True Ultra Hi-Speed Internet

[shariq607]

The problem, of course, is thus far, we have one CAT fiber customer reporting terrific speeds... one indirectly reporting lousy speeds.... and no one else using CAT fiber reporting...

So given that CAT, I gather, is asking for one-year service commitments, you could find yourself either a very happy or very angry CAT customer, it seems...

With True, at 600 to 1000 a month, I can put up with some grief and headache... But for 8,900 per month for Platinum, CAT had better be good as gold guaranteed...

BTW... in his earlier post today, Shariq alluded almost in passing to "frequent disconnects" -- something I don't recall him mentioning in his previous comments.

I guess to sum it up thus far re CAT fiber... I'll say I'm intrigued... but far from persuaded or convinced.... We just don't have enough information or direct reports....

Personally, if we could figure out what areas they're actually serving (which we can't thus far), I might be willing to give one of their lower priced plans a try...

But right now, I've already got two ISP plans... one True cable and one True DSL as a backup.... So I'm not looking to take on a 3rd ISP. Someone else would need to be the guinea pig here...

Actually cat is one of the company which dont care about advertising there products if you call them once and ask them information they would simply tell you all you need to know, there sales team wont call you 5 times a day like true and 3bb marketing team does, Regarding cheaper plans i did mention in my previous post that the cheaper plans dp have same speeds in thailand however different in international. the guy who is working for one of the cat branches told me that the silver plan which ranges from 1500 baht to 3500 baht has a max speed of 1 mb to international servers and as you upgrade to gold or higher it increases however when i asked them about the platinum international speeds they told me 5-10 mb range which i considered good at that time but heck no this is not 5-10 mb range i am getting 22-23 mb range internationally from my 25 mb plan thats <deleted> AMAZING however i am scared to call them and ask why i am getting these speed since i am afraid they would throttle me back down similar to my friend.

Regarding my friend, he has been an unhappy customer since all he needed was a better international speed connection turns out to be similar to true Adsl speeds for Premium price

he has Been to the cat office and they told him this is what he should be getting

i suggested him calling ntc to file a complain and ntc told him to take speedtests and write a complain and send them to there email and they will reply within 7 days However when he will do speedtest on thai servers of-course he would be getting max speed so its useless to talk to them

Ohh one more thing i never got more then 200-250 Kb range when downloading torrents even with the best seeds possible

[shariq607]

มาดูความเร็ว cat on net @ bangkok ( fiber optic )

ผมใช้ 10/1 อยู่ครับ

ในประเทศดี

มาออกนอกบ้านบ้าง

สรุปนะครับ ในประเทศดีเลย แต่ออกนอกแย่มากครับ เดียวจะเทสโหลดทั้งในและต่างประเทศให้ดูนะครั

here is one of the speedtests of silver fiber 10/1 now its 12/2 for same price

I have taken this from a thai forum as this is not available in any thaivisa forums

i dont know what he wrote in thai since i am not a good thai reader

[Pib]

Shariq,

Good info...thanks for sniffing it out. The CAT Fiber Silver 10/1 plan, now the 12/2 plan at 1500 baht/month, don't really seem impressive international speed-wise considering the cost. But if it was the best internet available to a person's location among ADSL, Cable, and Fiber plans, then the price is not that bad in comparison to ADSL and Cable.

I also think it also helps to emphasis that just because the words Fiber Internet or Cable Internet tend to give many the impression (and hopes) of much faster speeds, especially to international sites, that may not be the reality. I'm afraid that until Thai ISPs obtain/provide more international bandwidth, the primary choke-point for international speed will be at the international gateways for Thai ISPs. While we all may be able to connect to that international gateway at 10Mb, 20Mb, 25Mb, 100Mb, etc., that does not mean the international gateway is going to give a person 10Mb, 20Mb, 25Mb, 100Mb, etc., bandwidth out of Thailand.

Cheers,

Pib

[norway1965]

if i dont take wrong so in cat have % of internett u have 4 coices 25% europe 75% thailand. next one are 50% europa 50% thailand so 75% europa 25 thailand so 100% europa 0 thailand like that, that of 25% of eurpo in speed gett lover seep in europe better speed in thailand if u take 75% europa 25 % thailand are wery good or 100% europa that its best from cat but that cost more monney sure

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

มาดูความเร็ว cat on net @ bangkok ( fiber optic )

ผมใช้ 10/1 อยู่ครับ

ในประเทศดี

สรุปนะครับ ในประเทศดีเลย แต่ออกนอกแย่มากครับ เดียวจะเทสโหลดทั้งในและต่างประเทศให้ดูนะครั

here is one of the speedtests of silver fiber 10/1 now its 12/2 for same price

I have taken this from a thai forum as this is not available in any thaivisa forums

i dont know what he wrote in thai since i am not a good thai reader

Ya, those results for CAT OnNet's Silver plan are definitely ho-hum... no better than an average DSL service... Certainly not anything deserving of a premium price...

