Sophon Cable Internet--Latest Reports

[Guderian]

Interesting thread, thanks.

I'm thinking of changing to Sophon broadband next month. My elderly gay German neighbour already has it, a 6 month contract at 8/0.5 Mbps for around 7000 Baht, including 1500 Baht for installation.

Several posters have said that paying monthly is more expensive but offers advantages, and I can see that it would be a good idea until I am happy with their service and ready to take out a contract. I see the 6 month and 12 month contract prices posted above, but does anyone have a list of the pay-as-you-go monthly prices rather than a fixed contract?

Go back and read the scanned price list I offered earlier in this thread. That has all the monthy prices listed. They are the same as what you pay for 6 months and 12 months in advance. The ONLY advantage of paying up front is a free modem (which you have to give back) saving 2,500 and 750 reduction of installation fee if you pay 12 months in advance. It's not really a contract as you're paying up front. Bear in mind that no matter what plan you take, unless you want to be hard wired (LAN) to your computer you'll probably want to buy a wireless router for around 2000 - 2500. The ones in the shop are 2500 (Asus).

Thanks, I only saw the headings on your scan relating to 6 months and 1 year contracts. I see now that the monthly rate is the same.

As I don't need the faster upload speed, one of the Standard packages would seem the best. Somebody posted that even with a fast package like 8/0.5 Mbps they didn't generally get much above 2 Mbps during the day. Has anybody else had the same experience? Does a slower package like, say, 4/0.5 Mbps also give you 2 Mbps during the day? I ask this as I DL mainly from file sharing sites as a free user, and so seldom get even 2 Mbps DL speed. I don't need a mega-fast connection, just one that's reliable and (hopefully) cheaper than the crock-o'-sh*te that I currently have from ThaiIT.

[gguy]

Interesting thread, thanks.

I'm thinking of changing to Sophon broadband next month. My elderly gay German neighbour already has it, a 6 month contract at 8/0.5 Mbps for around 7000 Baht, including 1500 Baht for installation.

Several posters have said that paying monthly is more expensive but offers advantages, and I can see that it would be a good idea until I am happy with their service and ready to take out a contract. I see the 6 month and 12 month contract prices posted above, but does anyone have a list of the pay-as-you-go monthly prices rather than a fixed contract?

Go back and read the scanned price list I offered earlier in this thread. That has all the monthy prices listed. They are the same as what you pay for 6 months and 12 months in advance. The ONLY advantage of paying up front is a free modem (which you have to give back) saving 2,500 and 750 reduction of installation fee if you pay 12 months in advance. It's not really a contract as you're paying up front. Bear in mind that no matter what plan you take, unless you want to be hard wired (LAN) to your computer you'll probably want to buy a wireless router for around 2000 - 2500. The ones in the shop are 2500 (Asus).

Thanks, I only saw the headings on your scan relating to 6 months and 1 year contracts. I see now that the monthly rate is the same.

As I don't need the faster upload speed, one of the Standard packages would seem the best. Somebody posted that even with a fast package like 8/0.5 Mbps they didn't generally get much above 2 Mbps during the day. Has anybody else had the same experience? Does a slower package like, say, 4/0.5 Mbps also give you 2 Mbps during the day? I ask this as I DL mainly from file sharing sites as a free user, and so seldom get even 2 Mbps DL speed. I don't need a mega-fast connection, just one that's reliable and (hopefully) cheaper than the crock-o'-sh*te that I currently have from ThaiIT.

I was wondering the same thing. It seems logical that all packages would receive the same speed up to the package limit. I wonder if Sophon has a top speed limiter or some type of allocation system that would give greater slow speeds to high end clients. The 2mp/512 would be fine with me if I could get 1mp to 2mp download.

[RabC]

I am on the 6MB/0.5MB and as stated before at quiet times regularly get 5MB+ download and it can drop to 2Mb during very busy times but normally the slowest I get is about 4MB. Upload remains constant at 0.4MB.

[tropo]

I was wondering the same thing. It seems logical that all packages would receive the same speed up to the package limit. I wonder if Sophon has a top speed limiter or some type of allocation system that would give greater slow speeds to high end clients. The 2mp/512 would be fine with me if I could get 1mp to 2mp download.

In reality speed doesn't mean much if you're trying to stay connected to international sites and require good voip connectivity. The quality of the connection is far more important in the real world. The basic speed tests are pretty useless when it comes to testing how good a connection is because they only give the average speed and they often do this by spiking high to make up for the lows.

For anyone really interested in learning the facts about speed, this is required reading: Connection quality explained

...and do yourselves a favour and use their testing software. Nothing else comes close.

