Thailand Will Have 80-85 Percent High-Speed Internet Coverage In Four Years

[Cheops]

^that was my first thought on reading the headline.

The 'high-speed' will be today's high speed figures that will be obsolete in most of the rest of the world in 4 years time as they will continually play 'catch-up' and not invest in future proofing infrastructure.

True true. I remember back 4 or 5 years ago they were talking about the same thing.. "We will have high-speed internet in 4 or 5 years. Thailand will always be behind the rest of the world in most things, except for maybe Ethopia or other places in Africa.

I just came back from Europe last month. You'll be surprised that many of my friends envied my internet speed over here.

I will assume that you did not do any research before posting your opinion. Kindly confirm.

I guess you don't have any friends in the Netherlands then (by the way, I can't imagine people from Germany envy your internet connection as well). For sure it would be the other way around. I don't know anyone who has internet BELOW 20MBit in the Netherlands. My dad has 20Mbit, friends have 65 or 100Mbit etc. Thailand is really far far away from those speeds (I mean real speeds, and not throttled!). And Yes, I live in Bangkok and have True cable internet as well, but let's be honest, the connection to the backbones outside Thailand is just sad! Let's not even discuss the fact of Thailand blocking sites etc.!

[billd766]

Dear Abby

I have been waiting since 2003 for just an ordinary home phone line to come 5 km.

This year it has finally made it to just 700 metres away. A few of us want a line but TOT says that they need to put 15 lines in to make it pay and they cannot guarantee an ADSL connection either.

In the same period AIS has put in 3 cell sites and DTAC has added 1.

I am 67 now.

Do you think that I will get a high speed internet connection in my lifetime?

Sure, I think the average lifetime for a male (assuming you are male) is somewhere in the 84 area....so, give the govt/TOT another 4 years and on your 71nd birthday your gift will be a TOT landline for phone and internet service although your internet service may be limited to 2Mb with 500Kb speed (on a good day) to international web sites....then your golden years can really begin courtesy of TOT.

A song has just come into my head.

To dream the impossible dream, (getting a good adsl line)

To fight the unbeatable foe, (TOT)

Sorry, I think I have been in the sticks too long.

[tombkk]

^that was my first thought on reading the headline.

The 'high-speed' will be today's high speed figures that will be obsolete in most of the rest of the world in 4 years time as they will continually play 'catch-up' and not invest in future proofing infrastructure.

True true. I remember back 4 or 5 years ago they were talking about the same thing.. "We will have high-speed internet in 4 or 5 years. Thailand will always be behind the rest of the world in most things, except for maybe Ethopia or other places in Africa.

I just came back from Europe last month. You'll be surprised that many of my friends envied my internet speed over here.

I will assume that you did not do any research before posting your opinion. Kindly confirm.

I guess you don't have any friends in the Netherlands then (by the way, I can't imagine people from Germany envy your internet connection as well). For sure it would be the other way around. I don't know anyone who has internet BELOW 20MBit in the Netherlands. My dad has 20Mbit, friends have 65 or 100Mbit etc. Thailand is really far far away from those speeds (I mean real speeds, and not throttled!). And Yes, I live in Bangkok and have True cable internet as well, but let's be honest, the connection to the backbones outside Thailand is just sad! Let's not even discuss the fact of Thailand blocking sites etc.!

Wow, no the speed in Hamburg was lower than what I have in Bangkok. May politics be involved?

I guess we are at peak time now, with the kids gaming and all. Download speed from server in Bangkok is 10.05 Mbps, Frankfurt 10.12 Mbps, Hong Kong 10.14 Mbps and Los Angeles 10.07 Mbps. This is with a "throttled" shared line with dynamic IP, and I have nothing to complain about.

[tombkk]

Dear Abby

I have been waiting since 2003 for just an ordinary home phone line to come 5 km.

This year it has finally made it to just 700 metres away. A few of us want a line but TOT says that they need to put 15 lines in to make it pay and they cannot guarantee an ADSL connection either.

In the same period AIS has put in 3 cell sites and DTAC has added 1.

