Cat Telecom - Optical- *** Be Warned ***

[MarceloRune]

The company I worked for recently installed CAT's optical fibre package which runs the optical fibres straight to the modem in the office.

As a heavy user of the internet, our company paid for the premium package which gives us 25Mb/s down and 5Mb/s up

The package is around 15k per month

this is what we get for our money.... This is pretty much the same for ANYTHING outside of Thailand.

Had we stayed with 3BB premium package, it would have been 5 down - 1 up and 3BB has been very good and stable, unlike this CAT garbage.

An email to CAT from our technician, asking why there is a problem, resulted in a response as quoted (excuse thai spelling)

CAT technician toll me ,that the Internet signal when connect to other zone(continental Europe, America)

Average Download speed : 0.5 – 1 Mbps.

Average Upload speed : 1-3 Mbps.

Ping 300-600 milliseconds That it normally for Thailand him said,

Other ISP rent CAT signal to connect to Other country.

A phone call to their technical office to confirm what was written in an email from them, confirmed it as well...

So be very warned on paying for anything premium from CAT... You wont get it!

[Darrel]

I have CAT via Sophon cable in Pattaya.

I have a cheap 4megabit package, and this gives me an extremely steady download speed of around 465k from robust servers in the US most of the day and night. There are periods, mostly late afternoon/early evening, when this decreases to about 200k. Connections to Europe are worse, but that seems to be standard here.

When I studied and tested the various packages in the Sophon office before subscribing, I became aware that increasing the speed to 6,8 or 12meg didnt actually result in any change to the download speed from outside Thailand. So I stuck with the cheap package which I think is fair value and works well.

[miksguevara]

gutted i pay 600 thb a month and get 7mb down on the speedtest i did the other day it was slightly above this, the upspeed was pretty tame though.....

[englishinsiam]

We have 20 Meg True Ultra and for our UK Proxy for watching TV is slightly better than the Premium package we had before but only if we stream at 800kps try and push it to 1 Meg and it buffers every 3-4 seconds. Foreign inter connects in Thailand aren't seen as a priority investment so they won't improve much in the near future.

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[Pib]

Whether your internet is provided by ADSL, Cable or Fiber the advertised speed is "in-Thailand" speed only; the international speed will be limited to whatever international bandwidth capability the internet service provider (ISP) provides via his international gateway servers.

And since bandwidth costs money, especially when using international circuits, Thai ISPs only provide so much international bandwidth/download speed regardless of what speed package you signed up for. Seems from the numerous posts on the international bandwidth issue it seems most folks get in the 1-6Mb range for international speed "regardless of speed package." That is, a 6Mb plan may get 1-6Mb international speed, a 20Mb plan may 1-6Mb international speed, a 100Mb plan may get 1-6Mb speed depending on international server tested to. When I say 1-6MB I'm generally talking about speeds to the US/Europe; speeds to some nearby international sites like Singapore can be significantly faster...sometimes even approaching the "in-Thailand" speed. Now, if a person is on a plan that is suppose to provide premier international speed then they will probably get faster international speeds since the ISP sets them up on their network for a lower contention ratio/opens the international pipe more for them.

Yeap, just signing up for a really fast internet plan delivered via ADSL, Cable, or Fiber does not mean the international speed will be really fast; in fact, it may not be faster than someone on a low cost 6Mb ADSL plan. But if really fast "in-Thailand" speed is needed for some special purpose then getting a really fast plan has its benefits (I guess). Personnally, I'm on the True Cable 20Mb/2Mb plan, get international speeds in the 1-6Mb range depending on what US/European server I reaching out to and time of day/night, and around 15Mb to Singapore....and from testing with other folks who are on the True Cable 10Mb plan they get 1-6Mb to US/Europe and 10Mb to Singapore. Now, that 1-6Mb range is considering most all sites; probably for more commonly accessed sites a person will get 3-6Mb. Yeap, when it comes to international bandwidth the ISPs international gateway servers can be (are) a chokepoint.

P.S. I won't be surprised if someone replies they get full international speeds like 20Mb speed to US/Europe on their 20Mb plan and really low pings times like 15ms; now these folks are saying this because they believe what some speedtest program told them when in fact the speed test problem was fooled/skewed by in-Thailand/local cache servers making the speed test results look like that New York. London, etc., speedtest server was just across the soi.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Pib

[Darrel]

....get international speeds in the 1-6Mb range depending on what US/European server I reaching out to and time of day/night, and around 15Mb to Singapore...