I have 3 services in my house than I'm testing:

1. TOT: 6 Mb/ 0.5 Mb

2. 3BB: 3 Mb/ 1 Mb Premier

3. CAT - Sophon: 2 Mb/ 1Mb premier

Without exception, the slow #3 service is the best overall on Bittorrents and all other applications. It gives me the most consistant connectivity. TOT will win only on very healthy Torrents, but not all the time. If all you are doing is downloading Bittorrents with hundreds of seeders and peers, then a cheap fast connection will suffice.

Edited April 10, 2011 by tropo

[gguy]

I was wondering the same thing. It seems logical that all packages would receive the same speed up to the package limit. I wonder if Sophon has a top speed limiter or some type of allocation system that would give greater slow speeds to high end clients. The 2mp/512 would be fine with me if I could get 1mp to 2mp download.

In reality speed doesn't mean much if you're trying to stay connected to international sites and require good voip connectivity. The quality of the connection is far more important in the real world. The basic speed tests are pretty useless when it comes to testing how good a connection is because they only give the average speed and they often do this by spiking high to make up for the lows.

For anyone really interested in learning the facts about speed, this is required reading: Connection quality explained

...and do yourselves a favour and use their testing software. Nothing else comes close.

I have 3 services in my house than I'm testing:

1. TOT: 6 Mb/ 0.5 Mb

2. 3BB: 3 Mb/ 1 Mb Premier

3. CAT - Sophon: 2 Mb/ 1Mb premier

Without exception, the slow #3 service is the best overall on Bittorrents and all other applications. It gives me the most consistant connectivity. TOT will win only on very healthy Torrents, but not all the time. If all you are doing is downloading Bittorrents with hundreds of seeders and peers, then a cheap fast connection will suffice.

Three different providers. I think your the internet King of Pattaya. All in all, Sophon is probably the best of a bad lot. Hopefully, internet service will improve over time. It would be interesting to see what the internet penetration is in Pattaya. Probably the vast majority of Thais use the internet cafes.

[bob4you]

What software or link for speed test for Sophon?

[bazmlb]

Networx is a good free tool for monitoring how a download performs, its free too, myspeed which is the one Tropo link has on it is a paid for tool.

Best way to test is download a large file you have not downloaded before and do not use a download manager, if the graph is nice and flat without drops or spikes then it shows a consistent quality connection that is most likely useable for VOIP/Video.

[tropo]

Networx is a good free tool for monitoring how a download performs, its free too, myspeed which is the one Tropo link has on it is a paid for tool.

Best way to test is download a large file you have not downloaded before and do not use a download manager, if the graph is nice and flat without drops or spikes then it shows a consistent quality connection that is most likely useable for VOIP/Video.

It is not a pay for tool, it's free and it's here: The ultimate Speed tester They have more advanced software which you can purchase.

Seeing how long it takes to download files is pretty useless in determining a connections suitabiliity for voip use. Even my shitiest connection (TOT) can download large files at decent rates. If you use the test on the link I provided you'll see the true nuts and bolts of your connection to servers around the world.

[SurfRider]

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"it's free and it's here: The ultimate Speed tester"

Interesting test - Thanks!

My Sophon 4Mbps to Los Angeles varied widely on several tests -- average was 1.28 Mbps, which is only 32% of their advertised speed. To Bangkok it was just over 4 Mbps, so that's the peg where they'll hang their hat to justify their speed claims.

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[tropo]

.

"it's free and it's here: The ultimate Speed tester"

Interesting test - Thanks!

My Sophon 4Mbps to Los Angeles varied widely on several tests -- average was 1.28 Mbps, which is only 32% of their advertised speed. To Bangkok it was just over 4 Mbps, so that's the peg where they'll hang their hat to justify their speed claims.

.

People seem to forget that we're as far away from the US as one can get on this planet. Most US sites are about 20 - 30 hops away, so round trip that's 40 - 60 hops. How can any ISP guarantee a continuously smooth connection to a server that far away. Let's put things into persepctive - when people pay for a service in the US do they judge the quality of their service by testing it to Pattaya?

We're all paying for cheap shared services with contention ratios so it's pretty obvious that nothing will or can be guaranteed by our ISP's. It's not like we are paying much. In Australia and NZ where I come from all internet plans have download limits. Most of the habitual bittorrent downloaders here would probably fly through the biggest $100 plus, 200Gb, 1 month plans in a few days or a week. Would I trade the cheap prices and poor services here for expensive, faster services with download caps? No.

[Phil Conners]

Australia (probably NZ too) is probably not the best place to compare with.

