Best Internet Option Rural Thailand

[dezy1801]

Looking for some advice on mobile internet, I currently use the Ais 3.6 air card and like to download through torrentz. I normally get 30kbps at the best of times but have now come to the end of my tether. The closest adsl access point is about 15k from my house so that is not an option I can think about.

I have looked at cat cdma wireless router and USB dongle but in other topics it appears to be up in the air as to whether this will remain in service much longer so don't want to spend 5-10k getting set up and only getting 1 year out of it.

Is there anything that I can possible buy in Thailand that will give speeds better than what I am getting any advice or experiances would be greatly welcomed. I currently live in prah ploeng, sakaeo.

Thanks

Derek

[chmod777]

I also live in the boonies of Sa Kaeo. As far as I know, you have these options:

1. Wait for 3G to make it out here. Who knows when this will happen, maybe sometime in 2012? I have been waiting years for this, but at least 3G is showing up finally in the big cities.

2. CAT CDMA, as you mentioned, is pretty iffy to commit to right now. Sa Kaeo is/was part of the Hutch CDMA territory - when I checked into this, CAT in Sa Kaeo city told me to go to Hutch.

3. TOT IPSTAR satellite service is what I have been using for the last five years. May not suit you since you mentioned mobile, as it uses a large satellite dish. Downloading torrents is one of the few things that is not bothered by the satellite latency, and it works fine for that. Better than GPRS/EDGE, but otherwise a last resort.

4. Keep using AIS EDGE and hope the 3G shows up in the next few months, at the risk of your sanity.

If there are other options I don't know about, it would be awesome to hear them. I asked both AIS and DTAC in the last few weeks when 3G would be here, and they claimed to have no idea.

[dezy1801]

I also live in the boonies of Sa Kaeo. As far as I know, you have these options:

1. Wait for 3G to make it out here. Who knows when this will happen, maybe sometime in 2012? I have been waiting years for this, but at least 3G is showing up finally in the big cities.

2. CAT CDMA, as you mentioned, is pretty iffy to commit to right now. Sa Kaeo is/was part of the Hutch CDMA territory - when I checked into this, CAT in Sa Kaeo city told me to go to Hutch.

3. TOT IPSTAR satellite service is what I have been using for the last five years. May not suit you since you mentioned mobile, as it uses a large satellite dish. Downloading torrents is one of the few things that is not bothered by the satellite latency, and it works fine for that. Better than GPRS/EDGE, but otherwise a last resort.

4. Keep using AIS EDGE and hope the 3G shows up in the next few months, at the risk of your sanity.

If there are other options I don't know about, it would be awesome to hear them. I asked both AIS and DTAC in the last few weeks when 3G would be here, and they claimed to have no idea.

Thanks for the reply on this chmod777, I am in the process of checking other wireless/mobile devices that are on the market and hope that there is one out there that can boost the download speed even up to 50kbps from 30kbps and I will let you know what I manage to get if there is anything. I might just have to wait like you say until 3G finally makes it out our way, I've might happen sometime soon but not holding my breath on that one.

TOT IPSTAR I would be interested in this provided my download speed was increased by what I have now as it takes ages to download a tv programm. Whats the download speeds where you are? I dont mind the internet dropping off every now and then as I can continue downloading when it comes back up as it takes me a couple of days to download a programm as it is right now. Be good to hear your input on this chmod777.

Where do you stay in SaKaeo?

Thanks

Derek

[chmod777]

I forgot one other possible option: if there are enough houses in your village, you may be able to get TOT to run a radio relay depending upon the line of sight to their towers. They will do this if they can get enough people to commit to signing up. In addition, depending on your distance from them and how many people will sign up, they may even run ADSL out your way. In the case of our village, they said it would take about 15 households to subscribe, I figure that puts us about 10 households short - maybe someday. We live northeast of Wang Nam Yen.

TOT IPSTAR is fine for downloading torrents, especially in the evening and night hours when you normally get the full speed they sell you. Right now, I am downloading at 115 KiB/s according to qBittorrent. I am on the 1 M down / 512 up package which costs close to 3000 baht per month, can't find the bill right now. You can drop the speed by half and save about 700 baht per month, in my experience the 1 M customers get the best service, would not recommend the 512/256 or any lower package.

