True Ultra Hi-Speed Internet

[Pib]

OK, for what's it worth, below are some Speedtest.net results as of around 10:30am to 10:45am/Monday/20 June 11 Bangkok time using my True UltraSpeed Cable Internet 20Mb/2Mb plan installed yesterday. I'm in western Bangkok and did server speed tests to Bangkok, Singapore, San Francisco, San Jose, Washington DC, London and Frankfurt. The Cisco Wireless router/modem provided by True is upstairs and my laptop is downstairs on the dining room table.

I think I actually got some real world results with no faster-than-light Ping and Download results, even to the international servers (i.e., like getting bogus sub-50ms ping times and 20Mb download speeds to farang land/the other side of the world).

To Bangkok

To Singapore

To San Francisco

To San Jose, USA

To Washington, D.C.

To London

To Frankfurt

[Supernova]

^ The ping times are what they should be, more or less... Although I'm not surprised to see (downstream) speeds plummet on tests to servers outside the region.

[jfchandler]

Pib, those out of country numbers are about what I'd expect from True's cable service...

What would be interesting, would be for you and I to coordinate our speed tests... same measuring site... same time....same test destinations.

And then see how their 10 and 20 Mbps plans compare in terms of those results...apples to apples.

[Pib]

Yea, the download speeds to areas outside the region appear to be real world. Maybe True has not put the new cable internet system in my moobaan on their hidden/cached server(s) yet which causes so many True customers to get bogus ping/download speeds to farangland....ping/speed results to the U.S., Europe, etc., which makes these farangland locations seem like just across the soi versus being a half-a-world away.

[Pib]

Pib, those out of country numbers are about what I'd expect from True's cable service...

What would be interesting, would be for you and I to coordinate our speed tests... same measuring site... same time....same test destinations.

And then see how their 10 and 20 Mbps plans compare in terms of those results...apples to apples.

Sounds like a plan. What do you say about using Speedtest.net to Bangkok, Singapore, San Francisco, Washington DC, London and Frankffurt starting at 8pm tonight/Monday?

Or since I see you are online now, what about 1:30pm today/Monday....20 minutes from now.

Edit: added Singapore to test sites.

Edited June 20, 2011 by Pib

[Pib]

JFC,

Don't know if you saw my post about trying some apple to apple tests at 1:30pm. If not, here are the Speedtest.net results I got starting at 1:30pm/today/Monday.

Pib

To Bangkok

To Singapore

To San Francisco

To Washington D.C.

To London

To Frankfurt

[jfchandler]

sorry Pib. My True cable has been out most of the day, and when Ive been online, it's been either using my mobile or tethering with it.

Ive been having a recurring problem the past few weeks, but havent been able to get True to identify, address or solve it. BAD!!!

And every time I call their Cust Serv Center lately, I get only the recording saying theyre unavailable, and then someone from True will call me out of the blue 24 to 48 hours later...

The weird part is, there's been no discernable pattern to the outages - sometimes minutes, sometimes hours, mornings, afternoons, good weather and bad.... GRRRRR......

[Pib]

JFC,

Understand. One thing I've noticed about using True Cable compared to TOT DSL over the past/first 24 hours is whenever I first start the browser to go to site(s) XYZ...say my opening home page(s) which is Yahoo and CNN, is it takes significantly longer for the web site to pull up compared to TOT DSL, especially the CNN connection.. Almost like starting an engine and it runs rough/slow/misses for about a 30-60 seconds until it warms up and then runs smoothly. After that initial 30-60 minutes of browser usage then I can got to/reach any site pretty quickly. Same thing happens when the computer comes out of sleep mode, although I show I have a connection/IP address. Kinda like True notices when my internet activity goes to zero for X-amount of time and maybe puts my connection in idle/slow mode until it notices activity again...then again, it could be an issue with my computer and how it's interfacing with True. But this is a minor issue at this point.

So far, so good for my first 24 hours of cable TV and cable internet usage. Actually, with my moobaan system being brand new with more & more homes in the moobaan being hooked up daily, I'm expecting some glitches...but I hope I don't get a glitch (knock on wood) like you are experiencing.