In Belgium you can now get 100 mbps fiber to your house, unlimited capacity (fair use), for 99 EUR (4,300B) /month. You pretty much get that speed to anywhere in the developed world that can provide that kind of speed.

[SurfRider]

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"we're as far away from the US as one can get on this planet ...How can any ISP guarantee a continuously smooth connection to a server that far away?"

True, and I agree-- but they should advertise their 4Mbps as "Inside Thailand ONLY!" -- Of course,they would never do that because it would be bad for attracting business. [ TiT ]

CAT's Premium service was similar -- averaged around 1.7 for a 2Mbps connection, which they now claim they've upgraded to 3Mbps. Almost same-same as Sophon's "Standard" service, but at 240% more than Sophon's cost.

I just received the results of the same test from a friend with CAT Premium - he got 1.87 Mbps to Los Angeles.

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[tropo]

Australia (probably NZ too) is probably not the best place to compare with.

I disagree. Australia and New Zealand are both developed countries a similar distance away (as Thailand) from Europe and the US. Obviously the enormous population density of users in the US and Europe allow companies to develop decent infrastructure at a reasonable price.

[Phil Conners]

Australia (probably NZ too) is probably not the best place to compare with.

I disagree. Australia and New Zealand are both developed countries a similar distance away (as Thailand) from Europe and the US. Obviously the enormous population density of users in the US and Europe allow companies to develop decent infrastructure at a reasonable price.

My friends from Perth tell me that the Internet there is as bad as here ...

[tropo]

.

"we're as far away from the US as one can get on this planet ...How can any ISP guarantee a continuously smooth connection to a server that far away?"

True, and I agree-- but they should advertise their 4Mbps as "Inside Thailand ONLY!" -- Of course,they would never do that because it would be bad for attracting business. [ TiT ]

CAT's Premium service was similar -- averaged around 1.7 for a 2Mbps connection, which they now claim they've upgraded to 3Mbps. Almost same-same as Sophon's "Standard" service, but at 240% more than Sophon's cost.

I just received the results of the same test from a friend with CAT Premium - he got 1.87 Mbps to Los Angeles.

.

Personally I would consider it obvious that the guaranteed rate can only be to local servers.

Speed tests to international locations are almost meaningless because they vary too much. There are just too many variables. You're lucky if your server is in LA because other places in the US will require even more hops. I need to stay connected to a server in Arizona, and that is much harder to achieve than to a server in LA or San Francisco and always slower with longer pings (because the distance is further and the number of hops greater).

Obviously if you pay for a premier service with lower contention ratios you will get more average speed and quality over a 24 hour period, but all they can limit is your max speed and the number you share with. How could you possibly go back to your ISP and complain about your speed to LA or wherever because they can't be responsible for international traffic and how many people in your contention zone are logged on and sharing at that particular moment in time. That would be like taking your sports car back to the dealer and complaining that you cannot average 200 km/h on a congested highway.

Now if one were to pay big money for a dedicated line with no sharing, it would be a lot better but you would still have to cope with the international Internet congestion.

[SurfRider]

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"Personally I would consider it obvious that the guaranteed rate can only be to local servers."

Obvious to YOU because you're obviously an Internet expert/guru-- but I guarantee that your average Thai or Farang would never assume such, and in fact, they don't -- I've talked to many people who consider them selves fooled.

.

[tropo]

Australia (probably NZ too) is probably not the best place to compare with.

I disagree. Australia and New Zealand are both developed countries a similar distance away (as Thailand) from Europe and the US. Obviously the enormous population density of users in the US and Europe allow companies to develop decent infrastructure at a reasonable price.

My friends from Perth tell me that the Internet there is as bad as here ...

I haven't used Internet in Australia for a long while, but I used it in NZ last year and it was much better than here but very expensive.

Here's some trivia that may or may not interest you. Form Perth to where I lived in Australia (Gold Coast) is 3,630km. It's only 3,325km from the southern most point in Thailand to the nearest point on the northwest coast of Australia.

Darwin is closer to the Philippines than it is to Brisbane, Sydney or Perth.

Edited April 12, 2011 by tropo

[tropo]

.

"Personally I would consider it obvious that the guaranteed rate can only be to local servers."

Obvious to YOU because you're obviously an Internet expert/guru-- but I guarantee that your average Thai or Farang would never assume such, and in fact, they don't -- I've talked to many people who consider them selves fooled.

Not that I would expect much in terms of explanation in English about the limitations of their service, but they did tell me that the premier services were more suited to International users and that the contention ratio was lower. I suppose the ones who are fooled are the ones who look at a price list and immediately go for the cheap plans not taking into consideration that there must be some reason for the more expensive plans to exist.

