Sophon Fibre-Broadband - Pattaya-Jomtien

[RabC]

I might be wrong, but for some reason, I wouldn't trust those guys as my internet provider. Quite happy with 3BB for the moment. Never had a problem in 5 months since I started with them

An unfounded hunch based on nothing at all?

You are wrong.

I have both 3BB (5 years) and CAT-Sophon (6 months), so I'm basing my statement on experience. The main problem with 3BB is their atrocious customer service.

I fully agree with Tropo about 3BB customer service. I am an electronics engineer and had the 3BB call centre telling me the fault was with my computer even though I explained I had used my machine and adsl modem at a neighbours with no problem. It was after this that I dropped 3BB and moved to Sophon 6 months ago.

[Darrel]

I am an electronics engineer and had the 3BB call centre telling me the fault was with my computer even though I explained I had used my machine and adsl modem at a neighbours with no problem.

In my experience that is a universal problem with all call centres throughout the world. It is always the customer's fault until proven otherwise (sometimes by force). In many cases, of course, it is indeed the customer's fault. But not always.

There are threads in here describing exactly the same response from Sophon though in general they get good reviews.

[tropo]

I am an electronics engineer and had the 3BB call centre telling me the fault was with my computer even though I explained I had used my machine and adsl modem at a neighbours with no problem.

In my experience that is a universal problem with all call centres throughout the world. It is always the customer's fault until proven otherwise (sometimes by force). In many cases, of course, it is indeed the customer's fault. But not always.

There are threads in here describing exactly the same response from Sophon though in general they get good reviews.

Sophon does not blame a problem on the customer. I'd like to see the thread where they blame a customer. I'd like to see how long ago that was because they've only been providing broadband in Pattaya for just over 2 years and maybe it was an early problem.

You call them and an hour or so later they are at your doorstep to check out the problem. Their service is shockingly good. One time I wasn't home and they actually waited for nearly an hour before leaving a handwritten note for me to call them when I'm home.

The last time I called them (last week) they sent 2 different teams. It was quite amusing because the 2nd team didn't know the 1st team had already been there.

[Darrel]

Sophon does not blame a problem on the customer. I'd like to see the thread where they blame a customer. I'd like to see how long ago that was because they've only been providing broadband in Pattaya for just over 2 years and maybe it was an early problem.

The thread was quite recent. Less than 2 or 3 months I think. I dont remember when the actual events were supposed to have taken place, or indeed if a date was even mentioned. It is all hearsay, of course.

The poster (if I remember correctly) had some sort of problem with Sophon. They said it was his PC. In the end he took his PC down to the shop in South Rd and proved to them that it was working correctly there.

After that I think that they fixed the problem.

I have always found the people in the Sophon office to be very pleasant and helpful, when I have gone in there to ask a question. I have never needed to contact them over the phone or indeed for any technical matter.

[alexth]

I might be wrong, but for some reason, I wouldn't trust those guys as my internet provider. Quite happy with 3BB for the moment. Never had a problem in 5 months since I started with them

An unfounded hunch based on nothing at all?

You are wrong.

I have both 3BB (5 years) and CAT-Sophon (6 months), so I'm basing my statement on experience. The main problem with 3BB is their atrocious customer service.

I deftely agree on 3BB's customer service in Chon Buri area, it's ridiculous. But while in Phuket they were spot on.

[topt]

I just ran Thai Visa Speed checks to Singapore and Bkk, I have fiber optics through my TV cable, been happy with them for over a year. Now paying B840 on annual contract.

Speeds for Singapore are: 978 KPS down 491 up and ping 456 Bangkok 1003 down 450 up ping 289 and my IP is 119 XXXXXXXXX. Very happy with the performance and the price.

just curious.do they block or throttle torrents? have heard conflicting reports..

No, they don't. You must bear in mind that this is CAT through fibre optic, so they are in control of the bandwidth, not Sophon.

They do have the best customer service I've ever experienced. On the 3 times I've called them they were at my house within an hour - amazing.

First time was to change from the TV cables to a dedicated cable. The next time to change a faulty modem and the last time to check a problem on the outside line.

Tropo - any reason why they changed to a dedicated cable - and did it in fact make a difference?

I ask as I have Sophon and the link from across the street is via an existing TV cable - but not sure how easy it would be to add a new cable anyhow.

[tropo]

Tropo - any reason why they changed to a dedicated cable - and did it in fact make a difference?

I ask as I have Sophon and the link from across the street is via an existing TV cable - but not sure how easy it would be to add a new cable anyhow.

When I first had it installed it was up and down, off and on and all over the place. They checked my Sohpon TV cable and noticed that it was not producing a good signal. It was easy at my place as they just had to run a cable from the power pole outside into my office.