[shariq607]

if i dont take wrong so in cat have % of internett u have 4 coices 25% europe 75% thailand. next one are 50% europa 50% thailand so 75% europa 25 thailand so 100% europa 0 thailand like that, that of 25% of eurpo in speed gett lover seep in europe better speed in thailand if u take 75% europa 25 % thailand are wery good or 100% europa that its best from cat but that cost more monney sure

sorry i dont understand what do you mean>?

[norway1965]

if i dont take wrong so in cat have % of internett u have 4 coices 25% europe 75% thailand. next one are 50% europa 50% thailand so 75% europa 25 thailand so 100% europa 0 thailand like that, that of 25% of eurpo in speed gett lover seep in europe better speed in thailand if u take 75% europa 25 % thailand are wery good or 100% europa that its best from cat but that cost more monney sure

sorry i dont understand what do you mean>?

its % in thailand and rest of the world that with 100/10 that are 100 usa/europa 10 or 15 thailand, are best in usa and europa thats its gold p, if u want have one thailand not good speed to usa and europa u take that 7/1 25/ usa/europe 75% thailand ,you understand now

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Norway, I'm not sure I understand you either....but I think you may be misunderstanding the numbers...

When you see an Internet plan that says like 10/1... that isn't talking about speeds to outside Thailand or inside Thailand....

The first number is the download speed... The second number is the upload speed... And both numbers are always only going to mean about speeds for Internet inside Thailand...

When the Thai ISPs talk about their Internet plans, they always talk only about inside Thailand speeds... They never talk about speeds to outside Thailand...when they advertise their plans.

[shariq607]

Norway, I'm not sure I understand you either....but I think you may be misunderstanding the numbers...

When you see an Internet plan that says like 10/1... that isn't talking about speeds to outside Thailand or inside Thailand....

The first number is the download speed... The second number is the upload speed... And both numbers are always only going to mean about speeds for Internet inside Thailand...

When the Thai ISPs talk about their Internet plans, they always talk only about inside Thailand speeds... They never talk about speeds to outside Thailand...when they advertise their plans.

Yup, Btw in other countries do they also advertise local speeds or internationally ?

i have been to many first world countries and used the internet in the hotels not that great either

Also i am very Curious to know what people with 30...50...100 mb true cable plans are getting on international servers

Edited September 12, 2011 by shariq607

[JacChang]

This whole speed test thing is weird.

Shariq your speed tests are way superior than mine, but then you mention you never get over 250kb/sec on your downloads.

I wonder how I got 750kb/sec+ on my 6 meg adsl account months ago.

Yes for international such as megaupload, filesonic, etc.

Edited September 12, 2011 by JacChang

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Yup, Btw in other countries do they also advertise local speeds or internationally ?

i have been to many first world countries and used the internet in the hotels not that great either

Also i am very Curious to know what people with 30...50...100 mb true cable plans are getting on international servers

Everywhere I've seen, ISPs always advertise/list their plan speeds as domestic rates...not international ones...

As for higher speed True cable plans, we've seen few if any members here reporting speed tests for those plans....unfortunately... Dunno whether people just aren't paying for the higher speeds, or...some are, but just not posting here.

Pib and I did some tests on his 20 Mb and my 10 Mb True cable plans, using the same international speed test sites at approx the same time.... And those results didn't show any appreciable advantage to the U.S. west coast for the 20 Mb plan vs. the 10 Mb plan... But that was a one-time test we ran, and we haven't repeated it since.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

This whole speed test thing is weird.

Shariq your speed tests are way superior than mine, but then you mention you never get over 250kb/sec on your downloads.

I wonder how I got 750kb/sec+ on my 6 meg adsl account months ago.

Yes for international such as megaupload, filesonic, etc.

For Filesonic with True 10 Mb cable, I seem to regularly get single streams around 180 to 200 Kbps, with occasional peaks up to 400 to 600 Kbps.... But then, I also can add up to 5 or more concurrent downloads, and still get comparable speeds on each of them... meaning the combined rate is 1000 to 1500 Kbps...usually in the mornings local time.

[JetsetBkk]

This whole speed test thing is weird.

Shariq your speed tests are way superior than mine, but then you mention you never get over 250kb/sec on your downloads.