I pay 1700 for a 2Mb/1Mb premier service yet people can get a 6Mb/1Mb service for only 590. Surely any intelligent person would want to know why there is so much difference in price.

[Rainmon]

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"Personally I would consider it obvious that the guaranteed rate can only be to local servers."

Obvious to YOU because you're obviously an Internet expert/guru-- but I guarantee that your average Thai or Farang would never assume such, and in fact, they don't -- I've talked to many people who consider them selves fooled.

Not that I would expect much in terms of explanation in English about the limitations of their service, but they did tell me that the premier services were more suited to International users and that the contention ratio was lower. I suppose the ones who are fooled are the ones who look at a price list and immediately go for the cheap plans not taking into consideration that there must be some reason for the more expensive plans to exist.

I pay 1700 for a 2Mb/1Mb premier service yet people can get a 6Mb/1Mb service for only 590. Surely any intelligent person would want to know why there is so much difference in price.

I am planning to get the Sophon 1 year 6Mbps contract (total 10,980 with install and modem) for my new condo near Tukcom / Soi 17 / 3rd Road. I need to access international sites in America for financial services etc. Now I am on a hotel wireless 3BB connection and get 2-4 Mbps, seems to work fine for my international site connections, does anyone know if Sophon results should be the same as 3BB with this speed? Also I am guessing the modem they provide free does not have a built in wireless router with it, so I will have to buy one to plug into their modem for setting up wireless in the condo, any recommendations on brand to buy etc,... also note, I might be able to get True Internet instead, their deal includes a Wifi router with 6Mbps plan @ 599 a month (2 month minimum, no deposit on the modem) and 500 install fee, they have an office next to Tukom, the cost would be lower by 200 a month for same speed and no long term contract, but not sure if the fiber optic thing would apply with them, so many choices and not sure which service to use, Thanks!

Edited July 24, 2011 by Rainmon

[RabC]

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"Personally I would consider it obvious that the guaranteed rate can only be to local servers."

Obvious to YOU because you're obviously an Internet expert/guru-- but I guarantee that your average Thai or Farang would never assume such, and in fact, they don't -- I've talked to many people who consider them selves fooled.

Not that I would expect much in terms of explanation in English about the limitations of their service, but they did tell me that the premier services were more suited to International users and that the contention ratio was lower. I suppose the ones who are fooled are the ones who look at a price list and immediately go for the cheap plans not taking into consideration that there must be some reason for the more expensive plans to exist.

I pay 1700 for a 2Mb/1Mb premier service yet people can get a 6Mb/1Mb service for only 590. Surely any intelligent person would want to know why there is so much difference in price.

I am planning to get the Sophon 1 year 6Mbps contract (total 10,980 with install and modem) for my new condo near Tukcom / Soi 17 / 3rd Road. I need to access international sites in America for financial services etc. Now I am on a hotel wireless 3BB connection and get 2-4 Mbps, seems to work fine for my international site connections, does anyone know if Sophon results should be the same as 3BB with this speed? Also I am guessing the modem they provide free does not have a built in wireless router with it, so I will have to buy one to plug into their modem for setting up wireless in the condo, any recommendations on brand to buy etc,... also note, I might be able to get True Internet instead, their deal includes a Wifi router with 6Mbps plan @ 599 a month (2 month minimum, no deposit on the modem) and 500 install fee, they have an office next to Tukom, the cost would be lower by 200 a month for same speed and no long term contract, but not sure if the fiber optic thing would apply with them, so many choices and not sure which service to use, Thanks!

All I can really say is I switched from 3BB to Sophon over 6 months ago and am very happy that I did. There was one small problem about 2 months ago and the engineers were there in less than and hour. As you are so close have a look around tukcom for a wireless router.

RabC

[Rainmon]

What speed did you sign up for RabC, actually my 4Mbps wireless in this same area works pretty good, so I guess being near Pattaya Thai and 3rd row is close to the source and should be faster connection this area? thanks for ur input...

[Guderian]

The way the Sophon people set up the cable broadband for me was to put an icon on the desktop which I have to double-click when I want to connect to the internet. It's no hassle as I just do it once when the PC has booted up and that's it for the day (unless I have to reboot the PC). This icon is for some small program that has a userid and password, but I don't know what they are, nor do I have a disk or anything else to reinstall the program.

So what happens if I have to reinstall XP, or for some other reason the Sophon connection program gets wiped? I've got no way of reinstalling it, so I would have to call the Sophon people to come and do it, but what would they charge? Anyone know? Not another 1500 Baht, I hope! Or would they do that for free?