It works ok for skype voice although there is a little delay, and I do skype video calls twice a week. The video quality is not great, but acceptable. Anything that requires a low ping is not going to work, and there are weather outages quite often, and sometimes the downlink station in BKK misconfigures their routers for days at a time, and there are a lot of other frustrations - but it is better than nothing, and better than EDGE, but expensive.

[dezy1801]

I forgot one other possible option: if there are enough houses in your village, you may be able to get TOT to run a radio relay depending upon the line of sight to their towers. They will do this if they can get enough people to commit to signing up. In addition, depending on your distance from them and how many people will sign up, they may even run ADSL out your way. In the case of our village, they said it would take about 15 households to subscribe, I figure that puts us about 10 households short - maybe someday. We live northeast of Wang Nam Yen.

TOT IPSTAR is fine for downloading torrents, especially in the evening and night hours when you normally get the full speed they sell you. Right now, I am downloading at 115 KiB/s according to qBittorrent. I am on the 1 M down / 512 up package which costs close to 3000 baht per month, can't find the bill right now. You can drop the speed by half and save about 700 baht per month, in my experience the 1 M customers get the best service, would not recommend the 512/256 or any lower package.

It works ok for skype voice although there is a little delay, and I do skype video calls twice a week. The video quality is not great, but acceptable. Anything that requires a low ping is not going to work, and there are weather outages quite often, and sometimes the downlink station in BKK misconfigures their routers for days at a time, and there are a lot of other frustrations - but it is better than nothing, and better than EDGE, but expensive.

Thanks again for this information chmod777 I think I would not get enough people for the radio relay I am about 1k outside the nearest village and there is only 1 farrang there and from what I hear he is cheap charlie

I think I will go for the Ipstar option same as you as altho its a little overpriced I cant bear to download using edge anymore and I'm sure I would get the most out of it the month I'm at home.

I live about 20km from Wang Nam Yen more closer to Khao Chakan.

Fingers crossed 3G gets out our way in the next 10 years

[thaimite]

I did hear rumours a long time ago that CAT would offer an upgrade to their CDMA customers when 3G becomes available.

Having migrated to CDMA from IPStar about 4 years ago, nothing would persuade me to go back to that expensive slow route BUT at least a satelllite link you have a proper IP address and can open up port forwarding which you cannot do with a CDMA / 3G link.

One final point of warning before making the commitment to IPStar. I suggest you check with the other IPStar user as I seem to remember that they block torrent traffic during the day, although as I said I changed from IPStar to CDMA about 4 years ago and I maybe wrong

[Gary A]

I did hear rumours a long time ago that CAT would offer an upgrade to their CDMA customers when 3G becomes available.

Having migrated to CDMA from IPStar about 4 years ago, nothing would persuade me to go back to that expensive slow route BUT at least a satelllite link you have a proper IP address and can open up port forwarding which you cannot do with a CDMA / 3G link.

One final point of warning before making the commitment to IPStar. I suggest you check with the other IPStar user as I seem to remember that they block torrent traffic during the day, although as I said I changed from IPStar to CDMA about 4 years ago and I maybe wrong

I suffered with crapstar for about four years. I went with CDMA EVDO when it became available in my area. It is up and down like a yo-yo but no way would I ever consider going back to crapstar. In fact I would and did use my phone and EDGE for some time after I quit crapstar. The last complaint I made to crapstar resulted in them telling me that if I did not like the service to discontinue it. I told them that was the best answer they ever gave me and to take it out immediately. After a couple of months they still had not picked up their junk. I had my wife call them and tell them that I was going to use the dish for a bird bath if they did not pick it up soon.

[dezy1801]

I did hear rumours a long time ago that CAT would offer an upgrade to their CDMA customers when 3G becomes available.

Having migrated to CDMA from IPStar about 4 years ago, nothing would persuade me to go back to that expensive slow route BUT at least a satelllite link you have a proper IP address and can open up port forwarding which you cannot do with a CDMA / 3G link.

