Short Term Internet Options In Pattay?

[Richb2004v2]

I'm moving into a rented house shortly in Pattaya and wonder what is the best way to get a connection. I'm only going to be there for 4 months so wonder if it is worth getting a landline with broadband set up. How good are those dongle card things and how do they work? I have two laptops, so would I need two of them?

This may be better in the Pattaya forum.

[Member]

CAT Telecom USB Router (or how to call it) 2,400 baht.

Prepaid internet scratch cards available for 1 day, 15 days (400b) 30 days (800b)

AIS has something alike, cheaper but you pay pet used Mb, very inconvenient if you ask me.

[BB1950]

Those dongle things are nothing more than a USB modem which use a SIM card.

Actually if you have a mobile phone that supports tethering you don't need one.

You will not get any decent internet speed unless the modem/mobile phone supports CAT 850Mhz CDMA or True 3G (850 Mhz 3G). Anymore, EDGE/GPRS is virtually useless for internet surfing, streaming, and downloads.. Too slow.

You didn't say where in Pattaya. If you are on the dark side you may not be able to get CDMA or 3G.

If the laptops support WIFI you only need one. If you only use one laptop online at a time, you only need one.

It is doubtful that a broadband ISP will provide service for only 4 months.You also will need a copy of the house book to get one installed. Many times landlords, won't do it.

Edited April 27, 2011 by BB1950

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Mobile Internet seems the mostly likely option.

Will you be using both of the computers at the same time?

Do you have an existing aircard/mobile broadband modem?

Do you need a high speed connection?

Whether you can receive 3G depends on your location within Pattaya.

Enquire at the TRUE outlet within Tesco Lotus in North Pattaya Road.

If you are likely to be around Pantip in the near future you can pick up one of these for 1500 baht or so. It can communicate with the TRUE 3G network if you have coverage. Otherwise it will use the slower EDGE network.

CAT doesn't have a network in Pattaya.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Those dongle things are nothing more than a USB modem which use a SIM card.

Actually if you have a mobile phone that supports tethering you don't need one.

You will not get any decent internet speed unless the modem/mobile phone supports CAT 850Mhz CDMA or True 3G (850 Mhz 3G). Anymore, EDGE/GPRS is virtually useless for internet surfing and downloads.. Too slow.

If the laptops support WIFI you only need one. If you only use one laptop at a time, you only need one.

It is doubtful that a broadband ISP will provide service for only 4 months.

This statement of course is nonsense. EDGE is perfectly fine for general Internet surfing. There was time when 256kbps was considered broadband. For large downloads and streaming video, forget it. But for everyday surfing, it's quite usable.

[BB1950]

Those dongle things are nothing more than a USB modem which use a SIM card.

Actually if you have a mobile phone that supports tethering you don't need one.

You will not get any decent internet speed unless the modem/mobile phone supports CAT 850Mhz CDMA or True 3G (850 Mhz 3G). Anymore, EDGE/GPRS is virtually useless for internet surfing and downloads.. Too slow.

If the laptops support WIFI you only need one. If you only use one laptop at a time, you only need one.

It is doubtful that a broadband ISP will provide service for only 4 months.

This statement of course is nonsense. EDGE is perfectly fine for general Internet surfing. There was time when 256kbps was considered broadband. For large downloads and streaming video, forget it. But for everyday surfing, it's quite usable.

You caught me as I was editing my post to make it clearer. I agree there was a time when 256kbps was fast, but keep in mind these days flash ads require more speed for surfing. Some sites have nothing but flash!

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Easy to disable the flash ads or not to install Flash at all if one is on a slow connection. Link One just has to learn how to adapt.

[kamluan]

Mr,no need to spend your money in dongles,this is very slow!!

An option for you is see if your laptop can find some wifi connection from cat for example,the sell prepaid cards and wifi is always quicker then gprs/edge dongles.

There's also an internet provider where you can pay monthly(prepaid)

i am not sure of the name but i thought it whas banglamung internet,try to google it.

But no dongles,waste of time and money.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Mr,no need to spend your money in dongles,this is very slow!!

An option for you is see if your laptop can find some wifi connection from cat for example,the sell prepaid cards and wifi is always quicker then gprs/edge dongles.

There's also an internet provider where you can pay monthly(prepaid)

i am not sure of the name but i thought it whas banglamung internet,try to google it.

But no dongles,waste of time and money.