I wonder how I got 750kb/sec+ on my 6 meg adsl account months ago.

Yes for international such as megaupload, filesonic, etc.

750 kb/s = 6 mb/s. So you are maxing out your link. Well done!

I have TOT 9/1 mbps.

Recently, downloading torrents, I have been getting 1.15mbps/140kBps mbps = 9.2 mbps / 1.1 mbps so I, too, am maxing out my link.

[Pib]

I don't do torrents so I can't give a comparison via that specific method, but on my True Cable 20Mb/2Mb plan downloading the following Medium sized 100MB and Larged sized 200MB files from this Thinkbroadband.com Link using my Orbit Download Manager during the multiple threads/connections thing on IE8, I got the following download speed results at 9:00am to 9:10am today/Wed/14Sep:

Medium Sized 100MB File: 1.60MB (MegaBytes) or 12.8Mb (MegaBits)

...Large Sized 200MB File:.1.69MB..................... or 13.52Mb.

[JetsetBkk]

I don't do torrents so I can't give a comparison via that specific method, but on my True Cable 20Mb/2Mb plan downloading the following Medium sized 100MB and Larged sized 200MB files from this Thinkbroadband.com Link using my Orbit Download Manager during the multiple threads/connections thing on IE8, I got the following download speed results at 9:00am to 9:10am today/Wed/14Sep:

Medium Sized 100MB File: 1.60MB (MegaBytes) or 12.8Mb (MegaBits)

...Large Sized 200MB File:.1.69MB..................... or 13.52Mb.

Excellent! Let's just hope no one mentions the dreaded "c" word to the Thai ISPs.

(Highlight to read) Capping! I actually downloaded 30 GB in 24 hours last weekend!

[negreanu]

I don't do torrents so I can't give a comparison via that specific method, but on my True Cable 20Mb/2Mb plan downloading the following Medium sized 100MB and Larged sized 200MB files from this Thinkbroadband.com Link using my Orbit Download Manager during the multiple threads/connections thing on IE8, I got the following download speed results at 9:00am to 9:10am today/Wed/14Sep:

Medium Sized 100MB File: 1.60MB (MegaBytes) or 12.8Mb (MegaBits)

...Large Sized 200MB File:.1.69MB..................... or 13.52Mb.

Only way to get decent international downloads in thailand is to use a multiple thread/connection system.

Such as Torrents multiple torrents,

Newsgroups multiple connections to servers.

Or a download manager such as above.

Just a fact of life if you want to maximise your connection. For example just downloaded a 15GB HD movie using 50 connections to a newsgroup server at average of 2.0MB/sec which is normal for newsgroups with multiple server connections to the US on 16mb True.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I don't know what's been going on, but the last few days, both of my True connections have been pretty slow, and even normal streams that play fine have been stalling and breaking up.... Well, at least they're working... not dead again... 5:30 pm today, all via DSL Reports Flash server in Los Angeles.

True 10 Mbps Cable

True 7 Mbps DSL

Edited September 16, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Pib]

Here's what my True Cable 20Mb/2Mb was getting at 6:30pm on the L.A. DSLReports.com Flash speedtester.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Indeed Pib... your result above is a normal type result for me here... But something's not running normally here right now..for some reason...

[mikewet88]

3BB Indy 6mb/512K at 7:00pm on the L.A. DSLReports.com Flash speedtester.

[nocturn]

so after 2 weeks of no acknowledgement from True they called yesterday and said they were coming to install the cable 20/2 package.

they didnt, but they called today at 1pm, saying they would be here by 4, they weren't.

They arrived at 6, worked until 8 and went on their way.

i am currently downloading from my seed box in europe via multi threaded ftp and the max i hit was almost 2700 KB/s, with an average of about 2300.

right now DU meter says its a steady 20 Mbps.

thus far happy, blu ray rips are streaming down.

that said i havent chucked my ADSL yet, going to wait for a month.

truthfully, the connection seems quite volatile, but the variances are all above my old 10mbps connection, so for my main purpose, at least as far as downloading goes it is a vast improvement.

we will see how the work week goes.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

so after 2 weeks of no acknowledgement from True they called yesterday and said they were coming to install the cable 20/2 package.

they didnt, but they called today at 1pm, saying they would be here by 4, they weren't. They arrived at 6, worked until 8 and went on their way.

That seems to be pretty normal operating practice for True Online service staff, at least in BKK.... Have gone through that same torment a couple of different times...They promise a time.... miss it, don't call to warn or reschedule, then show up hours later or the next day, of course without any advance warning...

