Am I Paying To Much For Internet

[livinthailandos]

First of all I live on koh samui and there aren't many options for internet except

Internet over satelitte

TOT

3BB

god for bid dial up

I am using 3BB at my house and I pay 2,675 per month for the 5MB Premier, my internet is very reliable at least more than 95% of the time. although with all the promotions from TOT and 3BB regular packages I am wondering if I should change or not. I realize latency is a factor regardless of who I go with and internet speeds really don't matter since so many websites are becoming overly bloaded with ads, javascripts etc.

1. I would like to be able to get at least a good solid 8mb internet package ( i know thats unrealistic )

2. ability to watch videos without so many buffering ( again unrealistic due to the poor international gateway thailand )

3. download at least some torrent files

anyone have better experience than me or pay less than me for a good quality connection internet. Look forward to all your postings on this matter

Keep in mind Ive already posted this on koh samui forum but I am posting it on here to get more answers and it seems we all experience different internet connections

[Darrel]

" I pay 2,675 per month"

Wow! Is that some sort of joke?

[lomatopo]

Might be cheaper to move?

Seriously, WTFK. Only Samuians I suspect.

[Supernova]

Anything over 1000 THB per month is too much, IMO. I don't care how fast or reliable the service, 1000 is the limit for me.

[transam]

Ubon, 3bb, 6mb down, 1/2mb up, 590 bht.

[Darrel]

Anything over 1000 THB per month is too much, IMO. I don't care how fast or reliable the service, 1000 is the limit for me.

I think that the point is that it's all crap, no matter how much you pay. So you may as well pay less and get cheaper crap.

Personally the place I'm currently staying in pays about 600B for 4Mbs. And it's crap.

[removed]

From what I have learned, having the Premier service is much better and more reliable than the 5-700 baht packages from anyone. You have to step up to the Premier packages where the number of users is restricted so the line is not continually overloaded during peek use. I currently have TOT and experience so many outages a day its incredible. Actual speeds are a fraction of what I am pay for. Don't believe the TOT speed tester as it is bogus. Use the Thai Visa speed tester (on this site) to get a real test reading. Am currently waiting for CAT to connect a line to our complex and will be paying over twice as much for their premier service but have been told by those who use CAT service that it will be reliable (no outages) and within 10% of the speed promised. Of course this is Thailand and was suppose to be connected two weeks ago so who knows when the connection will be made but certainly looking forward to it to a good reliable service.

Edited March 12, 2011 by brianks

[hellracer]

i hear you. i also lived in Samui about 2years previously and had used 3BB because it was the best option since TOT sucks big one(i had them before switching to 3BB). you actually have got another option of CAT ADSL service(this may cost you extra if your soi does not have CAT lines, as they will install extra line to you home if you agree to pay them. when i was there, my office used CAT adsl at 2.800baht monthly and at home i used 3bb premier line at around 1,300baht monthly. i think it was 8m or something but it was very reliable compared to TOT. but 599, or 699 packages are shit since its for Thai & domestic uses. if you deal with many of oversea websites then go for higher rate of premier ones but like someone said already anything over 1,500 would be rip off. lolz...i am now in Krabi, using 3BB 16mag 1,600baht monthly package and this is very fast and am happy with it.

Edited March 12, 2011 by hellracer

[bino]

I think that the point is that it's all crap, no matter how much you pay. So you may as well pay less and get cheaper crap.

I'm with you dude.

I realize this doesn't help the OP in Samui, but we subscribed to the top of the line 16MB package from TRUE in BKK, and it was crap, for 2200 ish per month. We downgraded to 10 MB, saved almost 1000 per month, and noticed absolutely no difference. Seriously consiering taking the next step down to 8 or even 6 MB.

Edited March 12, 2011 by bino

[Darrel]

From what I have learned, having the Premier service is much better and more reliable than the 5-700 baht packages from anyone. You have to step up to the Premier packages where the number of users is restricted so the line is not continually overloaded during peek use.

I disagree. I monitor the service my place has on a daily (hourly) basis. The main problem is not the contention, it is the infrastructure. Whilst the overall bandwidth does vary a bit during the day/night the main problem is that often national, international and even DNS servers dont respond at all, and connections to these sites and servers just fail, even though the DSL link stays up all the time (my place didnt change the default router password ).