I have never seen a CAT WiFi connection in Pattaya. What are you talking? Apart from McDonalds, where can we find them?

Even so, the highest value CAT WiFi card costs 300 baht. For that you get 12 and a half hours of access. Much the same price of 3G access with TRUE.

Of course one can call the CAT Contact Center on 1322 (24 hours) to find the elusive service.

As to Banglamung Cable Net, you can call them on 038 225 454 for more info.

[timekeeper]

Hutch dongle-darkside-pattaya -TV test to singapore-now

Last Result:

Download Speed: 1237 kbps (154.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 109 kbps (13.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency: 607 ms

28 April 2011 10:39:51

dongles not worth bothering with huh?

Edited April 28, 2011 by timekeeper

[Richb2004v2]

Maybe I will be as well just getting a land line. I can't imagine it cost too much and I expect there to be many half decent providers in Pattaya.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Maybe I will be as well just getting a land line. I can't imagine it cost too much and I expect there to be many half decent providers in Pattaya.

For four months?

[innerspace]

I can't believe that no-one here has mentioned it but your best bet is to speak to your soon to be neighbours.

There are bound to be a few within wifi range and all you need is one willing to share their connection.

As long as you aren't going to be eating the bandwidth downloading movies etc you may well talk someone into it.

Fast speeds and no contract far outweighs mobile broadband or 8 months wasted money.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

I can't believe that no-one here has mentioned it but your best bet is to speak to your soon to be neighbours.

There are bound to be a few within wifi range and all you need is one willing to share their connection.

As long as you aren't going to be eating the bandwidth downloading movies etc you may well talk someone into it.

Fast speeds and no contract far outweighs mobile broadband or 8 months wasted money.

Best bet? I certainly wouldn't share my connection with strangers. Any slowdowns would be blamed on them. Is a possibility, but certainly not a 'best bet'.

[Richb2004v2]

I can't believe that no-one here has mentioned it but your best bet is to speak to your soon to be neighbours.

There are bound to be a few within wifi range and all you need is one willing to share their connection.

As long as you aren't going to be eating the bandwidth downloading movies etc you may well talk someone into it.

Fast speeds and no contract far outweighs mobile broadband or 8 months wasted money.

The girl that was in one of the houses near the one we are renting was using one of the dongle things, which is why I asked about it.

[Jiu-Jitsu]

I can't believe that no-one here has mentioned it but your best bet is to speak to your soon to be neighbours.

There are bound to be a few within wifi range and all you need is one willing to share their connection.

As long as you aren't going to be eating the bandwidth downloading movies etc you may well talk someone into it.

Fast speeds and no contract far outweighs mobile broadband or 8 months wasted money.

The girl that was in one of the houses near the one we are renting was using one of the dongle things, which is why I asked about it.

As afore mentioned, look into the TRUE 3G connection. If they have coverage, the corresponding modem(the one I suggested earlier) will likely be of use wherever you go, worldwide. You can just use a the relevant PAYG SIM. Useful if you go travelling around Thailand for instance, as you can use EDGE everywhere. If you go for Hutch, the modem will be of little use to you if you move away from their network.

Surprisingly the speed achieved at the Hutch shop in Pattaya Tai was dire. The TRUE 3G network is growing now they have acquired Hutch's network, so look into it as well as the other options mentioned.

Edited April 28, 2011 by Jiu-Jitsu

[Jiu-Jitsu]

If you have any friends in the UK on the way over, you can pick up a 3G Router for £30 and a modem compatible with TRUE 3G for £14.

That will cover both laptops for wireless use for a little over 2000 baht.

An alternative is TRUE 3G MiFi. But at 4900 baht it's no bargain and I'm not sure if it is Network Locked.

[monty]

Those dongle things are nothing more than a USB modem which use a SIM card.

Actually if you have a mobile phone that supports tethering you don't need one.

You will not get any decent internet speed unless the modem/mobile phone supports CAT 850Mhz CDMA or True 3G (850 Mhz 3G). Anymore, EDGE/GPRS is virtually useless for internet surfing and downloads.. Too slow.

If the laptops support WIFI you only need one. If you only use one laptop at a time, you only need one.

It is doubtful that a broadband ISP will provide service for only 4 months.

This statement of course is nonsense. EDGE is perfectly fine for general Internet surfing. There was time when 256kbps was considered broadband. For large downloads and streaming video, forget it. But for everyday surfing, it's quite usable.

Not so sure.