I am 67 now.

Do you think that I will get a high speed internet connection in my lifetime?

Define "high-speed" and how long you expect to live.

But please do tell us where you live. I understand that many ATM machines use the internet, and without ADSL or even telephones, that would be difficult.

In fact, how do *you* connect to the internet without a phone line? Or are you not connected to the internet?

[Cheops]

Wow, no the speed in Hamburg was lower than what I have in Bangkok. May politics be involved?

I guess we are at peak time now, with the kids gaming and all. Download speed from server in Bangkok is 10.05 Mbps, Frankfurt 10.12 Mbps, Hong Kong 10.14 Mbps and Los Angeles 10.07 Mbps. This is with a "throttled" shared line with dynamic IP, and I have nothing to complain about.

Hi Tombkk,

oh, so the speeds in Germany are that bad! I thought in Germany the speeds were up to date. The Netherlands have always had a head position in internet worldwide. Of course we can't beat Korea (yet), but I think you can't find any new connection less then 20Mbit. Some area's they even have 1Gbit (yes, giga) and also offering (for a price that is) 100Gbit, which is mostly affordable if you have a company of course.

About your speeds of 10Mbit to any server. Please read my posts (and others) on following thread.

True Ultra Hi-Speed Internet 10 Mbps - 699 Baht. Any good?

If you have True connection, please use the True proxy server to be able to see your real speeds, which are for sure not 10Mbit (well, from your home to the Thailand servers you will be able to get max speeds, but international it's a different story): "proxy.trueinternet.co.th" with a port setting of 8080

I don't know if other providers have such a proxy as well. Most (if not all) those speedtests are cached on local servers, so you will get always full speed.

Here are my results from 2 days ago @ 21:15 peaktime (my package: True Docsis (cable-internet) 10Mbit/1Mbit 699 baht):

To a BKK server it's ok of course.

To the Netherlands:

To San Fransisco:

To Ho Chi Minh City (hmmmmm ):

If I don't use the True proxy all above speedtests shows a pingtime of 6 or 8ms (which is just impossible) and a speed of 10Mbit down/1Mbit up.

Please try it and let us know.

Thanks.

[billd766]

Dear Abby

I have been waiting since 2003 for just an ordinary home phone line to come 5 km.

This year it has finally made it to just 700 metres away. A few of us want a line but TOT says that they need to put 15 lines in to make it pay and they cannot guarantee an ADSL connection either.

In the same period AIS has put in 3 cell sites and DTAC has added 1.

I am 67 now.

Do you think that I will get a high speed internet connection in my lifetime?

Define "high-speed" and how long you expect to live.

But please do tell us where you live. I understand that many ATM machines use the internet, and without ADSL or even telephones, that would be difficult.

In fact, how do *you* connect to the internet without a phone line? Or are you not connected to the internet?

To me high speed is anything better than I have now.

I live 6km from the village of Klong Lan Pattana which is 58 km southwest of Khampaeng Phet. Klong Lan has a KBank (and no other bank) and the only 3 ATM's. In the Amphur village 18km away the only bank is the BAAC however there are ATM's from 3 or 4 different banks there as well.

I use DTAC and EDGE or sometimes AIS with EDGE but of course as more people make phone calls the less timeslots are available for EDGE and my internet connection slows down and sometimes stops completely especially at the weekends.

I am 67 now and I would like to live long enough (and be able) to see my son graduate from college or university and he was 7 last month.

Other than that which isn't really that important life where I live is great and the locals are very friendly even without rose tinted glasses.

[Pib]

I guess we are at peak time now, with the kids gaming and all. Download speed from server in Bangkok is 10.05 Mbps, Frankfurt 10.12 Mbps, Hong Kong 10.14 Mbps and Los Angeles 10.07 Mbps. This is with a "throttled" shared line with dynamic IP, and I have nothing to complain about.