One final point of warning before making the commitment to IPStar. I suggest you check with the other IPStar user as I seem to remember that they block torrent traffic during the day, although as I said I changed from IPStar to CDMA about 4 years ago and I maybe wrong

Thanks for your advice on this thaimite just a few questions how is the download speed is it any good on CAT and what price are you paying if you dont mind my asking?

[chmod777]

Sa Kaeo was Hutch CDMA territory, not CAT, there are some Hutch CDMA towers on highway 317 for example. Not only that, this is the original slow CDMA we are talking about, not EV-DO. Hutch has been bought by True, but True's website isn't telling me anything useful. I will check in at True Sa Kaeo the next time I go to Big C and see if they know what is happening with CDMA on highway 317.

All the negative comments about IPSTAR are well deserved, but TOT IPSTAR has "improved" in the last 18 months, maybe because fewer people on the service these days. There was a receiver firmware upgrade about a year ago that helped maintain connections in bad weather and improved throughput. I only found out because I kept complaining. Luckily, the local TOT technician is competent and has done about as much as he can on this end. The Bangkok end is pretty hopeless, but is having fewer problems than they did in the past. Until the limit on the speed of light is repealed, satellite internet is going to be bad and a last resort.

TOT does mess with the down/up speeds during business hours, for everything not just bittorrent.

Someday, hopefully soon, there will be another option for those of us in the real middle of nowhere....

[rice555]

Hello All, coming soon:

rice555

USANEE MONGKOLPORN

THE NATION November 14, 2011 2:03 am

The flooding has prompted both CAT Telecom and TOT to postpone the full official launches of their 3G wireless-broadband services.

CAT will officially launch its retail 3G wireless-broadband service under the "My" brand upcountry next month, a change from the original plan to kick things off in Bangkok this month.

Senior executive vice president for wireless business Viroj Tocharoenvanith said the delay means CAT is unlikely to meet its customer target this year of between 40,000 and 50,000. The service has amassed around 10,000 customers, mostly in the provinces, since its soft launch in July.

The official launch will focus on provinces not affected by flooding.

CAT and True Corp group have collaborated to develop the 3G-High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) service using the 850 MHz spectrum. True Corp group's BFKT (Thailand) has installed HSPA network equipment for CAT, which |will use it to wholesale 3G capacity. The state agency has allocated part of the capacity to resell the service on its own under the "My" brand, focusing on corporate customers.

BFKT is slated to install more than 5,000 3G base stations nationwide for CAT this year; half are already done.

TOT president Anont Tubtiang said the flooding has delayed the state agency's rollout of its nationwide 3G network in some areas, prompting it to re-evaluate its plan to fully launch the service in 18 provinces this month.

TOT has already launched the service in some areas of the 18 provinces. It has allowed a certain number of customers to roam for the 3G service on Advanced Info Service's network when travelling outside its 3G network coverage.

In the 18 provinces, TOT has reportedly finished installing only 944 3G base stations out of a planned 3,500 by this month, and a projected total of 4,772 base stations nationwide by May. TOT is aiming for 1.2 million users of the new 3G network this year and 7 million by 2015.

[thaimite]

I did hear rumours a long time ago that CAT would offer an upgrade to their CDMA customers when 3G becomes available.

Having migrated to CDMA from IPStar about 4 years ago, nothing would persuade me to go back to that expensive slow route BUT at least a satelllite link you have a proper IP address and can open up port forwarding which you cannot do with a CDMA / 3G link.

One final point of warning before making the commitment to IPStar. I suggest you check with the other IPStar user as I seem to remember that they block torrent traffic during the day, although as I said I changed from IPStar to CDMA about 4 years ago and I maybe wrong

Thanks for your advice on this thaimite just a few questions how is the download speed is it any good on CAT and what price are you paying if you dont mind my asking?connection.

My download speed varies a lot. However I have been working away from home for a while so I do not get to use my CAT very often, but the family use it all the time.

At the moment I am home on leave so can tell you what is happening today.

I am using a CAT USB modem in to a CradlePoint router so the family can use the wifi for their mobiles and laptops.

