Ais Air Card 3Gs - Selling In Isaan - But No 3Gs

[Dario]

I have a home in Pattaya and built another home in Northern Surin province, between 2 small provincial towns, Rattanaburi and Tha Tum. Last year after our country home was completed I took the only Internet option available then: Ipstar at 2'784 Baht a month for a maximum speed of 1 MB, but most of the time much, much less. A far cry from the 9MB which I get from True in Pattaya for less than 1'000 Baht a month.

Today as I went to pay my monthly bill from TOT (Ipstar) at 7/11 in Rattanaburi, the girl at the counter asked me why I didn't take an AIS Aircard 3G, much cheaper than what I paid to TOT. I told her that I already have an Edge modem from DTAC. She said, no, that was fast Internet, like 3MB. She told me where they sell the cards in Rattanaburi and I went there with my wife.

"So, I can get 3.2 MB with this Aircard?", I asked the 2 girls at the counter. "Yes, why don't you take the 7.2MB model you get even faster Internet." I was told. So, I let my wife do the paperwork, while I went to the post office.

When I returned the paperwork was done and my wife had paid 1'690 Baht for the Aircard which they supplied with a SIM card and my wife had signed up for a monthly unlimited plan, something like 859 Baht/month + VAT. The girl who served us did the necessary steps to activate the card and said we could use the card in about an hour.

When I got home, I installed the card on my main desk computer (a pretty fast one with 12GB Ram), but all I got was like 10, 20 or 30 Kb down speed. We called the 1175 AIS Hotline and were told that there is no 3GS coverage after Korath.

I told my wife that I would return this "Aircard" and asked her to show me the receipt for the 1'690 Baht she had paid. She said that she didn't get one. You can imagine that I'm more than disappointed!!!

Any people out there who have run into similar problems?

I wonder what chances we have to return this dongle and get our money back ...

Edited September 28, 2011 by Dario

[jombom]

You have 2 chances of getting your money back ----- slim and none.

They are simply doing their SOP. The device is probably good for 3G, but they will blame the network --- either CAT or TOT or somebody else.

But these cards are very good if you are traveling around Thailand. You don't have to pay for hotel internet service etc.

[monty]

Strange that they never mentioned the 3G coverage!

AIS has been selling these cards for a long time now, even though until very recently they only had coverage in Chiang Mai.

So at the moment you're stuck to Edge coverage (on par with Dtac normally) unless in area's with 3G coverage (which currently includes Pattaya and wide surroundings).

They are aggressively expanding, so I assume, unless you are totally in the sticks, that it might not take that long for 3G to appear!

As a side note, have you tried setting the device to using WCDMA only (in setting or preferences, under network). Sometimes when 3G signal is not very high, it'll always pop back to GPRS/Edge...

[Dario]

Thanks for your input, jombom. You assessed the situation pretty correctly.

Well my missus did find a receipt and called again their hotline (she had called yesterday and the lady at the center said she would call back but never did) and I talked to a lady and asked her to instruct the peopkle at the shop to reimburse us because they had told us I could 3G whereas there is none so far in the deep Isaan.

My wife went this morning and was reimbursed the 1'690 Baht. We could keep the SIM though, they told us they would invoice 200 Baht/month which we could use to call and we had the optiobn to cancel after one month. I must say we were pretty lucky!

[Dario]

To monty (you're kind of a legend here):

No, I didn't try what you mentioned, but about 2 months ago I bought a CAT-CDMA modem with a strong antenna which I will install soon and then cancel CAT/Ipstar since I will have fulfilled my minimum 12 months with them.

[lomatopo]

You can check the AIS 3G coverage maps on their website.

Obviously the sales associate should have clearly explained where 3G is currently available, but generally it is best to educate yourself on real availability before committing.

CAT CDMA is being phased out, replaced with Truemove-H so caveat emptor on that (CAT CDMA) choice. Not sure where that transition might be in your specific rural location.

[apetley]

I have had an ais shop assistant tell me that 3g was available in our area, a small village between Kanchanaburi and Suphanburi when I knew full well it wasn't. Luckily she is a friend of my wifes who diplomatically asked her to check. Mai mee came the reply. There must be some who know what they are talking about but for whatever reason there are others who don't.