What ISP are you with and what speed test program are you using. Sounds like you are on a 10Mb plan and since you are getting 10Mb all over the Earth you are getting bogus download speeds. I expect all of your ping times are bogus also and probably in the 10 to 50ms ballpark also. All of this indicates the speed test program being fooled by in-Thailand hidden cache servers...these are the servers you are really getting your results from and not those distance servers in Frankfurt, Hong Kong, LA, etc.

I too can easily get bogus download and ping times with my internet provider which is True and I'm on a 20Mb cable plan. I pretty much get 20Mb download speeds and 10ms ping times to servers all over the Earth unless I use the True proxy setting which corrects the bogus results.....or use a speedtest program like DSLReports.com, ADSLThailand.com, MicrosoftOnline Services which are usually not fooled by local hidden cache servers.

[sezze]

When they can bring any speed in 4 years time to 80 to 85% of the people in Thailand i am very pleased . In my home , no internet available unless i go by a gprs phone . It does work but speed is not an option , average connection speed is somewhere between 1 and 60 kb/s and dropping out constantly . On good days you can check textmail without reconnection in the middle .

Any speed from 512kb/s i would count as high speed . 512 kb/s is enough to do most tasks without any difficulties . Above 2 gb/s then the differences are small and not very noticeble . Home internet line in Europe i just cut down from 20 mb/s to 6 mb/s since it was cheaper and i not see any difference for 99.99% of the time .

[Pib]

Home internet line in Europe i just cut down from 20 mb/s to 6 mb/s since it was cheaper and i not see any difference for 99.99% of the time .

Couldn't agree more....For general interneting/emailing/video streaming with a good 6Mb connection that gives good international bandwidth/speed also (expect that is generally the case in Europe) you are on target in saying it's hard to notice any difference. Now if you are a file downloading/utorrent addict then maybe a 20Mb plan makes a difference. Now, if we can just get some 6Mb plans in Thailand that give 6Mb international speed/bandwidth. Cheers.

[tombkk]

I guess we are at peak time now, with the kids gaming and all. Download speed from server in Bangkok is 10.05 Mbps, Frankfurt 10.12 Mbps, Hong Kong 10.14 Mbps and Los Angeles 10.07 Mbps. This is with a "throttled" shared line with dynamic IP, and I have nothing to complain about.

What ISP are you with and what speed test program are you using. Sounds like you are on a 10Mb plan and since you are getting 10Mb all over the Earth you are getting bogus download speeds. I expect all of your ping times are bogus also and probably in the 10 to 50ms ballpark also. All of this indicates the speed test program being fooled by in-Thailand hidden cache servers...these are the servers you are really getting your results from and not those distance servers in Frankfurt, Hong Kong, LA, etc.

I too can easily get bogus download and ping times with my internet provider which is True and I'm on a 20Mb cable plan. I pretty much get 20Mb download speeds and 10ms ping times to servers all over the Earth unless I use the True proxy setting which corrects the bogus results.....or use a speedtest program like DSLReports.com, ADSLThailand.com, MicrosoftOnline Services which are usually not fooled by local hidden cache servers.

I'm with True on a 12 Mbps plan. I use www.speedtest.net to check my speed.

What you say is interesting. Let me try the other websites.

[tombkk]

Dear Abby

I have been waiting since 2003 for just an ordinary home phone line to come 5 km.

This year it has finally made it to just 700 metres away. A few of us want a line but TOT says that they need to put 15 lines in to make it pay and they cannot guarantee an ADSL connection either.

In the same period AIS has put in 3 cell sites and DTAC has added 1.

I am 67 now.

Do you think that I will get a high speed internet connection in my lifetime?

Define "high-speed" and how long you expect to live.

But please do tell us where you live. I understand that many ATM machines use the internet, and without ADSL or even telephones, that would be difficult.

In fact, how do *you* connect to the internet without a phone line? Or are you not connected to the internet?

To me high speed is anything better than I have now.

I live 6km from the village of Klong Lan Pattana which is 58 km southwest of Khampaeng Phet. Klong Lan has a KBank (and no other bank) and the only 3 ATM's. In the Amphur village 18km away the only bank is the BAAC however there are ATM's from 3 or 4 different banks there as well.

