Truemove H Vs Ais 3G

[bubba]

I'm having real issues with AIS 3G service with regard to speed. Seems like any time I am in a location with lots of people, my download/upload speed goes straight to zero, presumably due to undercapacity. For example, the last four times I have been at Suvarnabhumi, it was impossible to even check mail. Last week, I was sitting with a friend at a boarding gate, getting zero bandwidth with my AIS service, while he was sitting next to me using the same iPhone 4s as mine, but on Truemove H and getting excellent bandwidth. A couple of days later, sitting in my car in a massive traffic jam at Asoke/Sukhumvit, it was the same situation. No bandwidth for me, while he was getting somewhere around 5M.

[lomatopo]

^ There are a lot of reports of issues with AIS/One-2-Call 3G, but then there are also some reports of issues with DTAC/Happy and TrueMove H.

If you need to access email I would try switching 3G off and just using 2G; there should be adequate bandwidth with EDGE for email, in my experience.

And the speedtest data is interesting but pretty useless for real-world app.s and/or troubleshooting, again IME.

[bubba]

I've tried going to EDGE when AIS 3G is dead and still get the same results....little or no bandwidth. Actually, AIS does the favor for you by switching you off to EDGE from 3G when loads are high. Recently, I can rarely drive 5 km in the city and maintain a 3G connection.

During my last couple of arrivals at Suvarnabhumi, I've had to wait until I was on the highway and away from the airport before I could get any AIS bandwidth at all so that I could check email. This has reached such a level of frustration for me that I'm planning to switch over to TrueMove-H from AIS after the holidays. While I have heard some reports of slowed speed on TrueMove-H, I have yet to hear of anyone who consistently gets zero bandwidth from them while in crowded locations such as the airport or Asoke-Sukhumvit intersection at rush hour.

[lomatopo]

^ Strange. EDGE should work fine, I would still completely disable the 3G radio to be sure the unit isn't constantly trying to switch between 2G and 3G, which can result in no data, IME.

Further I would experiment with a TrueMove H and DTAC/Happy SIM before changing or porting your number. SIMs are ~ 99 baht and you can get a daily unlimited plan for 49 baht. You should understand that in crowded situations that bandwidth per user will decrease fairly rapidly. It is easy to imagine overloads at a busy, grid-locked location like Sukhumvit and Ratchadapisek (Asoke) with evreyone trying to use their phone and/or data. However, at SBIA there should be more than enough bandwidth? Both DTAC/Happy and TrueMove H have worked fine for me in SBIA, except perhaps the lowest level where the SARL station is, and in the general areas near the airport like Dokmai and Prawet, where I spend ~ 50% of my time.

[bubba]

I spent several days with a colleague from the UK who had purchased a TrueMove-H prepaid SIM, and he was always getting better bandwidth than I was using postpaid AIS 3G.

Yes, I do understand that service can degrade where there are many users, such as at the airport. But AIS doesn't just get slower - it drops to zero bandwidth and this has been consistently happening to me over the last month.

Also, I am paying for unlimited 3G service, so I would not necessarily agree that disabling 3G and reverting to EDGE is a reasonable solution.

I have been an AIS user for more than a decade, have the Platinum card and all that. But I am definitely switching due to my frustration with AIS data service and not even being able to collect my email after I get off a plane.

[4evermaat]

Try contacting AIS and lodging a complaint. If you can get the thai name of the address or nearby locations, that might help more, or let thai friend describe the location (AIS english is pretty good, though). Don't expect an overnight solution, but they will fix things eventually. I find that interesting that the bandwidth crawls down to zero....sounds almost like the older truemove sometimes, particularly certain truewifi hotspots. And lopatopo's advice of trying different sims from different carriers is good advice.

I will check with my friend in Patong Beach. He stays in a fairly crowded area not far from Jungceylon/Bang-la road. Will see if his internet is having problems. He swiched from cat CDMA months ago when they apparently ended the service there and said it was solid. He does forex trading, and his connections typically are inside the apartment and virtually always-on. If he had problems, I would know about it.

edit:

..........

Also, I am paying for unlimited 3G service, so I would not necessarily agree that disabling 3G and reverting to EDGE is a reasonable solution.

........

You'll see what EDGE is when you reach your fair use cap. I think there is another post here about how the fiar use caps are actually lower than 384 Kbps, which I can confirm when I reached True-H cap. More like 64-128Kbps. I do also find interest in seeing that despite the fair use caps, this has not (according to the OP) done anything significant to reduce zero bandwidth problem. Allowing blazing speeds of up to 42Mbps down is kind of useless during these times if the capacity isnt there. Maybe cap it to 6Mbps during peak hours at cetain locations?

Edited April 11, 2012 by 4evermaat

[skippybangkok]

Try contacting AIS and lodging a complaint.

I did about 10 yrs back ..... Asked to speak with the call center boss, was so annoyed with the run around.

A Ms Yingluck ( i kid you not ) answered the phone ..... And I very politely told her how crappy they were....damned if I know who this is.

Was at a conference 2 yrs later with a "Ms Yingluck Shinawatra" from AIS call center sitting opposite .... And at the tea break ( because we had to tell a little about our selves at the start of the conference ), she asked me " are you that guy who called about 2 yrs back ? ".....

Will give her credit, was a nice person...

Edited April 16, 2012 by skippybangkok