Please Explain 'Wifi' Internet Offered By Tot [And Other Providers]

[jaideeguy]

In my quest to bump up my current snail speed TOT ADSL [promised 4 mb, but reality 2mb, if lucky] @499/mo,

Thai wife and I went into TOT office to up my speeds to a 10mg download/1 mg upload @ 890thb/mo. Woman at desk says, after consulting with technician that that better to wait untill they install a new 'wifi' tower on a near by hill [5km away] and that I will get my desired speeds in 2 - 3 months [Thai time,555]

We are located 3+ km from the junction box and that if we upped the speeds on ADSL, it would overload and actual speeds would not be fast, but on/off.

I am a little confused by the term 'wifi' from the provider and have a few questions.......

I assume that this kind of wifi is a more powerful version of the small wifi system in my house that only has a range of 30mtrs??

What is the actual range and potential speeds at 5km from tower on this new proposed wifi system offered by TOT and others??

And assume that I will need a large and high tower to receive signal?? And then there is the issue of how to distribute the signal to 5 points in the house. Can I use my current ethernet and home wifi to distribute signal??

FYI....we are located out in the ricefields 20k from Chiang Mai and 'infrastructure' is lacking.

Thanks in advance for any insite into this>>>

[lomatopo]

Not nearly enough detailed information to hazard anything close to an informed answer.

At 3+ Km in a perfect world you may be able to a max. of 5 Mega-bites per second downstream. Also there may be a limit on the uplink - the connection from your access point to a nearby back-bone.

Not sure about this WiFi on a tower 5 Km away? I guess it could be part of this "Smart Thailand" project? With access for highways, petrol stations, schools, hospitals etc?

I suspect 5 Km might be a challenge unless there is direct, line-of-sight and perfect weather, and no smoke from fires.

Edited June 2, 2012 by lomatopo

[sirchai]

Thai wife and I went into TOT office to up my speeds to a 10mg download/1 mg upload @ 890thb/mo.

Guess you meant MB instead of mg.

I guess you're connected via cable and router? Never heard of wireless that distance.....can you clarify please?

[sumrit]

I've got this WiFi connection from TOT and I've been pleased with it so far. It is a wireless connection. They put a small aerial (measures about 8 inches by 4 inches) on your house which then transmits to a local receiver. You're not connected down the telephone line or by any cable.

When I had it installed they said, for where I live, I should get about 8 MB download and 1 MB upload. I actually get between 8 and 9 MB download speeds plus the 1 MB upload and the best part is that I get that all the time. It doesn't slow down during 'busy periods' like the phone line connection does. It's great for streaming UK football and I can now stream from the better quality links, and so get better quality pictures, without any buffering. When downloading UK TV programs from P to P sites I get up to about 1 meg download and 200k upload speeds.

The only thing I have noticed is that very occasionally I lose the internet connection (my modem and the aerial supply is switched on 24-7) but I just turn the power to the aerial off and on again to reboot it and normal service is resumed.

For me, @ 890 baht pm, this is a much better system than the telephone line connection.

Edited June 2, 2012 by sumrit

[astral]

Not sure what is used in Thailand,

but in India I have what looks like a USB memory stick, but in fact is a WiFi transceiver.

It works on the same frequencies as the mobile phones (CDMA), not the home WiFi.

Download speeds up to 3.1 Mbps and upload speeds up to 1.8 Mbps

Be careful to check if those figures quoted are speeds in Mbits/s

or monthly allowances in Mbytes

[billd766]

I have this system and it is very good BUT I am only about 500 metres from the tower.

I get roughly the same speeds as Sumrit does though I only pay 645 Baht and I do get some buffering at times. There are only 5 users on my local netBut I suspect that if more users do come online the speeds may drop unless TOT upgrade the link further back along the link.

I used to be on DTAC using EDGE as I live out in the country and have only been waiting for a landline since 2003.

Edited June 2, 2012 by billd766

[jaideeguy]

I've got this WiFi connection from TOT and I've been pleased with it so far. It is a wireless connection. They put a small aerial (measures about 8 inches by 4 inches) on your house which then transmits to a local receiver. You're not connected down the telephone line or by any cable.