[Darrel]

If you know the login and password then you can create the connection very simply yourself, by using the Windows internet connection wizard. Just examine and note down the settings of the existing connection (which you can find in the "connections" menu off the start menu).

I'm surprised that it should be set up that way though.

[JSixpack]

If you know the login and password then you can create the connection very simply yourself, by using the Windows internet connection wizard. Just examine and note down the settings of the existing connection (which you can find in the "connections" menu off the start menu).

I'm surprised that it should be set up that way though.

Actually that is a typical setup for the cable companies.

If you want completely automated dialing and redialing, install yourself a router to do it for you.

Edited July 28, 2011 by JSixpack

[Darrel]

The way the Sophon people set up the cable broadband for me was to put an icon on the desktop which I have to double-click when I want to connect to the internet. It's no hassle as I just do it once when the PC has booted up and that's it for the day...

I forgot to mention that in the XP DUN connection properties there is a setting that will allow Windows to connect automatically as needed, without you having to click on anything at all.

Though personally I would be more inclined to check if it is possible to programme the modem with the relevant login details. It normally is with ethernet modems.

Much simpler than using DUN.

What is the brand/model number of the modem?

[guzzi850m2]

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"Personally I would consider it obvious that the guaranteed rate can only be to local servers."

Obvious to YOU because you're obviously an Internet expert/guru-- but I guarantee that your average Thai or Farang would never assume such, and in fact, they don't -- I've talked to many people who consider them selves fooled.

Not that I would expect much in terms of explanation in English about the limitations of their service, but they did tell me that the premier services were more suited to International users and that the contention ratio was lower. I suppose the ones who are fooled are the ones who look at a price list and immediately go for the cheap plans not taking into consideration that there must be some reason for the more expensive plans to exist.

I pay 1700 for a 2Mb/1Mb premier service yet people can get a 6Mb/1Mb service for only 590. Surely any intelligent person would want to know why there is so much difference in price.

Thanks for your posts on this subject tropo, I must say that I learned a great deal from them regarding how to jugde internet/speed/quality.:jap:

[tropo]

The way the Sophon people set up the cable broadband for me was to put an icon on the desktop which I have to double-click when I want to connect to the internet. It's no hassle as I just do it once when the PC has booted up and that's it for the day...

I forgot to mention that in the XP DUN connection properties there is a setting that will allow Windows to connect automatically as needed, without you having to click on anything at all.

Though personally I would be more inclined to check if it is possible to programme the modem with the relevant login details. It normally is with ethernet modems.

Much simpler than using DUN.

What is the brand/model number of the modem?

I haven't tried it on XP, but on Windows 7 you enter the user name and password to set up the LAN connection and you're good to go. I would think this is what you would do in XP too. Even better still, buy a wireless router (make sure it's a cable router, not adsl). I use the Asus router they sell in their shop.

[Darrel]

The beauty of programming the login into the modem rather than the PC is that it can then be used directly by another computer.

Many modems with ethernet connections also incorporate basic router functions, hence my request for the make/model so that I could check whether these ones do or not.

[Guderian]

The beauty of programming the login into the modem rather than the PC is that it can then be used directly by another computer.

Many modems with ethernet connections also incorporate basic router functions, hence my request for the make/model so that I could check whether these ones do or not.

The Sophon guys have stuck a label with an IP address and some other things on it over the back of the modem, So without removing that I can't see what model it is.

I had a look at the Connections settings, but it doesn't seem to say very much. Nowhere do I see a userid or password in there - I don't know them, anyway. It just says things like allow unsecured password, get an IP and DNS address each time, and so on.

I don't have a router as I only have one PC, and I have no idea how I would program the modem even if it was possible.

[JSixpack]

The way the Sophon people set up the cable broadband for me was to put an icon on the desktop which I have to double-click when I want to connect to the internet. It's no hassle as I just do it once when the PC has booted up and that's it for the day...

I forgot to mention that in the XP DUN connection properties there is a setting that will allow Windows to connect automatically as needed, without you having to click on anything at all.

That isn't satisfactory because the DUN window will go modal while it's dialing and each time it redials, popping up all the time while you're trying to do something else w/ your computer. You'd be surprised how often the connection is briefly lost, necessitating a redial; and that redialing could go on for a long time . . . . You'll end up turning off that "dial whenever connection not present" in XP anyway and go to manual.

Though personally I would be more inclined to check if it is possible to programme the modem with the relevant login details. It normally is with ethernet modems.

Nah, the cable techs would set that up if it were possible, with their low-end "free" modem. They'll set up your router to do it, though.

I agree that a router offers a number of benefits besides the dialing.