I use DTAC and EDGE or sometimes AIS with EDGE but of course as more people make phone calls the less timeslots are available for EDGE and my internet connection slows down and sometimes stops completely especially at the weekends.

I am 67 now and I would like to live long enough (and be able) to see my son graduate from college or university and he was 7 last month.

Other than that which isn't really that important life where I live is great and the locals are very friendly even without rose tinted glasses.

How important is the internet for you? It seems like you have a life - one based in the real world rather than the virtual world.

[billd766]

tombkk

I tried to reply but too many quotes

It is a very useful tool for me.

I check my emails, read some online newspapers and the BBC news in the morning.

Spend a couple of hours on ThaiVisa in the afternoon and another couple of forums.

For my own satisfaction I am writing the story of my life for the last 67 years and I use the internet to refresh my memory of things and places gone by.

A couple of mornings ago I spent 2 or 3 hours driving around Norfolk remembering the bases I worked at and the pubs I used to go to and also to find old railway lines, breweries, routes etc.

For this it is very important but if it isn't there for a while I have a lot of other things I can do as well.

Though the virtual life is OK in small doses you can't beat the real thing and besides it is the only one I have and I would hate to waste it sitting on a computer 8 or 10 hours a day.

[Pib]

I guess we are at peak time now, with the kids gaming and all. Download speed from server in Bangkok is 10.05 Mbps, Frankfurt 10.12 Mbps, Hong Kong 10.14 Mbps and Los Angeles 10.07 Mbps. This is with a "throttled" shared line with dynamic IP, and I have nothing to complain about.

What ISP are you with and what speed test program are you using. Sounds like you are on a 10Mb plan and since you are getting 10Mb all over the Earth you are getting bogus download speeds. I expect all of your ping times are bogus also and probably in the 10 to 50ms ballpark also. All of this indicates the speed test program being fooled by in-Thailand hidden cache servers...these are the servers you are really getting your results from and not those distance servers in Frankfurt, Hong Kong, LA, etc.

I too can easily get bogus download and ping times with my internet provider which is True and I'm on a 20Mb cable plan. I pretty much get 20Mb download speeds and 10ms ping times to servers all over the Earth unless I use the True proxy setting which corrects the bogus results.....or use a speedtest program like DSLReports.com, ADSLThailand.com, MicrosoftOnline Services which are usually not fooled by local hidden cache servers.

I'm with True on a 12 Mbps plan. I use www.speedtest.net to check my speed.

What you say is interesting. Let me try the other websites.

Hopefully you do get 12Mb results to Bangkok at least sometime during the day/night since you are paying for a 12Mb plan; if not, True probably has you setup for a 10Mb plan or you've don't have the best physical line connection.

[tombkk]

tombkk

I tried to reply but too many quotes

It is a very useful tool for me.

I check my emails, read some online newspapers and the BBC news in the morning.

Spend a couple of hours on ThaiVisa in the afternoon and another couple of forums.

For my own satisfaction I am writing the story of my life for the last 67 years and I use the internet to refresh my memory of things and places gone by.

A couple of mornings ago I spent 2 or 3 hours driving around Norfolk remembering the bases I worked at and the pubs I used to go to and also to find old railway lines, breweries, routes etc.

For this it is very important but if it isn't there for a while I have a lot of other things I can do as well.

Though the virtual life is OK in small doses you can't beat the real thing and besides it is the only one I have and I would hate to waste it sitting on a computer 8 or 10 hours a day.

Hehehe, so you do have a life. :-)

For me, the internet is entertainment. Yes, I do read newspapers only, both Thai-language Thai papers as well as the home one, and a newspaper of the country were something just happened (as long as it is in English, German or Spanish). ThaiVisa I do when I have time, for relaxation.

But hey, I would want to miss this on a vacation! Went to Hawaii with SO, to some remoate island (i.e. very far away frm Honolulu) where everything closes by or before midnight... I had my internet, but SO was very disappointed that there was no TV in the hotel room! I think I would have been disappointed had there not been free wifi in the hotel.

