billion or so. TOT wanted to catch up on some of its backlog of requests for telephone lines. At the time there was a waiting list of about five years to get a telephone line installed. So TOT put out a contract to install six million telephone lines. I think it was supposed to be four million in Bangkok and another two million upcountry. Anyway, AIS got the contract for Bangkok and TT&T got the contract for upcountry. The funny thing was, AIS didn't hire any new full time workers to do the job. What they did was offer all the telephone installers working for TOT part time work, at a decent wage. So all those guys who worked for TOT and couldn't keep up with the demand for new lines suddenly found themselves installing four million lines in about a year, working part time after their regular daily job.

When there was talk about how they had to privatize TOT to comply with World Trade Organization rules, Thaksin was asked if he would be interested in the investment. He said no, TOT and CAT had about 25,000 employees each, doing the work of a few thousand.

[Weirdnews]

I wonder if it has to do with your computers.

Download Speed: 4406 kbps (550.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 623 kbps (77.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 48 ms

Tuesday, June 08, 2010 2:58:09 PM

Speed test to Singapore. I live across the river in Nonthaburi.

I've never had an Internet problem. This is True

Speed all depends on how many other users are on the current fiber node that you are fed from. If you are in an area near business districs or residential areas with many subscribers actively using the net then your DL and UL speeds will be much lower. If Provider claims 10MB DL and glass is 10MB with 2 users on that fiber node, Bandwidth is divided by 2 if, 100 subscribers are simutaniously downloading something the bandwidth is divided by 100 and so on. Providers gamble that it would be unlikely that many would be passing packets at the exact time.

[mouse]

I have had a Fiber Optic line by TOT for more than 12 months now and live in the boonies near Kamphaeng Phet and although I have paid a lot for this service I have been extremely happy with it. This news is even more than I expected and I imagine that I will connected when at my new home in Chiang Mai.

[Pib]

I expect they will deploy the fiber optics to the high density/highrise part of Bangkok first and then on to lowrise/medium density/high income areas, and eventually to other Bangkok areas where 90% of Bangkok folks live.. And I have no doubt in those areas where where TOT, True, etc., have total control, then the deployment will be slow in coming or at a higher price so CAT can still get its slice of the money pie. Even if I only got 25% international bandwidth of the 100Mbps rated speed, then that would be 25Mbps speed to Farang Land. Ain't dreams nice.

And does this possibly mean some cable TV competition for TrueVisions!!!???

[moetownblues]

Doesn't the government and big companies realise that thailand goes beyond the city limits of Bangkok.

[negreanu]

I think the old Thailand does not have the international capacity for bandwidth is no longer applicable.

The reason is your ISP has not purchased sufficient international bandwidth or the package you have selected with your ISP or your line quality or your router/computer setup.

Lets take the 16mb True Premium which I now use. Results as of time of posting (You cannot exactly say Thailand has a problem with international bandwidth anymore I get these speeds 24/7):

So basically I am on the fastest 16mb product available for the Thailand consumer and that is more or less exactly what I get worldwide.

Lack of international bandwidth do not think so, Poor choice of package and ISP perhaps.

I think a lot of complaints of slow speed is due to line quality. For example the old'ish condo where we stay on the 33rd floor has terrible internal wiring (The True line to the building is new and of excellent quality and not far from the dslam)

now initially the wire pair they used to connect from the building exchange to my condo was giving a very low SNR and getting speeds of between 5mb-9mb on the 16mb True Premium package. (Talking router sync rates here not speedtest.net results).

After some persuasion i got the building to put me on a different wire pair to their exchange. Went from the above sync rate to (Sync rate of 18mb and max capable of 22mb)

Edited June 9, 2010 by negreanu

[Zolt]

WANT!

Any idea which area they'll connect first. I'll even move there to get it!

[dttk0009]

I think the old Thailand does not have the international capacity for bandwidth is no longer applicable.

