Hutch Vs. Dtac Edge For Wireless

[lingyai]

I was at Hutch store at central ladprao looking at what they offer. There was a plan for 890mb a month for 890baht with every mb over costing 1 baht. They had a gprs pcmcia wireless card for 7,900 baht or a USB one for 5,900. (there was a insert in the usb brochure advertising unlimited mb for 890baht a month until April 2006 but when I asked about this the sales person said that deal was over...needless to say I was disappointed)

They seemed not to be offering the unlimited service for 999 (I didn’t ask as I just read about it being offered for this price in the forums). Has anybody gotten the unlimited service very recently? This is what I want.

This is what I read about Dtac’s edge: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/lofiversion/...php?t30596.html

It seems the Edge is faster but that Hutch’s service is more available?

Oh one more thing, is there anyway to get one of these cards cheaper than the 7,900 baht hutch is charging?

[monty]

In my experience Hutch is certainly better then gprs.

I have no experience with edge, but rumours are it has the same latency problems as gprs (up to 2 or 3 seconds ping times)

I think edge is only available in certain parts of Bkk...

[billd766]

I have no experience with Hutch other than working on building the system back in 2001 - 03.

It is supposed to be much better for data but it is limited at this time to the bangkok, east coast, some parts of the west and the big cities due to the cost of expansion and the new (cheap) Chinese system taking a long time to build.

[monty]

Yep, it's a petty their expansion is quite slow.

The cdma system handles data traffic much smoother. Lower ping times and more stable speeds. GSM (gprs)tends to slow or just lock up when there is to much voice traffic on the node you are connected to.

My only gripe is that Hutch tends to slow down a bit during peak hours. A bit like the cheap True packages

On normal working days speeds are quite stable at around 15kBps (equals a 120kbps connection)

A friend in the US told me they started to roll out an advanced version of cdma, allowing speeds of between 400 and 700 kbps! That would be neat, but probably a long way off in Thailand

Edited December 6, 2005 by monty

[toret]

Upping this one since the question is still relevant, although it has probably been discussed to the point of boredom.

I been using DTAC for a while with OK results and ditto coverage.

Some months ago I came across an offer from Hutch, if I remember correctly it was a one year(!) prepaid plan, including modem thingy. Coverage aside, how is their actual speed and stability in Bangkok and other places with coverage?

[monty]

Upping this one since the question is still relevant, although it has probably been discussed to the point of boredom.

I been using DTAC for a while with OK results and ditto coverage.

Some months ago I came across an offer from Hutch, if I remember correctly it was a one year(!) prepaid plan, including modem thingy. Coverage aside, how is their actual speed and stability in Bangkok and other places with coverage?

Bit of a difficult question.

AIS and Dtac are prety much on the same level. Some area's good, some area's slower, pretty much nationwide coverage. I have an AIS sim for main access (with monthly plan) and a Dtac sim as back-up if AIS is acting up. This combo gives me good service wherever I am in Thailand.

Hutch. Pattaya has EV-DO coverage. Included a fairly big area around the city (Mabprachan, Nong Plalai, Huay Yai). Speeds between 300 kbps and 1.5 Mbps, so faster then GPRS/Edge by a big margin.

Not sure of the EV-DO coverage in Bangkok though. Hard to find out as well. Outside of Bkk and Pattaya they only have regular MBI (cdma 1X) which tops out at 153 kbps, but more likely much lower.

So when outside EV-DO coverage, speeds will likely be lower then on Edge (AIS/Dtac).

Apart from the fact that few area's are EV-DO, their MBI coverage is limited to the 21 Eastern provinces, i.e. from Bangkok down over Pattaya up to the Cambodian border, and of the West of Bkk towards and including Kanchanaburi.

All the rest (51 provinces) is CAT area and you will have no internet service whatsoever...

[toret]

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking mainly BKK area so that should be ok i guess.

What is the monthly price for AIS unlimited? Same for post- and prepaid?

[worldfun]

actually true move IME offers much better packages for data e.g. monthly unlimited packages from 250/299bt pre/post paid & their edge cover most areas and wifi supplements it & they even have 'trial' 3G/HSPA=3.6Mbps coverage in central parts of bkk, but one need a 850mhz/3g band 5 capable device top utilise that, but most American 3G mobiles does that as does several sold in LOS such as Sony E etc.

hutch/cat cdma is a lame joke splitting the country up like that, but I guess for those in evdo coverage like chonburi/bkk it may work out if willing top carry such a cdma device which in theory should interwork well with existing call, sms etc services... good deal for ais,dtac,true to keep competition out - interesting how it's going to play out when/if 3G licenses are auctioned off early next year or the other outsider act1900/thai mobile manage to get a 3G network & service up end of this year (1900mhz again supported on many american sold 3G phones 850/1900/2100mhz band support).

cheers!

Edited July 28, 2009 by worldfun

[bobright]

In my experience Hutch is certainly better then gprs.

I have no experience with edge, but rumours are it has the same latency problems as gprs (up to 2 or 3 seconds ping times)

I think edge is only available in certain parts of Bkk...

edge is available in pattaya hotels with no wifi services. once in your hotel rooms and away from the hotel lobby y, you can kiss goodbye to your laptop access to any browser or website services. all internet or mozilla ff accesses are blocked out by edge it seems..... "acumen" powers this edge thing and their call center at 0-2502-3999 speaks very limited english if you call for help.....their internet service is easily cost three times more to access...can anymore offer some advice and or alternatives here...?

[Jiu-Jitsu]

In my experience Hutch is certainly better then gprs.

I have no experience with edge, but rumours are it has the same latency problems as gprs (up to 2 or 3 seconds ping times)

I think edge is only available in certain parts of Bkk...

edge is available in pattaya hotels with no wifi services. once in your hotel rooms and away from the hotel lobby y, you can kiss goodbye to your laptop access to any browser or website services. all internet or mozilla ff accesses are blocked out by edge it seems..... "acumen" powers this edge thing and their call center at 0-2502-3999 speaks very limited english if you call for help.....their internet service is easily cost three times more to access...can anymore offer some advice and or alternatives here...?

Are you saying that these hotels shut out the EDGE service by TRUE/DTAC/AIS and have a private system??

[Jiu-Jitsu]

Seems that you are getting your IPStar Broadband Satellite Internet mixed up with EDGE.

http://www.starconnext.net/