I'm using Edge at the moment and it's utterly unusable most of the day(s).

Now online at 6 in the morning as that is about the only time of the day it works OK.

Actually tried to post this yesterday, but simply couldn't.

I'm trying to do some work/research online, but almost impossible! Yesterday had to send an e-mail with a 250 kB attachment and it needed 8 or so tries between 7 and 9 pm before it finally went through.

Tried a speedtest, but even that didn't work.

Using two different modems, both indicating full signal strength at my home...

What Edge does work OK for is using it on a mobile/pda, browsing webpages designed for mobiles as they are a fraction of the size compared to a normal website. But not too many websites have a mobile version yet...

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Those dongle things are nothing more than a USB modem which use a SIM card.

Actually if you have a mobile phone that supports tethering you don't need one.

You will not get any decent internet speed unless the modem/mobile phone supports CAT 850Mhz CDMA or True 3G (850 Mhz 3G). Anymore, EDGE/GPRS is virtually useless for internet surfing and downloads.. Too slow.

If the laptops support WIFI you only need one. If you only use one laptop at a time, you only need one.

It is doubtful that a broadband ISP will provide service for only 4 months.

This statement of course is nonsense. EDGE is perfectly fine for general Internet surfing. There was time when 256kbps was considered broadband. For large downloads and streaming video, forget it. But for everyday surfing, it's quite usable.

Not so sure.

I'm using Edge at the moment and it's utterly unusable most of the day(s).

Now online at 6 in the morning as that is about the only time of the day it works OK.

Actually tried to post this yesterday, but simply couldn't.

I'm trying to do some work/research online, but almost impossible! Yesterday had to send an e-mail with a 250 kB attachment and it needed 8 or so tries between 7 and 9 pm before it finally went through.

Tried a speedtest, but even that didn't work.

Using two different modems, both indicating full signal strength at my home...

What Edge does work OK for is using it on a mobile/pda, browsing webpages designed for mobiles as they are a fraction of the size compared to a normal website. But not too many websites have a mobile version yet...

TRUE or AIS?

HAPPY/DTAC is generally the most reliable. Where are you located?

[monty]

Those dongle things are nothing more than a USB modem which use a SIM card.

Actually if you have a mobile phone that supports tethering you don't need one.

You will not get any decent internet speed unless the modem/mobile phone supports CAT 850Mhz CDMA or True 3G (850 Mhz 3G). Anymore, EDGE/GPRS is virtually useless for internet surfing and downloads.. Too slow.

If the laptops support WIFI you only need one. If you only use one laptop at a time, you only need one.

It is doubtful that a broadband ISP will provide service for only 4 months.

This statement of course is nonsense. EDGE is perfectly fine for general Internet surfing. There was time when 256kbps was considered broadband. For large downloads and streaming video, forget it. But for everyday surfing, it's quite usable.

Not so sure.

I'm using Edge at the moment and it's utterly unusable most of the day(s).

Now online at 6 in the morning as that is about the only time of the day it works OK.

Actually tried to post this yesterday, but simply couldn't.

I'm trying to do some work/research online, but almost impossible! Yesterday had to send an e-mail with a 250 kB attachment and it needed 8 or so tries between 7 and 9 pm before it finally went through.

Tried a speedtest, but even that didn't work.

Using two different modems, both indicating full signal strength at my home...

What Edge does work OK for is using it on a mobile/pda, browsing webpages designed for mobiles as they are a fraction of the size compared to a normal website. But not too many websites have a mobile version yet...

TRUE or AIS?

HAPPY/DTAC is generally the most reliable. Where are you located?

Tried both, roughly the same results.

Located just East of the railway on Siam Country Club road.

Maybe the celltower I'm on here has heavy voice traffic, although on the road I have pretty much the same results.

Used to be much better not long ago, but now times of busy voice traffic sees data speeds go down drastically.

What creates the biggest problems is the dataflow. I get 10 seconds of rock solid 30 kBps, then 10 seconds down to 5 kbps, then 30 to 60 seconds of absolutely nothing, causing many things to time out...

Sometimes I get a few minutes a steady 30 kbps dataflow, but very seldom nowadays.

Dtac seems to be a bit more stable, but I get lower signal strength here (3 out of 5 bars) which seems to bring the fast moments down to only 15 kBps, never seen it peak faster (I use bitmeter, so always have indication of exact current data flow speeds)

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Those dongle things are nothing more than a USB modem which use a SIM card.

