Warning For Cat Cdma

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Yes, when they changed from the MC727 to 760 they were quite a while without any modems.

Useless business sense. No wonder they try to hold on to their almost monopoly.

CAT is good when it comes to their technology - network reliable, engineers seem to know what they're doing.

Their problem is on the business side. Totally unorganized for customer service- they're trying but they just don't know how it works. And they're simply incapable of marketing or releasing products.

I once went to the CAT office to ask about DSL. This is the big office in Central Airport. You would never guess the answer... you couldn't make this up, really. "We don't have any promotion currently, we're waiting for new promotion from Bangkok. Sorry!". So there was a period where they would just not be able to sell you a DSL package. Whoops!

Then there was the CDMA service which was operational for about 1 year before they started to make any attempt at marketing. I saw a tiny little poster at the post office in Pai. This prompted me to go to the CAT head office in Chiang Mai and ask - and guess what they were offering CDMA, except they hadn't told anyone. I was the only customer there, and one of the bosses gave me the tour of the building.

Amusing, but actually not.

[loong]

Those are EDGE speeds and not good ones at that. Perhaps it was GPRS before. I get double that using DTAC/HAPPY EDGE. Don't have any experience upcountry. It's ridiculous that you are paying so much for such a low standard of service.

I agree that they are what EDGE speeds are supposed to be, but I was not getting anything like that with EDGE in this area. The problem seems to be that I am in a dip here and so the signal is not great. Page 1 of this thread would take at least 3 minutes to fully load with my EDGE connection beacause of all the images. I just timed it at 27 seconds

With this new modem, you can alter the settings to force EVDO, but this means that when the signal strength drops, you will not revert to 1x, your connection will just cut out. This was also possible with the MC 760 but you needed a password to adjust the settings.

The previous tests that I posted were done at a time when there would have been a lot of people using the internet. I did these a bit before 5AM and they are better. In fact the speeds are not so different to what I was getting most of the time with the MC760 with external antenna.

I'm very surprised to get these results just using the built in antenna

I just hope that this modem proves to be reliable.

CAT's move to using SIMcards is also an improvement. Maybe when other providers get their licences and infrastructure sorted, we will have the option to change suppliers with a 99 Baht SIM

[loong]

Hi, It will be interesting to see what improvement is made when you connect your external antenna, please let us know how you get on in finding

a '' pig tail '' connection lead , does it give any indication on the VW140 box who the manufacture is or more details ?

TL :jap:

There's no details for connecting an external antenna in the user manual, so I hope that the tel number that CAT have given me proves to be useful. I will certainly post if/when I get the lead.

The modem is manufactured in Korea, same as the Novatel modems.

[loong]

Yes, when they changed from the MC727 to 760 they were quite a while without any modems.

Useless business sense. No wonder they try to hold on to their almost monopoly.

CAT is good when it comes to their technology - network reliable, engineers seem to know what they're doing.

Their problem is on the business side. Totally unorganized for customer service- they're trying but they just don't know how it works. And they're simply incapable of marketing or releasing products.

I once went to the CAT office to ask about DSL. This is the big office in Central Airport. You would never guess the answer... you couldn't make this up, really. "We don't have any promotion currently, we're waiting for new promotion from Bangkok. Sorry!". So there was a period where they would just not be able to sell you a DSL package. Whoops!

Then there was the CDMA service which was operational for about 1 year before they started to make any attempt at marketing. I saw a tiny little poster at the post office in Pai. This prompted me to go to the CAT head office in Chiang Mai and ask - and guess what they were offering CDMA, except they hadn't told anyone. I was the only customer there, and one of the bosses gave me the tour of the building.

Yes, useless marketing.

I was vaguely aware of CDMA, but didn't know what it was. I thought that my only option was TOT Ipstar. If CAT had actually done some promotion, I would never have signed up for Ipstar. That was really expensive and not much better than useless.

I became aware of CAT CDMA through this forum, not by any promotion from CAT. I believe that it was the same for Totster who also suffered with Ipstar for far too long

[khunjake]

You can buy CDMA signal boosters as well which should improve your Tx/Rx signal by about 1-2 bars depending on how far away your modem is from the BTS.

I have used DTAC EDGE for the last 5 years as a TOT backup and find the service to be flawless and reliable. Yes you can only get 200kbps down and 50kbps up but for basic things, it quite suitable.

[Totster]

I believe that it was the same for Totster who also suffered with Ipstar for far too long

Yes it was. I (wrongly) assumed that because I was so far from a CAT Tower that I would have no hope of getting a signal. Even when i read on here it could be done and went and discussed with the guys in the local CAT office I still remained sceptical, this is due to the useless service and empty promises I had for a few years with TOT Crapstar.

Anyway, I took the leap and have been more than happy since getting it installed with the aerial here. I regularly get speeds in excess of 1.5meg d/l and 600KBps u/l and at a third of the cost of Crapstar.

No complaints here

Totster

[lifeincnx]

By chance, are you able to upload torrents? I can download fine but there appears to be a firewall block by CAT on the upload side.

[Totster]

By chance, are you able to upload torrents? I can download fine but there appears to be a firewall block by CAT on the upload side.

Here is the thing.. it seems to upload fine, but only when the torrent has fully downloaded and is seeding.

totster

[lifeincnx]

By chance, are you able to upload torrents? I can download fine but there appears to be a firewall block by CAT on the upload side.

Here is the thing.. it seems to upload fine, but only when the torrent has fully downloaded and is seeding.

totster

Hmmm...

My downloads are complete (at 100%). But on the upload, using uTorrent, it just hangs at very low to no speeds. I use McAfee for the firewall but have uTorrent as an exclusion with full rights (up/down). So, it seems to be a firewall through CAT.

[Isaanben]

Well, at last, last week, the CAT shop in Kalasin said that my modem could not be repaired, the connection to the antenna had caused it, so I had to buy a new. It would cost me 5,900. But they did not have any in the shop so I would have to wait one week...

Fortunately I had a phone no to a technician (from CAT) and he came over the next day and installed a new modem. On the screen it says CDMA EC150, but on the box where the modem was in, it says EC122. And I had to pay 4,500. A little strange, I think... But now I have internet in my house and I am happy with that.

Ben

[halfhead]

The EC150 is 2,400thb according to their website

Did you get the MC760 back?

[garyh]

Has anyone here had the MC760 Modem drop in speed? I have it running 24/7 plugged into a Cradlepoint router, after rebooting the signal strength is 100 % ( I am 2km from tower and have external antenna). However overnight the signal strength drops to 70 % and speeds drop right back. I have just updated the router firmware but I am sure it is the modem itself that is having the problem.