I am about 12KM from the tower and have an external Yagi aerial giving me a full strength 5 bar signal

While I am away we can chat on Skype and have used Skype video successfully many times.

My download speeds vary between 125KB/s and 30KB/s. Currently I am at the bottom end of that range with 2 torrents running. I would expect a faster speed. It seems to depend on the time of day. The fastest download I have previously witnessed is about 160KB/s (2MBapprox) of the claimed 3.1MB.

I have managed to download about 6GB in the past 4 days so I am not complaining too much.

I have the full unlimited package of 790 Baht per month. As others have noted this is with the EVDO CAT offering which is a lot faster than Hutch is / was offering.

Hope all this helps you decide.

Edit

Just realised my Drop box is syncing so that would explain the slow torrents and no doubt my daughter is now on her PC as well.

Edited November 14, 2011 by thaimite

[dezy1801]

I did hear rumours a long time ago that CAT would offer an upgrade to their CDMA customers when 3G becomes available.

Having migrated to CDMA from IPStar about 4 years ago, nothing would persuade me to go back to that expensive slow route BUT at least a satelllite link you have a proper IP address and can open up port forwarding which you cannot do with a CDMA / 3G link.

One final point of warning before making the commitment to IPStar. I suggest you check with the other IPStar user as I seem to remember that they block torrent traffic during the day, although as I said I changed from IPStar to CDMA about 4 years ago and I maybe wrong

Thanks for your advice on this thaimite just a few questions how is the download speed is it any good on CAT and what price are you paying if you dont mind my asking?connection.

My download speed varies a lot. However I have been working away from home for a while so I do not get to use my CAT very often, but the family use it all the time.

At the moment I am home on leave so can tell you what is happening today.

I am using a CAT USB modem in to a CradlePoint router so the family can use the wifi for their mobiles and laptops.

I am about 12KM from the tower and have an external Yagi aerial giving me a full strength 5 bar signal

While I am away we can chat on Skype and have used Skype video successfully many times.

My download speeds vary between 125KB/s and 30KB/s. Currently I am at the bottom end of that range with 2 torrents running. I would expect a faster speed. It seems to depend on the time of day. The fastest download I have previously witnessed is about 160KB/s (2MBapprox) of the claimed 3.1MB.

I have managed to download about 6GB in the past 4 days so I am not complaining too much.

I have the full unlimited package of 790 Baht per month. As others have noted this is with the EVDO CAT offering which is a lot faster than Hutch is / was offering.

Hope all this helps you decide.

Edit

Just realised my Drop box is syncing so that would explain the slow torrents and no doubt my daughter is now on her PC as well.

Thanks thaimite I will have a look at this option also when I get back home and see what is better either CAT or TOT.

[chmod777]

The True clerk told me they have 3G now in Sa Kaeo City and in Aranyaprathet City, she did not know when it would be available in the rest of Sa Kaeo province.

She said that the old Hutch CDMA that True owns is "finished".

I am hoping that one or more of AIS, DTAC and True will get some 3G going province wide in the next few months, since they are making some progress in the cities.

[Banzai99]

Don't bother with Ipstar, it's crap.

I was paying nearly 1600THB a month and my best ever torrent speed was 33kbs download, no different to what I now get using AIS Edge, I get depressed when I think of all the money I wasted on a really crap service.

Just go with AIS edge, it's fine for everyday things, slow for torrents but you are able to use Internet radio no problem.

I use my phone as a WiFi hotspot and tether with my iPad or netbook, data is on 24 hrs a day, 799 Baht for a month unlimited usage. An exceptional deal compared with Ipstar.

[dezy1801]

The True clerk told me they have 3G now in Sa Kaeo City and in Aranyaprathet City, she did not know when it would be available in the rest of Sa Kaeo province.

She said that the old Hutch CDMA that True owns is "finished".

I am hoping that one or more of AIS, DTAC and True will get some 3G going province wide in the next few months, since they are making some progress in the cities.

That sounds promising chmod777 with a bit of luck there will be some coverage ourt our way in the near future I might just continue with EDGE with the hope that it will be with us soon.