Ais Internet Usb Stick In Southern Thailand

[scottydel]

Hi,

37-year-old American here. My wife's sister's family has a new computer and is trying to use an AIS internet USB stick. They live in a rural area near Krabi called Ao Luk. They are having trouble figuring out how to use it and what it costs. Apparently they were charged 100 baht for an hour of internet use. They bought the USB stick at Tesco.

I'm not much help to them. I use a montly plan with 3BB. I have a modem/router and wifi in my house, and I have no experience using USB internet sticks. We live 45 minutes away from them.

Can anyone tell me how the AIS USB internet sticks are supposed to be used? Like how do you top them up, what software is required, how much shoud it cost? If monthly plans are available, verus hourly rates, that would be great.

Any thoughts appreciated!

Thanks,

Scott

[Jiu-Jitsu]

AIS GPRS/EDGE packages

[lomatopo]

http://www.ais.co.th/mobileinternet/2G_aircard.html

You can top-up from any of the traditional sources: ATM, Shop, 7/11 etc/

http://www.ais.co.th/12call/en/topup.html

Any required software is usually embedded on the aircard and gets installed automagically when the aircard is plugged in.

Without a data plan (Volume - MB recommended) you pay 1 baht/min.

Edited June 14, 2011 by lomatopo

[scottydel]

Thank you for the replies.

I've read the links and have one last question: How do you sign up for a montly plan? Topping up at 7/11 is simple enough, but I've never had a montly data plan for a SIM in Thailand, and alas I'm from America where mobile phones are quite different (no SIM cards and paper billing, no "topping up" at 7/11s or ATMs).

So for example AIS has a 199 baht/month plan with some amount of data included, how and where do you sign up and make the payment each month? Is it up to the customer to "top up" their montly bill each month or the plan will expire, or do you set up a proper user accound and receive a paper statement in the postal mail each month? Sorry for the silly question, thanks for any help.

Edited June 15, 2011 by scottydel

[KRS1]

Tell them to stick the sim in their cellphone first and dial the activation number.

[lomatopo]

There are many ways to sign up for a data plan...call 1175, talk to a CSR, use a *138 code, use eServices, follow the links on the page... http://www.ais.co.th/12call/en/pro-SmartPhone.html

Payment is automatically deducted from your pre-paid balance on the monthly basis, so it is your responsibility to have enough money remaining. If you sign up on June 15, then on July 14 (or 15?) another 214 baht (199 + 7% VAT) would be deducted. They send you SMSes reminding you of the upcoming renewal. You can pop the SIM in a phone, make a call to your phone and note the number of the SIM, then just add value to that number via an ATM or 7/11 or some of the other top-up channels.

[scottydel]

There are many ways to sign up for a data plan...call 1175, talk to a CSR, use a *138 code, use eServices, follow the links on the page... http://www.ais.co.th...SmartPhone.html

Payment is automatically deducted from your pre-paid balance on the monthly basis, so it is your responsibility to have enough money remaining. If you sign up on June 15, then on July 14 (or 15?) another 214 baht (199 + 7% VAT) would be deducted. They send you SMSes reminding you of the upcoming renewal. You can pop the SIM in a phone, make a call to your phone and note the number of the SIM, then just add value to that number via an ATM or 7/11 or some of the other top-up channels.

Thank you! Very clear now

[scottydel]

There are many ways to sign up for a data plan...call 1175, talk to a CSR, use a *138 code, use eServices, follow the links on the page... http://www.ais.co.th...SmartPhone.html

Payment is automatically deducted from your pre-paid balance on the monthly basis, so it is your responsibility to have enough money remaining. If you sign up on June 15, then on July 14 (or 15?) another 214 baht (199 + 7% VAT) would be deducted. They send you SMSes reminding you of the upcoming renewal. You can pop the SIM in a phone, make a call to your phone and note the number of the SIM, then just add value to that number via an ATM or 7/11 or some of the other top-up channels.

Follow-up question: I tried using eServices via AIS's website, but it is asking me for a password after I enter the SIM's mobile #. We don't have a password. Do you have to sign up initially by calling 1175, and then you will be given obtain a password to access eServices?