Pib

[Pib]

Here's some True Cable 20Mb/2Mb Speedtest.net results run beginning at 4pm today/Monday/20June Bangkok time...just to give some more "throughout the day results" as we know internet usage in Thailand, the region, U.S., Europe, etc., varies as these areas start work, end work, kids get out of school and start interneting, vary in the amount of bandwidth they use, etc. The Washington D.C. download speed seems to be consistently slow....kinda like how the U.S. the Congress and President seem to be dragging their feet in trying to work out a budget deficit compromise. (I'm American so I can that!)

To Bangkok

To Singapore

To San Francisco

[/url]

To Washington D.C.

To London

To Frankfurt

Edited June 20, 2011 by Pib

[Pib]

And just a quick "in-Thailand" test to the TOT Ookla speedtester (for a little impartiality) versus the True Ookla speedtester at 4:30pm for my True 20Mb/2Mb cable plan.....in-country speed holding solid at 20Mb/2Mb.

[jfchandler]

Well, I just got my cable back shortly before 5 pm while I was on the line with True CSR...finally.... Curious the timing about that...after being dead out for the prior 5 hours.

So I was able to run my speed tests comparable to Pib's at about 5 pm, a bit later than Pib's last set...but using mostly the same test site and cities.

BKK and Singapore predictable clocked at a bit over 10 Mbps...

London was next best at 4.7 Mbps

Los Angeles and San Fran at 3.65 and 3.14 respectively

Then Wash DC and Seattle at 1.56 and 0.92 respectively

I think the Seattle test may be off for some reason, because it took a very long time to start and run...

BTW, I was looking at some maps the other day showing the main Internet transmission lines... Not sure how up to date they are...

But basically, they showed Thailand with a strong direct connection to Singapore... And then from Singapore the main routes to the U.S. landing in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Whenever I'm doing U.S. things, I'm always trying to make a direct connection via Los Angeles, which seems to work out pretty well most of the time.

For my purposes, I'd be pretty happy if I can get a reliable service that gets me 3 Mbps to the U.S. Lately, however, my True cable has been anything BUT reliable...

[jfchandler]

Just noticed, Pib had run a San Jose CA test as well... So here's mine at 3.45 Mbps

And I re-ran my Seattle test a second time, but a little, but not much better result... Unusually slow for some reason at 1.39 Mbps

[jfchandler]

Not exactly scientific...but an interesting comparison, tests run within one hour of each other this afternoon 4 - 5 p.m.

Pib's 20 Mbps True Cable BKK

JFC's 10 Mbps True Cable BKK

BKK:

Pib: 15.65

Jfc: 10.21

Singapore:

Pib: 15.73

Jfc: 10.21

San Francisco:

Pib: 2.58

Jfc: 3.14

Wash DC:

Pib: 1.98

Jfc: 1.56

London:

Pib: 4.01

Jfc: 4.7

San Jose:

Pib: 3.91 (some hours earlier in the day)

Jfc: 3.45

Los Angeles:

Pib:

Jfc: 3.65

Edited June 20, 2011 by jfchandler

[SweRob]

How come the Ping/Latency is better to the US then to Europe?

[Pib]

For international speeds, which is what most farangs are most concerned about, it seems the 10Mb and 20Mb cable plans are basically equal for general interneting/downloading. I expect True has X-amount of international bandwidth and whether you have the 10Mb, 20Mb, or even cable 100Mb plan you are probably going to get about the same international speed.

One thing that has improved BIG TIME over my TOT 6Mb DSL plan is videos. Before when I went to YouTube to view video clips I would get a lot of pausing...so much pausing I had pretty much given up on watching video clips. But with my True 20Mb plan the videos display without pausing....when selecting a video the buffering/downloading far exceeds the play rate and the video plays without pausing. Usually, say for a video clip of around 5 minutes in length, it begins playing almost immediately, no pausing, and is fully buffered/downloaded in around 5 seconds....I just did a few tests to confirm the videos are still running smooth like they were last night. Watching video clips is now no problem.

[Pib]

How come the Ping/Latency is better to the US then to Europe?

Fewer hops maybe.. maybe slower hops to Europe...maybe more bandwidth to the U.S. I've noticed that pings to the Europe are almost always slower than to the U.S. Heck, maybe the routing is to the U.S. west coast first, across the continental U.S., and then from the U.S. east coast to Europe.

[SweRob]

How come the Ping/Latency is better to the US then to Europe?