Actually if you have a mobile phone that supports tethering you don't need one.

You will not get any decent internet speed unless the modem/mobile phone supports CAT 850Mhz CDMA or True 3G (850 Mhz 3G). Anymore, EDGE/GPRS is virtually useless for internet surfing and downloads.. Too slow.

If the laptops support WIFI you only need one. If you only use one laptop at a time, you only need one.

It is doubtful that a broadband ISP will provide service for only 4 months.

This statement of course is nonsense. EDGE is perfectly fine for general Internet surfing. There was time when 256kbps was considered broadband. For large downloads and streaming video, forget it. But for everyday surfing, it's quite usable.

Not so sure.

I'm using Edge at the moment and it's utterly unusable most of the day(s).

Now online at 6 in the morning as that is about the only time of the day it works OK.

Actually tried to post this yesterday, but simply couldn't.

I'm trying to do some work/research online, but almost impossible! Yesterday had to send an e-mail with a 250 kB attachment and it needed 8 or so tries between 7 and 9 pm before it finally went through.

Tried a speedtest, but even that didn't work.

Using two different modems, both indicating full signal strength at my home...

What Edge does work OK for is using it on a mobile/pda, browsing webpages designed for mobiles as they are a fraction of the size compared to a normal website. But not too many websites have a mobile version yet...

TRUE or AIS?

HAPPY/DTAC is generally the most reliable. Where are you located?

Tried both, roughly the same results.

Located just East of the railway on Siam Country Club road.

Maybe the celltower I'm on here has heavy voice traffic, although on the road I have pretty much the same results.

Used to be much better not long ago, but now times of busy voice traffic sees data speeds go down drastically.

What creates the biggest problems is the dataflow. I get 10 seconds of rock solid 30 kBps, then 10 seconds down to 5 kbps, then 30 to 60 seconds of absolutely nothing, causing many things to time out...

Sometimes I get a few minutes a steady 30 kbps dataflow, but very seldom nowadays.

Dtac seems to be a bit more stable, but I get lower signal strength here (3 out of 5 bars) which seems to bring the fast moments down to only 15 kBps, never seen it peak faster (I use bitmeter, so always have indication of exact current data flow speeds)

Sounds about right. Got frequent timeouts with TRUE. Perhaps you can check if TRUE have 3G coverage in your area. What models of modem are you currently using?

[monty]

Sounds about right. Got frequent timeouts with TRUE. Perhaps you can check if TRUE have 3G coverage in your area. What models of modem are you currently using?

Trying to get wired internet in, but True says "full", and 3BB wants to get an engineer in first to check.

Sophon seems overpriced with half the speed for the same price when compared to the ADSL providers, and a hefty installation fee when you don't want to pay a year (or half year, not sure) upfront.

Will see about TRUE 3G, they do have coverage here, but I'm worried on their monthly transfer limits and the silly 123 Baht per extra 1 Mb if you go over (0.12 Baht/kb, one Mb is 1024 kb)!

Yes, that is a whopping 12,300 Baht for 100 Mb, but I assume they cut you of before that

http://www.truemove.com/en/data-package-volumnbase.htm

Today's surfing session starting at just after 5 am and I netted just over 40 Mb down and 3Mb up of admittedly rather heavy websites (swimming pool stuff with lots of graphics).

Attached current speed test to Bangkok, note the wopping high latency.

Had to try 3 times to get the bloody jpg attached

[Phil Conners]

Best bet? I certainly wouldn't share my connection with strangers. Any slowdowns would be blamed on them. Is a possibility, but certainly not a 'best bet'.

If it's your neighbor it's not a stranger anymore ... I've shared my Internet with neighbors who for whatever reason couldn't get Internet in the past, no big deal. Of course they're expected to chip in for the cost and if necessary we'll increase the bandwidth. If in the worst case it turns out to be a real bandwidth hog the deal would of course be off again, but I've never had any problems.

Not so sure.

I'm using Edge at the moment and it's utterly unusable most of the day(s).

Now online at 6 in the morning as that is about the only time of the day it works OK.

Actually tried to post this yesterday, but simply couldn't.

I'm trying to do some work/research online, but almost impossible! Yesterday had to send an e-mail with a 250 kB attachment and it needed 8 or so tries between 7 and 9 pm before it finally went through.

Tried a speedtest, but even that didn't work.

Using two different modems, both indicating full signal strength at my home...