As for DSL vs cable, I had DSL, kept it for the first two months of my new cable service originally, then dropped my DSL account, and then shortly thereafter had a terrible run of several months where True cable was having repeated and extended service outages on my soi.... Literally drove me up the wall....

Ended up re-establishing my DSL account as a backup to the cable, and of course once I did that, the cable outages seem to have subsided for the most part... apparently because True finally managed to solve whatever cabling problem was occurring on my soi...

If you notice the speed test results to the USA that I posted earlier today, you'll see my 7 Mbps DSL service actually tested faster today than my 10 Mbps cable service... That hasn't been the case in the past, when my cable usually ran somewhat faster... But when I originally subscribed to True cable internet, I probably was one of the earlier users in my area.... Now months later, I suspect the customer base has become more crowded and congested, meaning my cable internet speeds aren't what they were originally.

I'm going to let my cable service run for the initial year... But at that point, I'm probably going to do some serious thinking about which of the two services I want to keep, since I don't plan to keep both indefinitely.... And my up-time with DSL certainly has been better than with cable over these past months.

Just for the record, and comparison purposes, I live in a heavily farang area in central BKK, so there no doubt are a lot of users nearby and a lot of Internet traffic going in and out, and the local infrastructure is anything but new.

One difference between DSL and cable is that cable, where you share a pipeline with other local users, is more susceptible to localized traffic congestion than is DSL, where you have an individual line at least to the local service office.

[Pib]

so after 2 weeks of no acknowledgement from True they called yesterday and said they were coming to install the cable 20/2 package.

they didnt, but they called today at 1pm, saying they would be here by 4, they weren't.

They arrived at 6, worked until 8 and went on their way.

i am currently downloading from my seed box in europe via multi threaded ftp and the max i hit was almost 2700 KB/s, with an average of about 2300.

right now DU meter says its a steady 20 Mbps.

thus far happy, blu ray rips are streaming down.

that said i havent chucked my ADSL yet, going to wait for a month.

truthfully, the connection seems quite volatile, but the variances are all above my old 10mbps connection, so for my main purpose, at least as far as downloading goes it is a vast improvement.

we will see how the work week goes.

You may also want to use True's proxy in your setup if not using it already, as it should eliminate some problems such as getting bogus speed test results with some speed test programs; not being able to reach certain websites such as the U.S. Social Security Agency web site of www.ssa.gov and the U.S. Embassy American Citizen Services web site which is actually on a U.S. State Dept server in the U.S. (I expect the proxy fixes site access issues for some other websites in other countries also); and actually speed up some surfing/downloading. It did for me on my 20Mb/2Mb plan. The True proxy is "proxy.trueinternet.co.th" using Port 8080. See this Link for True configuration info. The True proxy is also talked more in earlier posts.

Even for me, on my day of installation there were problems. Yes, True didn't show up at their appointed time...they actually showed up a day early since they said they had finished other jobs in the moobaan ahead of schedule. I didn't have a problem with this showing up early, but what I did have a problem with was they were suppose to install cable internet and cable TV at the same time; they were only prepared to install the cable internet. So, we sent them away and they said they couldn't come back for 3 days to install both. I said OK, see you in two days. However, they came back the next day and installed both. In two more days I will have been on my True Cable 20Mb/2Mb plan for 3 months.

So far, I'm pleased...had 100% uptime in rain or shine (including the cable TV)....good speed....and I have been getting the internet service at half price (649.50 baht vs the normal 1299 baht/mo) for the first 3 months since I signed up for True Cable TV at the same time. Yeap, so far, so good, I'm pleased (knock on wood).

[Pib]

Just for the record, and comparison purposes, I live in a heavily farang area in central BKK, so there no doubt are a lot of users nearby and a lot of Internet traffic going in and out, and the local infrastructure is anything but new.

One difference between DSL and cable is that cable, where you share a pipeline with other local users, is more susceptible to localized traffic congestion than is DSL, where you have an individual line at least to the local service office.

My situation is completely different over here in my western Bangkok moobaan. The moobaan is approx 750 houses...it's pretty much an upper middle class moobaan and as far as I know I'm the only American/farang living here....if there are other western farangs they have been hiding well for the three years I've lived here. But hey, Thais can download like crazy people also. The True cable internet/TV system in the mooban is almost brand new/about 3 months old. In my jogging around the moobaan I sometimes make it a point to see how many houses have hooked up to the cable as it's easy to determine by just looking to see if there is a RG11 (TV cable) running from a tap box on the cable trunk line to the house. In the sois close to my house it appears around 10 to 15% of the houses have hooked up so far; guess the others are happy with their KU band and C band dish TV systems, and ADSL internet....but I also expect X-amount of these folks are on 12 months contracts for TV/internet service XYZ and more will switch after the 12 month contract period ends. For the life of me I don't know why anyone would want to stay on TrueVisions DSTV (satellite TV) compared to TrueVisions CATV (cable TV) when both are exactly the same price but the picture is much, much better on CATV and no rain-fade. Additionally, TOT rules/owns the telephone lines in the moobaan so everyone ADSL internet-wise is a captive audience of TOT and their internet service is limited to 6Mb to our moobaan. I expect more people will slowly switch over to True cable internent in my moobaan, but so far in the 3 months I been on the internet I have not seen any real congestion/slow down.