Old TV cables can be a problem. It is the very first thing I would suspect if your service is not consistent.

[bob4you]

they did the same thing for me, new cable from street into the house, then they were happy with the signal. Their service has bee great, arrive within 1/2 hour of call fix problems even when diagnosed as bad wireless (mine), I had a spare, installed it worked fine. No charge.

[guzzi850m2]

they did the same thing for me, new cable from street into the house, then they were happy with the signal. Their service has bee great, arrive within 1/2 hour of call fix problems even when diagnosed as bad wireless (mine), I had a spare, installed it worked fine. No charge.

Banglamung cable TV/internet which I believe is the same as Sophon did the same in my house today, no charge for cables and 2 guys sweating for 3 hours-climbing up under my roof pulling a new cable.

Okay I reported the problem in the office at Naklua at 1000 am and the man showed up at 1600 hours but didn't left until 1730 when he was sure my ground cable was the sinner. Next morning at 1100 (today) they were on the case.

Now my speed is constant/stable and pretty close to the 4mb I pay for, so very very happy with the service

[Rainmon]

.

Just learned that Sophon sells an ASUS RT-N10 Wireless Router as an add-on to their fiber-broadband service. This unit will get around the IP exposure problem mentioned above, as well as providing wi-fi and four RJ-45 Cat-5 Ethernet Ports.

The report is that Sophon sells them for around 1500 Baht. I found a link where it's listed at 1249 Baht.

http://www.asus.com/...bPnstlXm6zKqtWW

http://www.pcresourc...ch-p-13466.html

.

the first router link says 150Mbps, what does that mean? If I get the 4Mbps service or faster does that mean I can only get 150Mbps on Wifi? Thanks

[Rainmon]

Note, I found this information on another forum, seems it's a waste of money for more than 4Mbps service if you mainly access international sites:

"Most of the time, though, overseas sites download at something like 2 Mbps. I have the 10 Mbps service from Sophon. Speedtests to San Francisco sometimes (like now, at 4am) score in excess of 10 Mbps. I think that's astounding. Fact is, since you can only get international speeds above 4 Mbps at inconvenient hours, it's a dubious luxury to purchase internet access at speeds above 4 Mbps".

any comments?

[Darrel]

It all depends on what you want it for.

Anyone downloading large files from international destinations would probably do so overnight or in the background, so in that respect it seems fine. No point sitting in front of a computer watching a file download for 8 hours.

People who dont download large files probably dont need a fast connection at all, and could easily make do with a much slower one. Websurfing certainly doesnt require a specially fast connection.

[mahjongguy]

Here's a note on cable modem service:

Customers of TOT, 3BB, and other ADSL providers often have a single box which functions as a modem and as a router. These combo boxes cannot be used with cable modem services such as Sophon Internet, Jomtien Cable, and the upcoming True Ultra DOCSIS service. That's because the combo boxes are fully integrated; they do not have a WAN port where one would connect the output of the cable modem to the input of the router.

So, if you upgrade to cable service (and it is indeed an upgrade) you will need to purchase a new router that does not have a built-in ADSL modem. There are several to choose from at Tukcom, with or without WiFi capability.

I have had the 10MB/512KB from Sophon for 2 years and like it. I hope to also get True's 20MB/2MB DOCSIS service next month.

Now I see that CAT is splicing fiber on Jomtien Beach Road. This seems to be an expansion of their fiber-to-the-home project. They said (a year ago) that this would offer speeds from 100MB to 150MB but pricing has not been revealed. I doubt that it will be attractively priced. In any case, such speeds are not of much use if they drop down to 3 or 4MB internationally.

It looks like by the end of the year there will be 6 broadband providers on our small soi. From a business case standpoint, that's a joke, but for me it's definitely a treat.

[Rainmon]

after a month and a half on Sophon Internet, fiber optic connection, it Sucks! slow speeds half the time and constant link failures to the internet connection, customer service sends tech guys out and cannot fix the problem, one guy said the fiber optic system is not as good as old style phone wires, am very disappointed but had to pay for six months in advance to get the 790 baht a month rate of 4Mbps, seems to be a bit high price for lousy service, welcome to Thailand...

[mahjongguy]

..after a month and a half on Sophon Internet, fiber optic connection, it Sucks!

I'm sorry to hear it. My experience here on Jomtien Beach has been a very good one for nearly two years.

I agree that the techs, though they try to be helpful, don't seem to have the test equipment that would make their work more successful.

[roban]

after a month and a half on Sophon Internet, fiber optic connection, it Sucks! slow speeds half the time and constant link failures to the internet connection, ......