The reason is your ISP has not purchased sufficient international bandwidth or the package you have selected with your ISP or your line quality or your router/computer setup.

Lets take the 16mb True Premium which I now use. Results as of time of posting (You cannot exactly say Thailand has a problem with international bandwidth anymore I get these speeds 24/7):

So basically I am on the fastest 16mb product available for the Thailand consumer and that is more or less exactly what I get worldwide.

Lack of international bandwidth do not think so, Poor choice of package and ISP perhaps.

I think a lot of complaints of slow speed is due to line quality. For example the old'ish condo where we stay on the 33rd floor has terrible internal wiring (The True line to the building is new and of excellent quality and not far from the dslam)

now initially the wire pair they used to connect from the building exchange to my condo was giving a very low SNR and getting speeds of between 5mb-9mb on the 16mb True Premium package. (Talking router sync rates here not speedtest.net results).

After some persuasion i got the building to put me on a different wire pair to their exchange. Went from the above sync rate to (Sync rate of 18mb and max capable of 22mb)

One example from one ISP does not set the standard for package quality, consistency and reliability nationwide. I'd say you got it all wrong. Most packages and ISPs here are still terrible and volatile (ranging from .5Mbit to 8Mbit download speeds depending on time of day on a similar package to yours. Additionally, many users still suffer from unstable and highly fluctuating latency to areas outside of Thailand, especially the US. Congratulations on striking lucky with True, though, you're part of the small minority.

I ditched True after using their service for half a decade after I couldn't take their lackluster and unreliable service anymore. The worst part about them is the customer service. They simply don't care nor do they know how to fix any of the problems the users have. I feel like a fool for having subscribed to them for as long as it's easily the worst ISP I have ever subscribed to, by miles. I'm now on 3BB and pretty much sit in the same boat as you. Reliable connection, great latency, no disconnects. All going through the same phone line.

If there's one thing I'd tell to people who are looking for ISPs it's that you should never expect the service that you pay for, but rather, feel grateful when you get it.

[way2muchcoffee]

I think the old Thailand does not have the international capacity for bandwidth is no longer applicable.

The reason is your ISP has not purchased sufficient international bandwidth or the package you have selected with your ISP or your line quality or your router/computer setup.

Lets take the 16mb True Premium which I now use. Results as of time of posting (You cannot exactly say Thailand has a problem with international bandwidth anymore I get these speeds 24/7):

So basically I am on the fastest 16mb product available for the Thailand consumer and that is more or less exactly what I get worldwide.

Lack of international bandwidth do not think so, Poor choice of package and ISP perhaps.

I think a lot of complaints of slow speed is due to line quality. For example the old'ish condo where we stay on the 33rd floor has terrible internal wiring (The True line to the building is new and of excellent quality and not far from the dslam)

now initially the wire pair they used to connect from the building exchange to my condo was giving a very low SNR and getting speeds of between 5mb-9mb on the 16mb True Premium package. (Talking router sync rates here not speedtest.net results).

After some persuasion i got the building to put me on a different wire pair to their exchange. Went from the above sync rate to (Sync rate of 18mb and max capable of 22mb)

One example from one ISP does not set the standard for package quality, consistency and reliability nationwide. I'd say you got it all wrong. Most packages and ISPs here are still terrible and volatile (ranging from .5Mbit to 8Mbit download speeds depending on time of day on a similar package to yours. Additionally, many users still suffer from unstable and highly fluctuating latency to areas outside of Thailand, especially the US. Congratulations on striking lucky with True, though, you're part of the small minority.

I ditched True after using their service for half a decade after I couldn't take their lackluster and unreliable service anymore. The worst part about them is the customer service. They simply don't care nor do they know how to fix any of the problems the users have. I feel like a fool for having subscribed to them for as long as it's easily the worst ISP I have ever subscribed to, by miles. I'm now on 3BB and pretty much sit in the same boat as you. Reliable connection, great latency, no disconnects. All going through the same phone line.