Good to hear you do the research for your memoires on the internet. I do academic research, for the degree I am pursuing. I can only imagine how people coped before the internet.

For business, on the other hand, the internet, especially email, is crucial. But that's something else. We used email at modem speeds, before the terms "broadband" or "highspeed" even came up.

[apetley]

If I were head of MICT I would be hanging my head in shame acknowledging 20% of the population would still not have access to either adsl or 3g in four years.

[tombkk]

If I were head of MICT I would be hanging my head in shame acknowledging 20% of the population would still not have access to either adsl or 3g in four years.

Would you though. Thailand is a developing country, and development goes on in different areas in parallel. Internet access is an achievement, ADSL or 3G a luxury.

We all want to live in luxury, but we also have to see that highspeed for everyone is not the main goal as long as there are still many people living in poverty.

[ES1]

Keep in mind that according to other govt releases/news articles I read on this, the government's definition of "high speed coverage" means access to at least a "2Mb" ADSL line or 2Mb Wifi circuit. I don't know if I would consider 2Mb as high speed in today's world.

I still remember about seven years ago I came to Thailand on a business trip, stayed in a 5 star hotel in the central Bangkok, and that hotel's "high speed" internet to each room (proudly displayed in the room literature) was 56Kb...I did use it and it was indeed 56Kb "high speed" internet....downloading my email which was heavy with attachments/power point presentations took hours...but that gave me plenty of time to bar hop as my "high speed" internet connection did its thing.

Seven years ago.... Today I have 12Mbps internet at home on a shared line, which is actually 9.83 Mbps right now. And that's not an exception. My friends in Germany envy me!

Youtube videos are no problem, and I have dismissed all these "speed enhancers" from my computer. It turned out faster to download directly.

OK, I admit: I am in Bangkok. Experiences in "up-country" provinces may differ.

Yawn...I get on average 20MB down /2.5MB up here in Canada. You can get those speeds in about 85% of the country. There are even faster plans available. I think the US is about the same. So sorry to burst your bubble but those speeds you think are so great aren't anything special anymore.

[ES1]

Keep in mind that according to other govt releases/news articles I read on this, the government's definition of "high speed coverage" means access to at least a "2Mb" ADSL line or 2Mb Wifi circuit. I don't know if I would consider 2Mb as high speed in today's world.

I still remember about seven years ago I came to Thailand on a business trip, stayed in a 5 star hotel in the central Bangkok, and that hotel's "high speed" internet to each room (proudly displayed in the room literature) was 56Kb...I did use it and it was indeed 56Kb "high speed" internet....downloading my email which was heavy with attachments/power point presentations took hours...but that gave me plenty of time to bar hop as my "high speed" internet connection did its thing.

Seven years ago.... Today I have 12Mbps internet at home on a shared line, which is actually 9.83 Mbps right now. And that's not an exception. My friends in Germany envy me!

Youtube videos are no problem, and I have dismissed all these "speed enhancers" from my computer. It turned out faster to download directly.

OK, I admit: I am in Bangkok. Experiences in "up-country" provinces may differ.

Yawn...I get on average 20MB down /2.5MB up here in Canada. You can get those speeds in about 85% of the country. There are even faster plans available. I think the US is about the same. So sorry to burst your bubble but those speeds you think are so great aren't anything special anymore. Great for Thailand I guess but Thailand is a ways behind a lot of other countries.

[apetley]

If I were head of MICT I would be hanging my head in shame acknowledging 20% of the population would still not have access to either adsl or 3g in four years.

Would you though. Thailand is a developing country, and development goes on in different areas in parallel. Internet access is an achievement, ADSL or 3G a luxury.

We all want to live in luxury, but we also have to see that highspeed for everyone is not the main goal as long as there are still many people living in poverty.

The sad fact is that almost all the infrastructure for adsl or 3G could have and should have been in place years ago as it was in many neighbouring countries. Why was it not implemented? Most would argue archaic state monopolies and their vested interests rather than any ideal to improve the lot of the common man.