I can confirm the slow speeds on Sophon fibre optic (Soi Kao Noi). Not even a 300 Kbit stream from Europe plays without stutter and buffering.

Speedtests to Europe and USA ~ 250 Kbit.

But very friendly technicians, and a good response time, when I phoned them.

But the best service doesn't help, if they can't fix the problems...

Technician told me that 60 people share a 100 Mbit line. So this could be an explanation of the ridiculous international speed.

Sophon Speedtest to Germany

TOT speedtest to Germany, the same day

I did many different speedtests with almost similar results....

Edited September 19, 2011 by roban

[Rainmon]

after a month and a half on Sophon Internet, fiber optic connection, it Sucks! slow speeds half the time and constant link failures to the internet connection, ......

I can confirm the slow speeds on Sophon fibre optic (Soi Kao Noi). Not even a 300 Kbit stream from Europe plays without stutter and buffering.

Speedtests to Europe and USA ~ 250 Kbit.

But very friendly technicians, and a good response time, when I phoned them.

But the best service doesn't help, if they can't fix the problems...

Technician told me that 60 people share a 100 Mbit line. So this could be an explanation of the ridiculous international speed.

Sophon Speedtest to Germany

TOT speedtest to Germany, the same day

I did many different speedtests with almost similar results....

The management should fix this problem if they are overloading the system, I can't imagine what will happen high season. Yesterday I streamed Justin.tv for over 4 hours before I finally got kicked off with another link connection failure, now today the speed is erratic and slow and keep having link failures back to the shit service... my condo is near 3rd road and soi 17.

Edited September 19, 2011 by Rainmon

[RabC]

after a month and a half on Sophon Internet, fiber optic connection, it Sucks! slow speeds half the time and constant link failures to the internet connection, ......

I can confirm the slow speeds on Sophon fibre optic (Soi Kao Noi). Not even a 300 Kbit stream from Europe plays without stutter and buffering.

Speedtests to Europe and USA ~ 250 Kbit.

But very friendly technicians, and a good response time, when I phoned them.

But the best service doesn't help, if they can't fix the problems...

Technician told me that 60 people share a 100 Mbit line. So this could be an explanation of the ridiculous international speed.

Sophon Speedtest to Germany

TOT speedtest to Germany, the same day

I did many different speedtests with almost similar results....

The management should fix this problem if they are overloading the system, I can't imagine what will happen high season. Yesterday I streamed Justin.tv for over 4 hours before I finally got kicked off with another link connection failure, now today the speed is erratic and slow and keep having link failures back to the shit service... my condo is near 3rd road and soi 17.

Can I ask what a speed test to Singapore gives you with Sophon so we can see if its Sophon Cable or their supplier CAT?

[bartender100]

3BB in Jomtien, very good, actually I have some torrents running when I just did the test, top service from their shops and engineers

Edited September 19, 2011 by bartender100

[roban]

Can I ask what a speed test to Singapore gives you with Sophon so we can see if its Sophon Cable or their supplier CAT?

I will do it tomorrow, when I am back to work on Kao Noi.

[Orac]

Can I ask what a speed test to Singapore gives you with Sophon so we can see if its Sophon Cable or their supplier CAT?

I will do it tomorrow, when I am back to work on Kao Noi.

Speedtest with Sophon 4mb contract on Nernplabwan

[roban]

Just did a speedtest to Singapore with my crappy 3 Mbit ADSL TOT line at home, (location near the crossing of Road 3240 and railroad)....

Would be happy, if Sophon could provide a similar speed...

PS: my Live-TV stream from Germany now runs for more than 30 min. without buffering

Edited September 19, 2011 by roban

[tropo]

So, if you upgrade to cable service (and it is indeed an upgrade) you will need to purchase a new router that does not have a built-in ADSL modem. There are several to choose from at Tukcom, with or without WiFi capability.

This is incorrect information. Unless you want to use WiFi around your home you do not need to purchase a new router. You can just plug the cable modem which is provided by Sophon directly into the LAN socket of your computer and configure the user name and password in Windows.

Sohpon do not require you to buy the cable modem. They now ask for a 1000 baht refundable deposit as they were losing too many previously.

[roban]

Every router/gateway (even with integrated modem) should work.

Just disable the internal (ADSL) modem in your router settings and you are fine.

Provide username and password, and the router will use the external Sophon modem to connect.

[RabC]

Just did a speedtest to Singapore with my crappy 3 Mbit ADSL TOT line at home, (location near the crossing of Road 3240 and railroad)....

Would be happy, if Sophon could provide a similar speed...