If there's one thing I'd tell to people who are looking for ISPs it's that you should never expect the service that you pay for, but rather, feel grateful when you get it.

I've used True in BKK for 6 years and three different apartments/townhouses. I've always had higher bandwidth than my package specifies. It doesn't fluctuate and I consistently get high speeds.

[negreanu]

One example from one ISP does not set the standard for package quality, consistency and reliability nationwide. I'd say you got it all wrong. Most packages and ISPs here are still terrible and volatile (ranging from .5Mbit to 8Mbit download speeds depending on time of day on a similar package to yours. Additionally, many users still suffer from unstable and highly fluctuating latency to areas outside of Thailand, especially the US. Congratulations on striking lucky with True, though, you're part of the small minority.

I ditched True after using their service for half a decade after I couldn't take their lackluster and unreliable service anymore. The worst part about them is the customer service. They simply don't care nor do they know how to fix any of the problems the users have. I feel like a fool for having subscribed to them for as long as it's easily the worst ISP I have ever subscribed to, by miles. I'm now on 3BB and pretty much sit in the same boat as you. Reliable connection, great latency, no disconnects. All going through the same phone line.

If there's one thing I'd tell to people who are looking for ISPs it's that you should never expect the service that you pay for, but rather, feel grateful when you get it.

A lot has changed with True internet since you left 5 years ago! Customer service is efficient if you raise a fault they will have a engineer out within 24 hours of your call. True internet has now the most international bandwidth of any provider. In my opinion and I have used all the providers available to central BKK that nothing is better than true PREMIUM packages i cannot comment on standard packages they offer.

Edited June 9, 2010 by negreanu

[Pib]

I want it NOW!!!!!!!

I'll even pay the 25K for the port.

Sadly, although Pathum Thani is one of the provinces in the initial deployment we're a bit off the beaten track, I don't see getting anything over my rather sad 512/256 in my lifetime

Hmm maybe it is quite a few years ago that you went to the TOT office. Even in the Middle of nowhere TOT offers 12MB speeds down and 1 MB up for 1500 baht or so. Just go there. Even when you are rather far of an exchange you still can get 8MB/1MB.

Well, I live in western Bangkok (Khet Talingchan) in a upper end subdivision and a few months ago when I went to the TOT office to sign up I could only get a 4Mb/512Kbps plan, although they were advertising 4 to 8Mb plans. I live 2.2 miles from the TOT central office/station where the DSLAMs are located and they installed a new line also. The TOT office and installing technician said they will only sign a person up for the 6 or 8Mb download and 1Mb upload at any download speed if they live within 1 kilometer of the central office/station. This could all be caused by limitations at the central office and not due to phone/DSL line quality...I have outstanding line quality (low attenuation and high SNR).

So, in my middle of nowhere (western Bangkok), 4Mbps is the upper limit for now and a person is pretty much a captive audience to TOT in my part of Bangkok. I was with JINET but I wanted a lower cost plan, plus JINET was limited to 4Mb also since they are using TOT lines. But I have do doubt there are probably True, and other TOT users, within a few kilometers of me which may have higher speed service, because when it comes to fast internet in Thailand it comes down to location, location, location...and a person just may live on the wrong side of the tracks.

[Pib]

I've used True in BKK for 6 years and three different apartments/townhouses. I've always had higher bandwidth than my package specifies. It doesn't fluctuate and I consistently get high speeds.

It's called location, location, location. You've been lucky to live in the right location to get high speed True packages. I'm jealous!

[witsawakorn]

the future is comming to thailand... but... if the big bottleneck is still access to international sites, than it is pretty.... USELESS

100 mbit in thailand, 0.5 to the next of the world

You are a little bit unfair.

With TRUE, in Bangkok, if you pay for 4 MB, you have 4 with USA. If you pay for 6, you have 6 with USA. speakeasy.net is impartial.

That's not right at all.

What is not right?