Fewer hops maybe.. maybe slower hops to Europe...maybe more bandwidth to the U.S. I've noticed that pings to the Europe are almost always slower than to the U.S. Heck, maybe the routing is to the U.S. west coast first, across the continental U.S., and then from the U.S. east coast to Europe.

Gah! horrible news for me.

[jfchandler]

I'd tend to agree generally, Pib... There's a couple things at play here...

For some uses/destinations, the content may be housed on servers locally or regionally, such as with Google or Apple or other big players who use content distribution networks (CDNs), meaning that those quicker times of the 20 Mbps plan to BKK and Singapore might yield some advantage.

But for true international connections where the content really is being pulled from cities in the U.S., I was interested to see the results of our little comparison... Actually, I had hoped to see a bit more of a consistent advantage with the 20 Mbps plan over the 10 Mbps plan for those international pulls....

But it didn't really surface consistently in our experiment. I think Pib's right about True having a certain amount and speed of true international bandwith, and what you get is what you get... Of course, local factors such as the cabling in his neighborhood vs. mine also could play a factor, I suppose. Though, Pib's setup presumably is new and tight, whereas my neighborhood is older and the outside pole cabling here in central BKK looks like a spaghetti factory has exploded!!!

I will say, though, (like Pib re his prior TOT DSL plan) the results above are definitely better than what I had been getting before with my True 8 Mbps DSL plan. That may be because, at present, there isn't as much local network congestion here in BKK on the cable system compared to the True DSL internet system.

One of True's CSRs told me recently that the two networks run separately, and that an outage in one doesn't mean an outage in the other. I have no way of knowing if that's true or not... But I was trying to get a sense of whether keeping a DSL account with True as a backup, in the event the cable network goes down, would be a useful or practical consideration.

[jfchandler]

Here's the Internet transmission lines map I was seeing lately... Not sure of the date/currency on this...

[jfchandler]

How come the Ping/Latency is better to the US then to Europe?

Fewer hops maybe.. maybe slower hops to Europe...maybe more bandwidth to the U.S. I've noticed that pings to the Europe are almost always slower than to the U.S. Heck, maybe the routing is to the U.S. west coast first, across the continental U.S., and then from the U.S. east coast to Europe.

Gah! horrible news for me.

I got 4.7 Mbps to London this afternoon...on my True 10 Mbps cable... at 236 ms.... What's to complain about...

[Pib]

Just a few Speedtest.net results using the True Cable 20Mb/2Mb plan at approx 11:10am/today/Tuesday. Please note the Ping times for the outside Thailand/international sites are bogus, faster-than-the-speed-of-light....but the download/upload speeds seem real world.

Also hooked up my telephone VOIP adapter to the router today...calls are clear to the States...even with the TOT 6Mb DSL plan they were clear. And YouTube videos continue to play without pausing...buffers/downloads the videos very fast....pretty sure my days of not being able to watch videos real time due to severe pausing are behind me (I hope).

To Bangkok

To Singapore

To San Francisco

To London

[Supernova]

Yesterday ping rates were 'normal' (250ms-350ms). Now it seems True are back to their old tricks again

Here's mine - ADSL 10M/1M

[Pib]

Heres my 20Mb/2Mb True Cable to London and San Francisco at 12:45pm/today/Tuesday. (Note: ping times are bogus). Also, included results to a server in southern Thailand.

To London

To San Francisco

To southern Thailand, Surat Thani Province

[Pib]

Yesterday ping rates were 'normal' (250ms-350ms). Now it seems True are back to their old tricks again

Yea, I noticed that. Maybe True's hidden cache/proxy server affectionately named "Fool All the Speedtest Programs" blew a fuse and it took them a day to find the right sized fuse.

But it does seem the download speeds are not being fooled; only the ping times.

[Pib]

Here's some comparisons between my True Cable 20Mb/2Mb and TOT 6Mb/512Kb ADSL to London and San Francisco at 12:45-1:45pm/today/Tuesday. (Note: True ping times are bogus). Also, included results to a server in southern Thailand (ping times appear OK). All download times seem real world. Seems True is running a little speedier than this morning. TOT is running about its normal speed. Now, I'm on TOT 6Mb in writing this post; now need to switch back to the True 20Mb connection....in browsing it's definitely noticeable in how fast web pages appear between the 20Mb and 6Mb plans.

