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Posted

I'm based in Bangkok and I'm looking for some info about getting a 3G aircard to work with my laptop. I only want a prepay connection. I'm mainly going to be using it from my guesthouse (Sukhumvit 64, near the Punnawithi BTS), and also from tourist-y areas around Sukhumvit and BTS stations. The connection at my guesthouse (TOT) is very flakey and frequently dies for no reason so I'm looking for one or more alternatives. I have also been using a local Truemove hotspot as a backup but it's also slow and somewhat inconsistent.

Questions:

* What's the best 3G provider to use in terms of a) speed and performance b ) coverage? I will possibly buy Aircards for two different providers to provide some redundancy - how would you order the 3G providers in order from best to worst? Small differences in price are not really an issue and I'd rather buy the fastest and most reliable internet connection(s) I can.

* If you get, say, a 5GB per month plan, can you just renew the plan again straight away once you use up your 5GB (and thus get another 5GB at full speed), or do you have to wait out the month at 384kb/s until you can get another 5GB at full speed? If it's the latter situation, can you work around it by getting two prepay SIM cards for the same Aircard?

* Is there any point in buying an Aircard that's any faster than 7.2MB/s, since most real world speeds are going to be lower than that?

* What kind of real world speeds are you getting and what's your provider?

* Where do you actually buy the Aircard or SIM card? If I was to buy a separate Aircard, what's a good place to look for one? I know about totalairard dot com but I'd prefer to walk into a place and pay cash. If you already have an Aircard that operates on the right frequency, can you just walk into, say, an AIS or True store and just buy the SIM card?

* Does anyone have any experience using 3G or an Aircard around the Sukhumvit 64 area (it's Suk 101 on the other side of the road) - will I even be able to get a decent 3G connection here?

The 3G / Aircard situation is very confusing, so thank you very much for your answers!

Posted

All of your questions have been asked and answered literally dozens of times here so a search may yield some of the specific you are looking for?

It may be best to buy a quad-band capable air-card like the http://www.totalaircard.com/products/ZTE-MF668A-HSPA%252b-USB-Aircard.html and then experiment with TOT, CAT My, TrueMove H, AIS/One-2-Call and DTAC/Happy. SIMs are generally 49 baht and most have daily plans for 49 baht allowing easy, cost-effective experimentation.

Typically plans run by the month, you can swap SIMs into air-cards as you desire.

Maybe no point in going higher than 7.2 Mbps unless you want to use up your data faster?

I get 6/3 Mbps with DTAC/Happy in most places where 3G is available.

You can buy an air-card at one of the IT malls like Fortune or Panthip, or in any mall's IT section. And you can but a SIM anywhere/everywhere. There are millions of phone counter shops everywhere. You can use any SIM with any air-card.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/425412-smartphone-service-plans/

Posted

MrMarquis, I'm curious, did you find any providers to work particularly well? I'm moving fairly nearby (~Sukhumvit 75). Did you find any good deals on aircards nearby?

Posted

For what it's worth, I picked up a DTAC 7.2mbps aircard, ~1200baht or so, getting about 1.5mbps down / 0.5mbps up from the 5th floor of Bloc 77 apartments, Sukhumvit 77 directly across from Big C.

Posted

I bought the aircard and SIM in person at the DTAC shop in Big C on Sukhumvit 77, cash. No ID papers etc. They said the modem will work with other provider SIMs, except AIS'. They specifically said it would work with True. totalaircard dot com/products/DTAC-3G-Aircard-Speedy-190 dot html (sorry, TV won't let me post links??) mentions it working with several providers, so ymmv.

Posted

Which SIM did you buy? Which data plan did you subscribe to?

That aircard supports 850 2100 Mhz 3G so will work with DTAC/Happy, TrueMove H/CAT My and TOT/MVNOs on 3G; it will also work with any/all GSM Data services (2G: GPRS (85.6 Kbps/EDGE: 236.8 Kbps) incl. AIS/One-2-Call, DTAC/Happy and TrueMove.

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