I have True 4MB in BKK and get 5MB download/0.5MB upload in BKK

and 3MB/0.4MB to Singapore according to the speedtest on TV ( so it must be correct right?) which is close enough for me

[Rucharee]

I wonder how much the ICT minister is gonna pocket? 20%?

[dttk0009]

One example from one ISP does not set the standard for package quality, consistency and reliability nationwide. I'd say you got it all wrong. Most packages and ISPs here are still terrible and volatile (ranging from .5Mbit to 8Mbit download speeds depending on time of day on a similar package to yours. Additionally, many users still suffer from unstable and highly fluctuating latency to areas outside of Thailand, especially the US. Congratulations on striking lucky with True, though, you're part of the small minority.

I ditched True after using their service for half a decade after I couldn't take their lackluster and unreliable service anymore. The worst part about them is the customer service. They simply don't care nor do they know how to fix any of the problems the users have. I feel like a fool for having subscribed to them for as long as it's easily the worst ISP I have ever subscribed to, by miles. I'm now on 3BB and pretty much sit in the same boat as you. Reliable connection, great latency, no disconnects. All going through the same phone line.

If there's one thing I'd tell to people who are looking for ISPs it's that you should never expect the service that you pay for, but rather, feel grateful when you get it.

A lot has changed with True internet since you left 5 years ago! Customer service is efficient if you raise a fault they will have a engineer out within 24 hours of your call. True internet has now the most international bandwidth of any provider. In my opinion and I have used all the providers available to central BKK that nothing is better than true PREMIUM packages i cannot comment on standard packages they offer.

I didn't leave. I only recently changed my ISP from True to 3BB. 2 months ago, I believe. True's service and the quality of the internet they offer is random depending on customer. I too have friends that can attest to a flawless connection while others on the same package are stuck with dial-up speeds and laggy latencies. All I can say is that with True, where I live, I got less than a 15 kb/s download speed from international sites without a download manager and youtube didn't even stream (8Mbit package). On my 3BB 12Mbit package, it never downloads below 500kb/s unless the server i'm downloading from can't upload any faster. Torrents clock in at max speed (1.2MB/s). Same phone line, same phone number, same router, same OS, same settings, same apartment. True said that improving my speed or quality would be impossible because my building's lines are damaged. 3BB set up their internet and I was gob smacked at the difference. I felt literally cheated, as a loyal customer, to know that the bandwidth that I was paying for was being allocated to people like in this thread, who get more than what they pay for. Never again. I would ultimately advise everyone to stay as far away from True as possible, at least their internet service.

Edited June 10, 2010 by dttk0009

[filingaccount]

Some Facts

1. Thai international bandwidth is just a shade below 140 Gbps

2. Thailand has (at latest count) 14.5 million internet users

3. Average internet package speed offered is 4 Mbps

4. On average you can count on 10 to 1 usage per bit bandwidth, making a needed bandwidth of 5660 Gpbs for eveyone to be able to enjoy good speeds when they need it.

Fine, you say a lot of Thai users wants only to go to Sanook.com. Thailand local bandwidth is 675 Gbps, making the network underpowered anyway.

Granted, things are not as bad as they used to be, but it is nowhere near countries with semi-decent Internet connections and infrastructure.

BUT I HAVE MAXIMUM BANDWITH WITH SPEEDTEST.NET!!

Well, to tell you the truth, speedtest is not an accurate measure of bandwidth since bandwidth to the speedtest.net servers are prioritized. This makes most people think they have wonderful bandwidth, when they do not.

A more accurate way to measure you correct bandwidth is to download a large file from a random high speed webserver. Measure your real time speed with DU Meter or other bandwidth monitoring program.

But websites load LIGHTNING QUICK!

No they don't. Clear your web browser cache and clear your DNS resolver cache and you'll see that it is not lightning quick anymore. Why? Because your favorite website is fully cached on your own computer, and only updates are downloaded. Thank your modern browser, not Thai international bandwidth.... Again use a bandwidth monitoring program on your computer to see real bandwidth being consumed.