This simply indicates a diabolical provider, and taking a more expensive package wont help at all. Crap is crap.

[Darrel]

This thread got me thinking.

Back in Europe for 1200B/month (incl tax at 20%) I got:

Line rental

Free modem/router rental with wifi N

ADSL up to 20Mbs (I used to get about 8Mbs due to the distance to the exchange, but this was a real figure for a rock-solid connection and I could download at 8Mbs all day every day)

Repairs on-site within 24 hours

Unlimited free VOIP calls to over 100 countries worldwide (incl Thailand and Thai mobiles) via the router.

80 digital TV channels via a second box (also free), including HD channels.

No sign-up fee

No installation fee

1 yr contract

In theory the same thing here should cost well under 1000B

[lazygourmet]

Ubon, 3bb, 6mb down, 1/2mb up, 590 bht.

Similar 3bb (ex-MaxNet) package here in Nonthaburi

[Sonkind]

I switched from 5mb Premium line in bkk to 16mb promo one and it was noticably faster and saved a few satang. OP my suggestion is to switch to a standard 3BB 16mb or higher package. Unfortunately in Samui 3BB is really the only good option(in my experience living in Lamai and office in Meanam) I moved recently and waiting for a spot to open up so I can go back to 3bb, for now I am stuck with true 10mb.

[Phil Conners]

I switched from 5mb Premium line in bkk to 16mb promo one and it was noticably faster and saved a few satang. OP my suggestion is to switch to a standard 3BB 16mb or higher package. Unfortunately in Samui 3BB is really the only good option(in my experience living in Lamai and office in Meanam) I moved recently and waiting for a spot to open up so I can go back to 3bb, for now I am stuck with true 10mb.

This is very interesting! This is actually the first first-hand experience switching from Premier to Standard that I know about and I'm interested to see that you didn't notice any difference! I suspected as much and have been tempted to switch to an 8M/1M package @ 900 baht. I am on a Premier package that no longer exist, 3M/1M for about 1,200 baht/month so I can't switch back if the standard package doesn't work for me so that sort of holds me back a little.

[Sonkind]

I switched from 5mb Premium line in bkk to 16mb promo one and it was noticably faster and saved a few satang. OP my suggestion is to switch to a standard 3BB 16mb or higher package. Unfortunately in Samui 3BB is really the only good option(in my experience living in Lamai and office in Meanam) I moved recently and waiting for a spot to open up so I can go back to 3bb, for now I am stuck with true 10mb.

This is very interesting! This is actually the first first-hand experience switching from Premier to Standard that I know about and I'm interested to see that you didn't notice any difference! I suspected as much and have been tempted to switch to an 8M/1M package @ 900 baht. I am on a Premier package that no longer exist, 3M/1M for about 1,200 baht/month so I can't switch back if the standard package doesn't work for me so that sort of holds me back a little.

I switched from a 5mb to 16mb line. I used my internet at that stage mostly for gamin and general browsing and especially in gaming the framerates and connection was much better. Also got much better DL rates from the Torrent sites as well. I now live right next door to my office where we have just downgraded from a 12mb to the 8mb 3bb line and again I have noticed absolutely no difference in speed.

[dave111223]

I switched from a 5mb to 16mb line. I used my internet at that stage mostly for gamin and general browsing and especially in gaming the framerates and connection was much better. Also got much better DL rates from the Torrent sites as well. I now live right next door to my office where we have just downgraded from a 12mb to the 8mb 3bb line and again I have noticed absolutely no difference in speed.

How would your internet connection affect your framerate?

[Sonkind]

I switched from a 5mb to 16mb line. I used my internet at that stage mostly for gamin and general browsing and especially in gaming the framerates and connection was much better. Also got much better DL rates from the Torrent sites as well. I now live right next door to my office where we have just downgraded from a 12mb to the 8mb 3bb line and again I have noticed absolutely no difference in speed.

How would your internet connection affect your framerate?

Yeah had to really stretch to come up with the right word there(English 3rd language ) Lag maybe the more appropriate term?