Thanks,

Scott

[lomatopo]

There are many ways to sign up for a data plan...call 1175, talk to a CSR, use a *138 code, use eServices, follow the links on the page... http://www.ais.co.th...SmartPhone.html

Payment is automatically deducted from your pre-paid balance on the monthly basis, so it is your responsibility to have enough money remaining. If you sign up on June 15, then on July 14 (or 15?) another 214 baht (199 + 7% VAT) would be deducted. They send you SMSes reminding you of the upcoming renewal. You can pop the SIM in a phone, make a call to your phone and note the number of the SIM, then just add value to that number via an ATM or 7/11 or some of the other top-up channels.

Follow-up question: I tried using eServices via AIS's website, but it is asking me for a password after I enter the SIM's mobile #. We don't have a password. Do you have to sign up initially by calling 1175, and then you will be given obtain a password to access eServices?

Thanks,

Scott

Put the SIM in a phone, request a password/PIN, it will be delivered to the phone in ~ 10 sec., use that 4-digit PIN to log in to eServices.

What are you trying to do, in eServices?

Have you decided on a data plan yet?

[scottydel]

Thanks for the response. We've got the SIM in the phone, how do we request a password, *138?

We are trying to select a monthly plan. We think we know what plan we want yep. AIS has a NETSIM plan for 99 baht a month, which comes with 30 hours of free internet. Not the plan I would choose, but they are picking it!

[lomatopo]

Thanks for the response. We've got the SIM in the phone, how do we request a password, *138?

We are trying to select a monthly plan. We think we know what plan we want yep. AIS has a NETSIM plan for 99 baht a month, which comes with 30 hours of free internet. Not the plan I would choose, but they are picking it!

Put SIM in phone. Call another phone, note phone number of SIM.

Go here Link

Enter phone number noted above. Click on "request PIN".

Wait for PIN

Enter PIN on website.

Log in.

============

Which plan do you want? You may be able to subscribe to it directly from the phone. Example: http://www.ais.co.th/vas/datatips/

If you wanted to subscribe to the 20 hours plan you would enter *138*33# SEND (from a phone).

Maybe you could just tell us exactly what it is you're trying to do?

Edited June 19, 2011 by lomatopo

[scottydel]

Which plan do you want? You may be able to subscribe to it directly from the phone. Example: http://www.ais.co.th/vas/datatips/

If you wanted to subscribe to the 20 hours plan you would enter *138*33# SEND (from a phone).

Maybe you could just tell us exactly what it is you're trying to do?

Thanks, we are able to log in via eServices. We're trying for the 99 baht for 30 MB plan. We've selected it and clicked submit, then it sends an SMS saying "Sorry, we can't process this at this time..." or something like that.

The link is helpful, I can see now how we can dial from the phone to sign up for a service, we'll try that next, maybe only eServices is having problems.

Thank you for the replies, you are extremely helpful! My wife, her sister and family are as clueless about this process as I am about this process, with the addition of not being able to read Thai!

[lomatopo]

To subscribe to the 30 MB/99 baht plan you can use the *138*01# SEND command. Obviously you should have at least 99 baht balance.

You can check your balance, *121# SEND.

Edited June 19, 2011 by lomatopo

[scottydel]

To subscribe to the 30 MB/99 baht plan you can use the *138*01# SEND command. Obviously you should have at least 99 baht balance.

You can check your balance, *121# SEND.

Thanks! I think we figured it out, one of the eService submits or *138*01# commands finally took!

[lomatopo]

To subscribe to the 30 MB/99 baht plan you can use the *138*01# SEND command. Obviously you should have at least 99 baht balance.

You can check your balance, *121# SEND.

Thanks! I think we figured it out, one of the eService submits or *138*01# commands finally took!

Hopefully they didn't take 107 baht each time.

[4evermaat]

To subscribe to the 30 MB/99 baht plan you can use the *138*01# SEND command. Obviously you should have at least 99 baht balance.

You can check your balance, *121# SEND.

Thanks! I think we figured it out, one of the eService submits or *138*01# commands finally took!

you are better off with smartphone package: 199 baht/mo for 200MB. can subscribe using eservice.