My True 16 Mbps connection gives the following results to speedtest.

Now, this looks all wonderful and impressive... Well look below for REAL BANDWIDTH in a REAL SCENARIO

[wildoates]

The local Surin office has talked to me on this. they have run fiber to the local school, and offered me a connection, 1 mb up and down, but wanted 10K per month. told they should not really do mind altering drugs......

[nikster]

the future is comming to thailand... but... if the big bottleneck is still access to international sites, than it is pretty.... USELESS

100 mbit in thailand, 0.5 to the next of the world

You are a little bit unfair.

With TRUE, in Bangkok, if you pay for 4 MB, you have 4 with USA. If you pay for 6, you have 6 with USA. speakeasy.net is impartial.

Yeah people put way too much into that. While it's true that the international connection is often the bottleneck, it's not nearly as bad as it seems.

I am getting 10Mbit on 3BB for speedtest.net and for torrents. While it may be true that individual downloads are still capped, it's getting increasingly hard to tell. YouTube is flawless but seems to throttle the data rate down to what's needed. I get full speed for torrents and download managers. It's getting a little hard to find those places that are actually really limited - also keep in mind that some servers will just cap the downloads. Something you'd never know if you are on a 1Mbit connection, but will become apparent once you are on 30Mbps. I got a real world speed of about 4-5Mbit in San Francisco on a "16Mbit" line (easy for me to tell thanks to MenuMeters which displays up/down data rate in the top right corner of my screen - I never turn it off, and I often check it).

Bottom line is: I do believe that Thailand right now has enough international bandwidth. Thailand also doesn't stop upgrading its international bandwidth, so I don't see it getting worse when new internet packages are offered. The ISPs can manage bandwidth pretty well from back in the dark ages, so they'll probably continue to cap YouTube and so on when needed.

Speed test (a bit too good to be true, look at the ping):

Real world performance - downloading a 400MB file from VMWare:

As for CAT FTTH - can't hurt, now can it, so stop complaining. CAT is a clueless company so chances are they'll make a mess of the marketing. But we'll see. And the fiber remains, will be put to good use.

Hmm.. BTW ping values at speedtest.net seem off, no way I am getting 26ms - that's not even physically possible. Hmm.. ok so to Palo Alto I get 4Mbps and 270ms ping. So it seems like they are indeed tinkering with the speed test, maybe they put in some very clever caching, or they prioritize the line... San Francisco is still at 10Mbps, rock solid.

Last not least, wanted to say that websites are not as snappy as back home because of the lag. We have 300ms lag here, vs well under 100 in the USA. The difference is very noticeable. It's the roundtrip time, and it has a big impact because web pages consist of hundreds of requests, and each one gets the lag and may prevent the whole page from showing.

Edited June 10, 2010 by nikster

[negreanu]

instead of speedtest here is a download rate from usenet at 18:00 today on True 16mb premium from a US based server in LA.

everyone is quick to blame the provider, look very carefully at your router stats Line Attenuation, SNR etc. before u shout that international bandwidth is low with your isp.

Lines in BKK are old, overhead cables, old condo wiring....

Edited June 10, 2010 by negreanu

[dttk0009]

instead of speedtest here is a download rate from usenet at 18:00 today on True 16mb premium from a US based server in LA.

everyone is quick to blame the provider, look very carefully at your router stats Line Attenuation, SNR etc. before u shout that international bandwidth is low with your isp.

Lines in BKK are old, overhead cables, old condo wiring....

Your rhetoric that the ISP is never at fault is the same crap I had to deal with True for 5 years. Under the same exact conditions, I applied for 3BB and their service was, to me, unbelievably better. For years I was told that my settings were wrong, lines were damaged, etc. But I switch provider and in one day I go from 15kb/s downloads to speeds that look like your screenshot. I expected much more from True living in downtown Bangkok. At least now I can finally stream youtube.

ISP's here in Thailand are far from perfect. In fact, they're far from good.