PS: my Live-TV stream from Germany now runs for more than 30 min. without buffering

Roban The one thing I noticed from your original speed tests was the difference in the time of the day, the fast one was early morning Thai time the slow one was afternoon which is peak. I am in South Pattaya and get the advertised 7MB in the mornings but it does drop off to 3-4 at peak times and that is to Singapore. I have learned to accept that anything over 2 MB to Europe during the working day here is good, but that is for a non dedicated line. Right now I have 2 torrents both running at over 200kB/s in the morning I can expect 700kB/s.

Edited September 19, 2011 by RabC

[tropo]

after a month and a half on Sophon Internet, fiber optic connection, it Sucks! slow speeds half the time and constant link failures to the internet connection, customer service sends tech guys out and cannot fix the problem, one guy said the fiber optic system is not as good as old style phone wires, am very disappointed but had to pay for six months in advance to get the 790 baht a month rate of 4Mbps, seems to be a bit high price for lousy service, welcome to Thailand...

If you pay for the bargain basement service with the highest contention ratio you should expect inconsistency. How can the company guarantee a minimum speed if you're sharing with umpteen other bandwidth hogs in your area. No minimum speed can ever be guaranteed by any company when so many customers are using the Internet 24/7 for bittorrent downloads and streaming video.

You were paying 790 (now it's 690) for 4Mb/0.5Mb while I pay 1,690 for 2Mb/1Mb. You'd have to ask yourself why people would pay more than double for such a service. The answer is more consistent, reliable speed. Still sharing, but with fewer people. There's still always the risk that some bandwidth hogs will move in next door and lower you speed. That is the risk everyone takes with shared Internet services. We are lucky that we don't have a limit on the amount of data sent and received as they do in many countries (eg. Australia and NZ).

You can be certain that you're not the only one in the neighbourhood interested in downloading bittorrents etc 24/7.

Have a look at this list provided to me in January by Sophon. The installation cost has since dropped and the modem is now provided free for a 1000 baht deposit.

These are the high end services provided by CAT through Sophon. You'll see that for the 10Mb/1Mb service you can pay 2,500 per month, or 6,700 per month. Then jumping to 10Mb/3Mb the price climbs to 7,960 per month.

Your service 10Mb/0.5Mb = 690 per month

Gold Plus 10Mb/3Mb = 7,960 per month

These services cost more for a reason.

Edited September 19, 2011 by tropo

[mahjongguy]

"So, if you upgrade to cable service (and it is indeed an upgrade) you will need to purchase a new router that does not have a built-in ADSL modem. There are several to choose from at Tukcom, with or without WiFi capability."

"This is incorrect information. Unless you want to use WiFi around your home you do not need to purchase a new router. You can just plug the cable modem which is provided by Sophon directly into the LAN socket of your computer and configure the user name and password in Windows."

Well, yes, you could do that if you only have one PC but then you won't have a hardware firewall. That would be especially unwise on a cable modem system.

"Every router/gateway (even with integrated modem) should work. Just disable the internal (ADSL) modem in your router settings and you are fine. Provide username and password, and the router will use the external Sophon modem to connect.

Sorry, but I stand by my statement. The ADSL/Router devices that I have seen do not have an Ethernet WAN port into which you can plug the connection from the cable modem.

[tropo]

Sorry, but I stand by my statement. The ADSL/Router devices that I have seen do not have an Ethernet WAN port into which you can plug the connection from the cable modem.

When I first hooked up to Sohpon Cable I managed to get the Internet working with my ADSL wireless router by plugging the LAN from the cable modem into one of the LAN sockets. I now use a dedicated wireless router.

[Darrel]

If you pay for the bargain basement service with the highest contention ratio you should expect inconsistency. How can the company guarantee a minimum speed if you're sharing with umpteen other bandwidth hogs in your area. No minimum speed can ever be guaranteed by any company when so many customers are using the Internet 24/7 for bittorrent downloads and streaming video.

Back in Europe I paid 30Euros (1200B)/month for up to 18Mbits ADSL (6Mbits in my case), phone line rental, unlimited phone calls to 100 countries, 100 channels of TV (including several HD channels), free loan of quad-play wifi box/modem and guaranteed 24hr repair in case of faults.

I got a rock solid download speed of 6Mbits, day and night, 365 days a year with no exceptions.

There is absolutely no reason why the same should not be possible here, for much less cost. If it isn't available it it simply down to incompetence and/or overpricing.

[mahjongguy]

When I first hooked up to Sohpon Cable I managed to get the Internet working with my ADSL wireless router by plugging the LAN from the cable modem into one of the LAN sockets.

Just curious, can you recall the brand and model of that device? I can see where that might work for one PC but the wireless wouldn't function and you wouldn't have the protection of the router's firewall. In other words, you might just as well have plugged your PC directly into the cable modem.