What Edge does work OK for is using it on a mobile/pda, browsing webpages designed for mobiles as they are a fraction of the size compared to a normal website. But not too many websites have a mobile version yet...

TRUE or AIS?

HAPPY/DTAC is generally the most reliable. Where are you located?

Tried both, roughly the same results.

Located just East of the railway on Siam Country Club road.

Maybe the celltower I'm on here has heavy voice traffic, although on the road I have pretty much the same results.

Used to be much better not long ago, but now times of busy voice traffic sees data speeds go down drastically.

What creates the biggest problems is the dataflow. I get 10 seconds of rock solid 30 kBps, then 10 seconds down to 5 kbps, then 30 to 60 seconds of absolutely nothing, causing many things to time out...

Sometimes I get a few minutes a steady 30 kbps dataflow, but very seldom nowadays.

Dtac seems to be a bit more stable, but I get lower signal strength here (3 out of 5 bars) which seems to bring the fast moments down to only 15 kBps, never seen it peak faster (I use bitmeter, so always have indication of exact current data flow speeds)

Hey Monty, long time no see!

I often (try to) use DTAC GPRS on my Android phone when I am out and about, but half of the time it is simply so slow it is worthless. Like Monty says, retries after retries just to get a simple mobile page up. It varies a lot though, and not necessarily by time or location. One place I regularly (try to) use it is in Central, in the afternoon, and most times it is useless but occationally it's brilliant. No idea how that works out.

True is offering 3G in Pattaya now? Any good? If I change will I be able to take my old DTAC number with me? Actually I'm not even sure if my HTC Desire will work with True 3G - it's the A8181 model which says GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 HSPA/WCDMA 900/2100 MHz?

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Best bet? I certainly wouldn't share my connection with strangers. Any slowdowns would be blamed on them. Is a possibility, but certainly not a 'best bet'.

If it's your neighbor it's not a stranger anymore ... I've shared my Internet with neighbors who for whatever reason couldn't get Internet in the past, no big deal. Of course they're expected to chip in for the cost and if necessary we'll increase the bandwidth. If in the worst case it turns out to be a real bandwidth hog the deal would of course be off again, but I've never had any problems.

[

Not so sure.

I'm using Edge at the moment and it's utterly unusable most of the day(s).

Now online at 6 in the morning as that is about the only time of the day it works OK.

Actually tried to post this yesterday, but simply couldn't.

I'm trying to do some work/research online, but almost impossible! Yesterday had to send an e-mail with a 250 kB attachment and it needed 8 or so tries between 7 and 9 pm before it finally went through.

Tried a speedtest, but even that didn't work.

Using two different modems, both indicating full signal strength at my home...

What Edge does work OK for is using it on a mobile/pda, browsing webpages designed for mobiles as they are a fraction of the size compared to a normal website. But not too many websites have a mobile version yet...

TRUE or AIS?

HAPPY/DTAC is generally the most reliable. Where are you located?

Tried both, roughly the same results.

Located just East of the railway on Siam Country Club road.

Maybe the celltower I'm on here has heavy voice traffic, although on the road I have pretty much the same results.

Used to be much better not long ago, but now times of busy voice traffic sees data speeds go down drastically.

What creates the biggest problems is the dataflow. I get 10 seconds of rock solid 30 kBps, then 10 seconds down to 5 kbps, then 30 to 60 seconds of absolutely nothing, causing many things to time out...

Sometimes I get a few minutes a steady 30 kbps dataflow, but very seldom nowadays.

Dtac seems to be a bit more stable, but I get lower signal strength here (3 out of 5 bars) which seems to bring the fast moments down to only 15 kBps, never seen it peak faster (I use bitmeter, so always have indication of exact current data flow speeds)

Hey Monty, long time no see!

I often (try to) use DTAC GPRS on my Android phone when I am out and about, but half of the time it is simply so slow it is worthless. Like Monty says, retries after retries just to get a simple mobile page up. It varies a lot though, and not necessarily by time or location. One place I regularly (try to) use it is in Central, in the afternoon, and most times it is useless but occationally it's brilliant. No idea how that works out.

True is offering 3G in Pattaya now? Any good? If I change will I be able to take my old DTAC number with me? Actually I'm not even sure if my HTC Desire will work with True 3G - it's the A8181 model which says GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 HSPA/WCDMA 900/2100 MHz?