As I mentioned, I find that there is a significant difference between US and European connections.

I have two gigabit servers that I can connect to; one in the US and one in Europe. The US one fills my pipe most of the time, but the EU one never does. Not even close in fact, except in fits and starts.

[nikster]

....get international speeds in the 1-6Mb range depending on what US/European server I reaching out to and time of day/night, and around 15Mb to Singapore...

As I mentioned, I find that there is a significant difference between US and European connections.

I have two gigabit servers that I can connect to; one in the US and one in Europe. The US one fills my pipe most of the time, but the EU one never does. Not even close in fact, except in fits and starts.

Yeah the bandwidth to Europe is much lower than to the USA. Any time I download anything from the EU, it's dog slow. It was significantly slower than USA even with the 3BB premier package.

[Pib]

Yeap, my speed testing shows the majority of time download speeds are slower and ping times higher to European sites...it's almost like the connection is going through the U.S. first to Europe...instead of going direct to Europe...instead of going about 1/3 of the way around the world the connection seems to be going 2/3 of the way around the world. But with that being said I've never done a ping trace...the connection is probably going west out of Thailand to Europe and it's just slower circuits/relay severs being transversed. Within that 1-6Mb range I mention in my above post, European sites are generally on the lower half of that range.

[PattayaParent]

My company has been using CAT internet and 'phones at one of the offices for the last 3 years and it has always been a problem with speeds and downtime of service culminating in the last month of the internet being incredibly slow even though the useage has gone from around 180 computers to 40 computers.

I have recently moved to another office location where they use ipstar for about 50 computers and it is vastly superior in speed and reliability although the 'phone service is not so good.

[Darrel]

Oddly enough if I open my VPN to a European node I often get a more stable and faster download speed to the EU server than by connecting directly.

I just did a geographical trace

Bt.com goes via Singapore and Palermo to London, whereas bbc.co.uk goes direct to London via Singapore.

But tf1.fr goes via San Jose and Washington to Paris.

Yet heineken.nl goes direct from BKK to Paris, and then to Amsterdam.

Some pretty crap routing going on there! Or maybe there's just no peering in Thailand.

[shariq607]

Well i have the same exact package as you cat fiber optic which i installed few months ago in my house in asok-sukhumvit area in bangkok

i have to say im really impressed with it no slowdowns whatsoever steady 100%

but also when i was signing up for i asked them what's the difference between expensive packages and cheaper ones they told me international speed

so i signed up for 25mb/3 for 8900 baht a month

here are few speedtests

to LA

To SA

To UK

to sydney

To NZL

to south africa

[hml367]

Would you mind running a speedtest to McAfee and posting the results? http://us.mcafee.com/root/speedometer/

It would be much appreciated for myself.

MSPain

Well i have the same exact package as you cat fiber optic which i installed few months ago in my house in asok-sukhumvit area in bangkok

i have to say im really impressed with it no slowdowns whatsoever steady 100%

but also when i was signing up for i asked them what's the difference between expensive packages and cheaper ones they told me international speed

so i signed up for 25mb/3 for 8900 baht a month

here are few speedtests

to LA

To SA

To UK

to sydney

To NZL

to south africa

[Darrel]

so i signed up for 25mb/3 for 8900 baht a month

That's 15 times what I pay. I doubt you get 15 times my speed, and personally I cant imagine what I would do with all that speed anyway.

[Pib]

Well i have the same exact package as you cat fiber optic which i installed few months ago in my house in asok-sukhumvit area in bangkok

i have to say im really impressed with it no slowdowns whatsoever steady 100%

but also when i was signing up for i asked them what's the difference between expensive packages and cheaper ones they told me international speed

so i signed up for 25mb/3 for 8900 baht a month

Shariq607, is your friend who signed up for the same package as you on the same day still getting international speeds down around 3Mb like other cable and ADSL packages. Last thing I remember from some posts on the subject in another thread he was trying to cancel since the CAT fiber was not providing the speed he hoped for...and the speeds you were getting were like salt in the wound. I sure wish we could get some other CAT fiber users to post speeds like you are getting...your results appear valid on the surface since your ping times are real world....just amazing you are getting such international speeds.

[innerspace]

If you want "premium" internet then think about leased lines rather than premium packages.

Even the premium packages have multiple users sharing a limited bandwidth, normally around 5-10 users instead of 20 on a standard package.

What they often don't tell you is that the quoted speeds apply to Thailand and you have a lower international speed.