To London on True 20Mb/2Mb Cable

To London on TOT 6Mb/512Kb ADSL

To San Francisco on True 20Mb/2Mb Cable

To San Francisco on TOT 6Mb/512Kb ADSL

To southern Thailand, Surat Thani Province, on True 20Mb/2Mb Cable

To southern Thailand, Surat Thani Province on TOT 6Mb/512Kb ADSL

[jfchandler]

Curious how your TOT connection using the same Speedtest web site produces real ping numbers, but when you switch to True cable and still use the same SpeedTest site, you get the silly, bogus numbers...from the same site...

Here's some comparisons between my True Cable 20Mb/2Mb and TOT 6Mb/512Kb ADSL to London and San Francisco at 12:45-1:45pm/today/Tuesday. (Note: True ping times are bogus). Also, included results to a server in southern Thailand (ping times appear OK). All download times seem real world. Seems True is running a little speedier than this morning. TOT is running about its normal speed. Now, I'm on TOT 6Mb in writing this post; now need to switch back to the True 20Mb connection....in browsing it's definitely noticeable in how fast web pages appear between the 20Mb and 6Mb plans.

To London on True 20Mb/2Mb Cable

To London on TOT 6Mb/512Kb ADSL

[Pib]

Yeap, some type of True faster-than-light hidden cache/proxy server I guess. With TOT I never got bogus ping times. But what is funny, yesterday True was providing real world ping times; today bogus ping times. Since Thai ISPs reset our dynamic IP addresses every 24 hours, maybe my True IP address/server in use yesterday gave honest results but my True IP address/server today gives bogus results. I just don't know how True does it's magic, but I'm pretty sure they haven't figured out to make internet electrons go faster than the speed of light, although they sure make you think that with some of their ping times....ping times that make San Francisco, London, etc., appear to be just a few miles outside Bangkok.

[Pib]

Some Speedtest.net results of my 20Mb/2Mb True Cable internet at around 8:30am/today/Wed/22 June. I seem be be getting real world ping times and download results today....yesterday I was getting bogus ping times.

To Bangkok

To Singapore

To San Francisco (West Coast of U.S.)

To Washington D.C. (East Coast of U.S.)

To London

Note: Tests above run over a wireless connection between my laptop and wireless router (True provided Cisco combo modem & router) being in the same room upstairs. When I move my laptop downstairs with the wireless router still being upstairs I still get good router signal signal strength, a router to laptop basic sync connection usually in the 36-54Mb range. However, I have noticed my tests to the Bangkok server tend to run in the 15-20Mb range when I'm downstairs but I get the full 20Mb speed when upstairs...I expect there is some retransmissions/errors occurring due to the distance and concrete walls/floor between my laptop downstairs and the wireless router upstairs.

[Pib]

Regarding my Note in above post regarding distance/obstructions between the wireless router and your computer, if you are going to signup for one of the plans faster than 20Mb you really need to consider where you plan to place the wireless router, where your computer will be located in relation to the router (i.e., same room, different floors, etc) as you may not be able to get the full benefit of the higher plan speed (ie., 30Mb, 50Mb, 100Mb) unless your computer and wireless router are in the same room or ethernet wired together.

Also, keep in mind many (maybe most) web sites/servers you are connecting to in Thailand and around the world probably can not feed you data at a 30Mb, 50Mb, 100Mb rate...heck, they might not able to keep up with a 10mb or 20Mb rate.

In closing, is my new True 20Mb cable internet plan faster than my TOT 6Mb ADSL plan? The answer is Yes!!! General web browsing and a little bit of file downloading, which is mostly what I do (I'm not into torrents yet), is definitely faster. Browsing is much more snappier on most web sites....on some web sites it's about the same because that web site is just slow...only feeds data at a low rate. Real time/YouTube videos no longer pause....they start almost immediately, play smoothly, and buffer-down the complete video within 5 to 15 seconds. Also, I'm into my third day using the cable TV/internet plan, and the cable TV and internet has been working every hour I've been awake using them. So far,so good....knock on wood.

Cheers.

[Supernova]

(I'm not into torrents yet)

Once you dig in, you can't stop...

Real time/YouTube videos no longer pause....they start almost immediately, play smoothly, and buffer-down the complete video within 5 to 15 seconds.

Here's the REAL test:

Try streaming 720p/1080p HD videos on YouTube.