Your HTC is not compatible with TRUE 3G. Only with AIS 3G or TOT 3G(or it's MVNOs). The quality is variable.

I didn't have any problems with HAPPY EDGE, but then my machine was static.

[lomatopo]

Maybe I will be as well just getting a land line. I can't imagine it cost too much and I expect there to be many half decent providers in Pattaya.

There may well be a land-line already installed, so just a matter on turning service back on, then getting a DSL provider. Many DSL plans here require a 12 month contract, and often have high cancellation fees, so if you do go this route review the T's & C's carefully.

If you can get True 3G then that is an option. There are MiFi devices which establish the 3G connection then act as a 5-port WiFI AP. You may be able to find a less-expensive 850 Mhz-compatible MiFi device, from Huawei.

[Phil Conners]

Your HTC is not compatible with TRUE 3G. Only with AIS 3G or TOT 3G(or it's MVNOs). The quality is variable.

Thanks, yes I suspected that.

How good is the 3G coverage of AIS and TOT in Pattaya?

How does TOT 3G works - I mean, is it 3G only or do they also provide voice? I need both for my phone and never heard of TOT providing mobile phone services....

What is the current situation with number transfers in Thailand, does it work now? I kinda like my number so want to keep it.

[lomatopo]

I do not believe AIS or TOT offer 3G coverage in Pattaya.

TOT 3G subscribers (either directly or via one of their MVNOs) have voice and 3G from TOT towers in metro-Bangkok. Outside of Bangkok you roam on AIS/One-2-Call for voice, and may be SooL for any 2G data or SMS.

MNP is available from/to AIS/DTAC/True

http://www.tot3g.net/default.aspx

http://www.i-bkk.com/ilocation/viewer/

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Sounds about right. Got frequent timeouts with TRUE. Perhaps you can check if TRUE have 3G coverage in your area. What models of modem are you currently using?

Trying to get wired internet in, but True says "full", and 3BB wants to get an engineer in first to check.

Sophon seems overpriced with half the speed for the same price when compared to the ADSL providers, and a hefty installation fee when you don't want to pay a year (or half year, not sure) upfront.

Will see about TRUE 3G, they do have coverage here, but I'm worried on their monthly transfer limits and the silly 123 Baht per extra 1 Mb if you go over (0.12 Baht/kb, one Mb is 1024 kb)!

Yes, that is a whopping 12,300 Baht for 100 Mb, but I assume they cut you of before that

http://www.truemove.com/en/data-package-volumnbase.htm

Today's surfing session starting at just after 5 am and I netted just over 40 Mb down and 3Mb up of admittedly rather heavy websites (swimming pool stuff with lots of graphics).

Attached current speed test to Bangkok, note the wopping high latency.

Had to try 3 times to get the bloody jpg attached

No need to worry about too much about excess fees. The connection software collects statistics on your usage.

In addition, you are looking at the wrong page. Excess usage is charged at 0.01 baht per kb. So 10.24 baht per MB... Here is the correct page

Common sense will tell you not to have a large excess stored on the account. Just top up enough for the price of the package each month plus a few baht.

[Phil Conners]

I do not believe AIS or TOT offer 3G coverage in Pattaya.

TOT 3G subscribers (either directly or via one of their MVNOs) have voice and 3G from TOT towers in metro-Bangkok. Outside of Bangkok you roam on AIS/One-2-Call for voice, and may be SooL for any 2G data or SMS.

MNP is available from/to AIS/DTAC/True

http://www.tot3g.net/default.aspx

http://www.i-bkk.com/ilocation/viewer/

Thanks but if they don't have coverage in Pattaya they're as useless to me as a bicycle to a fish.

Ah well. One day. Perhaps. When the rest of the world is on teleporters ...

[Jiu-Jitsu]

I do not believe AIS or TOT offer 3G coverage in Pattaya.

TOT 3G subscribers (either directly or via one of their MVNOs) have voice and 3G from TOT towers in metro-Bangkok. Outside of Bangkok you roam on AIS/One-2-Call for voice, and may be SooL for any 2G data or SMS.

MNP is available from/to AIS/DTAC/True

http://www.tot3g.net/default.aspx

http://www.i-bkk.com/ilocation/viewer/

AIS 3G has coverage in Chonburi City. Don't know if they have UMTS masts in Pattaya. TOT(allegedly) have WiFi(no 3G) along Pattaya Beach. 256kbps available for free. 1MB for a fee.