Any shared line will vary in speeds depending upon distance to the exchange, number of users, usage of sharing users and time of day.

We spend 25,000B for a 2Mbps line with dedicated international bandwidth.

This easily supports 10 staff using our web based system hosted in the UK and making VOIP calls simultaneously.

2Mbps may be slower than most standard home packages but for us, especially with the VOIP calls, the quality and reliability are much more important than the speed.

Occasionally we do hit the capacity but most of the time our actual usage when all 10 are online is around 1Mbps.

[mausbiber]

Would you mind running a speedtest to McAfee and posting the results? http://us.mcafee.com/root/speedometer/

I run this test with 3bb-6MB package in CM province:

File Size 2.9297 MB Time Elapsed 24.139 seconds The Speedometer shows 500kbps

[hml367]

Would you mind running a speedtest to McAfee and posting the results? http://us.mcafee.com/root/speedometer/

I run this test with 3bb-6MB package in CM province:

File Size 2.9297 MB Time Elapsed 24.139 seconds The Speedometer shows 500kbps

Thanks !!

MSPain

[roban]

Oddly enough if I open my VPN to a European node I often get a more stable and faster download speed to the EU server than by connecting directly.

I just did a geographical trace

Bt.com goes via Singapore and Palermo to London, whereas bbc.co.uk goes direct to London via Singapore.

But tf1.fr goes via San Jose and Washington to Paris.

Yet heineken.nl goes direct from BKK to Paris, and then to Amsterdam.

Some pretty crap routing going on there! Or maybe there's just no peering in Thailand.

Same here, when I connect to my home server in Germany (1MBIT Upload), I get only 500 Kbit most of the time.

The routing goes via USA, UK, France...etc.

But if I use a proxy server (installed on my german root server in Frankfurt), to connect to my home server, I usually get the full 1 Mbit speed.

Root and home server are only 200 KM apart, but the connection to the root has a completely different routing.

Routing goes via Japan (asianet) and then directly to Germany.

PS: I had the crappy Sophon Fibre Cable before, absolutely unusable for EU connections (20 h/day the speed was limited to 200 Kbit).

[Pib]

Would you mind running a speedtest to McAfee and posting the results? http://us.mcafee.com/root/speedometer/

I run this test with 3bb-6MB package in CM province:

File Size 2.9297 MB Time Elapsed 24.139 seconds The Speedometer shows 500kbps

I ran the test at 9:20am today on my True cable 20Mb package here in Bangkok and got:

File Size 2.9297MB Time Elaspsed 19.311 seconds The Speedometer showed 1 Mbps

I also ran it yesterday when I first read hrml367's email but can't remember the Time Elasped but I do remember the Speedometer read 1 Mbps.

Unless a person watches the speed test closely he can miss that it actually runs two tests...one test with a file size of 150KB and one test with a larger file size like the 3MB size file. Reading the decription of the tests it says if the this first test of 150KB downloads in less than a second then a second test with a file size of 3MB (or 600KB or 1.5MB file size) is run to get a more accurate speed result.

Now if a person does the math on mausbiber's and my results in using only the 2.9297MB file size and Time Elapsed results it comes up to 971Kbps for mausbiber on his 6Mb plan but his SpeedoMeter result said 500kbps (seems 971Kbps should have rounded to 1Mbps); and 1.21Mbps on my 20Mb plan with a Speedometer result of 1Mbps.

I've ran this test several times yesterday and today I always get a 1Mbps reading although my Time Elapsed has varied around a second or more like 19.311 sec, 18.674 sec, 20.014 sec , etc., but always got a nice, rounded 1Mbps speed result. Of course doing the math don't result in a nice even 1Mbps results....some generous rounding (and possibly inaccurate rounding) seems to be involved with the Speedometer result.

But if the Time Elapsed results with math are accurate they further support even with this MaAfee speedtest that Thai ISP's choke their international bandwidth and even plans that are 3 times faster in name (i.e., my 20Mb True plan compared to mausbiber's 6Mb 3BB plan) get similar international speeds. Your results may vary...take speedtest results with a big grain of salt.

[hml367]

Hello, Pib and everyone else.

I get similar results as you with every broadband connection I have tried with McAfee Speedtest.

I also get similar results with dslreports on both the flash and the java tests. DSLREports was suggested by someone in Bkk some time ago.

I tend to agree, though I am certainly no wizard, with your comments on "throttling". I am getting consistent results, though, with negligible down time.