And as always with internet in Thailand the old sayings of "Location, Location, Location" and "Your Results May Vary" are always players. Preaching to the choir I know. I'm just happy my moobaan was able to get a second choice in internet service and at higher speeds than 6Mb ADSL. Now, folks can get 100Mb cable internet if they are willing to pay the price....and you know what, I wouldn't be surprised if their international speed to sites in the US/Europe are no better than us folks on the 10Mb and 20Mb plans....but if the 100Mb plan is like my 20Mb when it comes to speed to Singapore, I can get speeds up to 20Mb to Singapore which appears to be more of a direct connection compared to going the undersea cable route....so maybe those folks on the 100Mb plan can get 100Mb to Singapore where a lot of web content is mirrored/cached for this part of the world. For reasons like this, it's good we all can exchange info, speed results, etc., on our individual internet plans.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

That's why I mentioned my locational situation, Pibbie... because I figured you might chime in...

Honestly, I don't know the reason for the slowdown I've noticed of late... I had thought it might have been some broader trans-pacific congestion... But it doesn't seem you're suffering any ill-effects at present...

So it may be what I was afraid of, and that's some kind of localized congestion/demand issue on the line serving my street/area.

[negreanu]

Few of my friends in sukhumvit are having dire speeds on cable just now also. I think its down to contention as they are promoting it quite hard now and more more are signing up. As stated above contention on cable based products is a major concern always has been.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Nice to know I'm not alone (I think!)

Thanks for the intel, Negreanu....

Anytime my True 7 Mbps DSL connection is producing faster speed tests to Los Angeles than my True 10 Mbps cable connection (as was the case with yesterday's three-to-three speed test results I posed above), you know something is amiss...

BTW, would you be willing to post a DSL Reports speed test to Los Angeles using your True 16 Mbps DSL line??? Be interesting to see what it produces on a single stream test... and not one of the false, cached sites like ADSLThailand and such....

[negreanu]

16MB True. You have to bear in mind the problem with the dslreports speediest is the download file size. A Thai ISP is still accelerating when the test ends due to distance to the server.

They could rectify this by making the download file test size a lot bigger. My test today was still accelerating very quickly and the test ends.... So its value is somewhat questionable at large distances from the server.

Also note the dramatic differences between Flash and java speediest results.

Although in comparison to others seems normal. Note also on my previous connection 50mb VDSL2 the results were similar. Just not convinced that is a viable speedtest as could max the connection out to us newsgroups server / apple servers / microsoft servers and stream from youtube 1080p without a hiccup at 4.0MB/s.

Cant post PNG not sure why but is:

Down: 1354

Up: 518

on the flash test.

Interestingly enough just unpaused my easy news downloads to a west coast usa server farm and it has resumed at 2.23MB/s which is bang on the money for 16mb of course this using multiple connections to the server.

People just have to realise that to maximise high broadband connections from thailand you need to use a download manager and multiple connections to servers or torrents or whatever.

Edited September 17, 2011 by negreanu

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

My point was, to choose/use a test site that produces a realistic ping number an test result to the U.S. -- not one of the ones where it shows a 20 ms ping and the person thinks they're really getting a 50/30/20 Mbps single stream connection to the U.S.

[negreanu]

My point was, to choose/use a test site that produces a realistic ping number an test result to the U.S. -- not one of the ones where it shows a 20 ms ping and the person thinks they're really getting a 50/30/20 Mbps single stream connection to the U.S.

Single stream in Hongkong on 1Gigabyte connection to us dslreports gets around 2400 result.

Also 1Gig connection in HK single stream to hk server gets around 1.9MB/s download speeds. Multiple connections is a whole different result

I think people have just not modified there thinking about how to utilise high bandwidth products. And are still stuck in the old days of 56k Dialup and 128k ISDN and even unto 1.0MB/2.0MB ADSL connections where it was possible to max your bandwidth in a single stream and are still assuming that is how it will work in 2011 with high speed connections.

Edited September 17, 2011 by negreanu