Illegal land occupation

[BB1950]

Last night after midnight, someone stole the telephone cables servicing the my area in Huai Yai.

TOT has replaced the line today. I'm still waiting on TT&T.

A couple of years ago, someone stole the cables. TOT had in fixed in one day. TT&T took almost a week. I even had to have the TOT technician speak to the TT&T techinician to tell him where the line was cut because TT&T claimed they could not find it. Two days later the TT&T line was fixed, but not very well. There was a lot of noise on the line afterwards. TT&T claimed it was the wiring in the house. I swapped the lines in the house and the noise stayed with the TT&T line.

At my house in Jomtien, I could never get an internet connection with TT&T because the line was too noisy for a reliable connection. There I had to use TT&T because the village I lived in would not allow TOT to provide service to the houses. The person who bought the house moved out of the village to another village that TOT serviced. There he never had any problem with TOT.

I've had it with TT&T! The quality of service does not compare (at least in my experience).

(Rant over)

Edited October 7, 2010 by BB1950

[raro]

interesting...my sign-off with TOT was good for evening news, close to blowing the place up. NB: as to my understanding, the cables are owned by TOT and TT&T (3B as they are called now) are leasing them, so it might be that the reason for the hardware problem lies deeper in the who-is-responsible area....

[BB1950]

raro, your post is most interesting. The TOT and TT&T services in my mind, is a rather gray area and rather confusing.

But I question your comment:

as to my understanding, the cables are owned by TOT and TT&T (3B as they are called now) are leasing them

The reason I do, is because 5 years ago when I started building the house, I checked with both TOT and TT&T about getting phone service. The response from both companies was "the existing cables were full and their were no lines available." Neither company knew when a line would become available. "Maybe next year".

Then about 6 months into the construction of the house, I saw a team with the TT&T logo on the trucks near the road leading towards my house running a new line towards Wat Huai Yai. I stopped and asked if there were lines available. They told me yes and to go to the TT&T office in the Carrefour center to arrange for a line to be run to the house about 200 meters away.

Just out of curiosity, I went to the TOT office to inquire if they had a line (I wasn't happy with TT&T due to my previous experience). TOT told me there were no lines available again and they didn't know when a line would become available. So I went to the TT&T office and inquired and they told me it would be two weeks before they could run a line to the house. I signed up because I badly needed a phone and hopefully someday in the future, an internet connection. TT&T said at that time an internet connection could not be done, as it was too far from the TT&T office.

About a year later, I noticed a TOT crew running a cable the opposite direction towards Phoenix Golf Course. I stopped and asked if the line would be good for an internet connection. The said yes and for me to go speak to the office in Ban Amphur. I went to the office and inquired. The said the line would be completed in about 6 months and it would support an internet connection. I could try it for a month and if I wasn't satisfied, they would refund my money. So I signed up. Out of the blue, about 6 months later a TOT crew came and ran another line over the 200 meters.

During the first few weeks, I was having nothing but problems with the internet and was beginning to think it wasn't going to work. Alas, they finally pin pointed the problem and the internet has been fine ever since. I didn't need to cancel the TOT service. I never canceled the TT&T service thinking it was only 100 baht per month, and it would be a good idea to have two lines from two different companies (not trusting either). Besides the one line could be used as a dedicated fax number and I wouldn't have to inform everyone of a number change for the house.

So my understanding was the TOT cable goes one direction, and the TT&T cable goes the other direction. They were put up by two different companies.

About two years ago, both smaller cables were cut about 100 meters from the house. TOT replaced the one line, but said I had to contact TT&T to replace the other line. I told them I had contacted TT&T, but no response yet. The next day, I called TT&T again and told them the problem. A few days later, I received a call from the TT&T technician saying he was having problems locating the house. Just at that moment, the TOT technician drove up to check on the internet connection (because of the problems before). I asked him to talk to the TT&T technician to explain to him where the cable was cut.

This time, both large cables were cut near the junction of the smaller cables that go to my house (200 meters away). When I went out to go the offices to report the problem, I saw a TOT crew working on the lines. I asked them what was going on. They told me someone had cut the cables during the night and they were replacing one. I asked if the TT&T cable was cut as well. They told me yes, so I went back to the house armed with what I knew. I looked up the number to call TT&T, called them and informed them what I knew. Later when I went out, I did see a 3B truck (which confirms what you said about TT&T now being 3B) driving around in the area, but I did not have time to stop to inquire.

This evening when I got back, I noticed the computer was on-line and the TOT line was working. Then I checked the TT&T line, which is still dead. It was too dark to go out see what had been done while I was out.

My questions are:

1. If TOT owns the lines, and TT&T leases them, then why was a separate TT&T cable ran one year prior to TOT running a cable?
2. Shouldn't the TOT cable be ran first, or at the same time?
3. Why would TT&T run a cable if TOT owns it?
4. Why do the two cables go two different directions?

It's still a rather gray area which seems to defy logic. I suppose the issue of why the cables seem to be maintained separately, could lie with the who-is-responsible area....

Edited October 7, 2010 by BB1950