MSPain

[Pib]

Yea, DSLReports also seems to give me consistent but low results....and MSOnlineServices to the U.S. give me really low results...much lower results than DSLReports. Believe it or not, Speedtest.net seems to give me results which I can semi-believe in "but only when running the test through one of their proxy severs." Repeat, only when I using one of their proxy servers of proxy.asianet.co.th or proxyy.trueinternet.co.th which True customers can use. Now, when I don't use one of the proxy's, which I don't use that often anymore, I get 20Mb download speeds and 10ms ping results to pretty much any speedtest.net server on Earth---that is, bogus results caused by in-Thailand cache servers. Yeap, take speed test results with a big grain of salt.

[RichardSpaker]

If you want "premium" internet then think about leased lines rather than premium packages.

Even the premium packages have multiple users sharing a limited bandwidth, normally around 5-10 users instead of 20 on a standard package.

What they often don't tell you is that the quoted speeds apply to Thailand and you have a lower international speed.

Any shared line will vary in speeds depending upon distance to the exchange, number of users, usage of sharing users and time of day.

We spend 25,000B for a 2Mbps line with dedicated international bandwidth.

This easily supports 10 staff using our web based system hosted in the UK and making VOIP calls simultaneously.

2Mbps may be slower than most standard home packages but for us, especially with the VOIP calls, the quality and reliability are much more important than the speed.

Occasionally we do hit the capacity but most of the time our actual usage when all 10 are online is around 1Mbps.

Hello Innerspace,

Good post, one of the best so far, after 2 weeks research!

I have some questions about your current Leased line and really hope you can answer:

Right my company have True internet 10/1 (Patong) its working good! Because the builiding getting to small (increase staff from 4 to 8) we need to move.

True not support their service in the new building I found, so maybe the Leased line is a good alternative.

As far I understand your post, you not expierence any problems when 10 staff working on your web based system in the Uk (inculding VOIP), wow!

My questions:

- What company you use for this service

- What is the upload speed?

- When your staff is working (5, 8 or 10) and someone downloading, for example Microsoft (international ) software (150mb), does this effect the network a lot?

- When your staff is working (5, 8 or 10) and 3 staf looking arround on other international websites, does this effect the network a lot?

- Your web based system provide images or only text content? Do you have an example?

Edited March 2, 2012 by RichardSpaker

[innerspace]

Hello Innerspace,

Good post, one of the best so far, after 2 weeks research!

I have some questions about your current Leased line and really hope you can answer:

Right my company have True internet 10/1 (Patong) its working good! Because the builiding getting to small (increase staff from 4 to 8) we need to move.

True not support their service in the new building I found, so maybe the Leased line is a good alternative.

As far I understand your post, you not expierence any problems when 10 staff working on your web based system in the Uk (inculding VOIP), wow!

My questions:

- What company you use for this service

- What is the upload speed?

- When your staff is working (5, 8 or 10) and someone downloading, for example Microsoft (international ) software (150mb), does this effect the network a lot?

- When your staff is working (5, 8 or 10) and 3 staf looking arround on other international websites, does this effect the network a lot?

- Your web based system provide images or only text content? Do you have an example?

1) We user kirz in Pattaya but they cover a lot of the country.

2) 2M down and up both domestic and international. A lot of the leased line packages will offer different packages with say 2M domestic and 1M international as well.

3) Without QOS enabled on the router we have had occasional issues where one person sucks up the bandwidth but our QOS settings now do a good job of prioritising the traffic.

4) Normal web use not a problem

5) Mainly text and the same images over and over that will be cached locally.

[RedCardinal]

Funnily enough, I can get a full 2.5MB on my true 20/2 cable connection. This is from Usenet servers in the US. The key is that all Thai ISPs throttle each thread to about 1-2Mb, but if you use 20 threads you can get a full pipe.

Not much good for single thread applications like streaming video, but this is the same reason why torrent users also tend to get good transfer rates here in Thailand.

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[haveaniceday]

Gents, using that speed test is a waste of time, it is cached in Bangers. You are only really testing BKK.

[Pib]

Gents, using that speed test is a waste of time, it is cached in Bangers. You are only really testing BKK.

You are generally right as many speedtest programs are easily fooled/skewed by cache servers/special types of hidden proxies/etc....a lot depends on the makeup of each ISP's network. But there are some speedtest type programs like MSOnlineServices (Link) which are not fooled and I almost think give too low of results.