When I had it installed they said, for where I live, I should get about 8 MB download and 1 MB upload. I actually get between 8 and 9 MB download speeds plus the 1 MB upload and the best part is that I get that all the time. It doesn't slow down during 'busy periods' like the phone line connection does. It's great for streaming UK football and I can now stream from the better quality links, and so get better quality pictures, without any buffering. When downloading UK TV programs from P to P sites I get up to about 1 meg download and 200k upload speeds.

The only thing I have noticed is that very occasionally I lose the internet connection (my modem and the aerial supply is switched on 24-7) but I just turn the power to the aerial off and on again to reboot it and normal service is resumed.

For me, @ 890 baht pm, this is a much better system than the telephone line connection.

Yeah, Sumrit.....that's great news if it is what I think I was refering to. Can I ask you how far from the tower you are located?? I would assume that they would do a site inspection to see if the signal is good?? Hopefully it will reach the 5k to my house from their 'proposed' tower. And how is the signal during rain storms??

And yes, I should have said MB instead of MG.......sorry

[Lifer]

Why are you sticking with 4M? I upgraded over a year ago to 6M for 590 and get 5 M fairly consistently. Yes, some times problems with TOT depending on weather etc. I used to have a lot of problem with my DNS lines years ago until wqe checked and had our inhouse phone wirering replaced. Since then, practically no problems unless TOT goes down. The original house wiring was done about 15 years ago. Now they have 7M in most areas for the same price. Good luck.

[sumrit]

Yeah, Sumrit.....that's great news if it is what I think I was refering to. Can I ask you how far from the tower you are located?? I would assume that they would do a site inspection to see if the signal is good?? Hopefully it will reach the 5k to my house from their 'proposed' tower. And how is the signal during rain storms??

And yes, I should have said MB instead of MG.......sorry

I think I'm probably about four kilometres from their tower. They didn't do a site inspection at our house, but then somebody two roads down from us was already using the same system so they'd know what we could expect from that one anyway.

Haven't had any problems during the rain that I've noticed (although I haven't actually done a speed test during a rain storm) except on one occasion when lightening struck something and the whole Wi Net system went down in Chonburi overnight. They had it up and running again by mid morning. It also went down for a day when a clever builder put his digger bucket through a cable near the tower. On that occasion somebody from TOT actually came round on a motorbike to tell us what the problem was and how long they expected it to be down. I assume he was just in our area on other business so came to tell us when he saw our aerial, but whatever reason he was there for I thought that was pretty good service.

[sumrit]

Why are you sticking with 4M? I upgraded over a year ago to 6M for 590 and get 5 M fairly consistently. Yes, some times problems with TOT depending on weather etc. I used to have a lot of problem with my DNS lines years ago until wqe checked and had our inhouse phone wirering replaced. Since then, practically no problems unless TOT goes down. The original house wiring was done about 15 years ago. Now they have 7M in most areas for the same price. Good luck.

Do you stream much 'live' video? When a friend of mine was on this package he found it was almost impossible to watch streamed programs because of the constant buffering. He also found downloading/uploading from P to P sites was very erratic. He did live in the middle of town though so guessed that sharing on his line was maxed out. Going on a dearer package with less people sharing cured his problem.

[Darrel]

...... 5 Mega-bites per second .....

Sounds good on paper but I'm sure it would only lead to indigestion in the end.

[rijb]

I have TOT Wifi too. It works great (even in the rain) and it's more reliable than ADSL. The antenna and installation cost a little less than 4,000 baht.

[niccodemi]

I've just got it installed 3 days ago. It is called Winet and it is based on technology from Ubiquiti Networks (www.ubnt.com).

Here is description with photos (in Thai)

http://www.overclockzone.com/forums/showthread.php/1197169-TOT-WiFi-Wi-Net-บริการใหม่จาก-TOT

Voip calls, Skype, live streaming and Youtube (1080) all work ok.

As per ToT engineer 1 base station has 100 Mbps shared among max 20 users.

Installation cost was 4600 baht.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Thaivisa Connect App

[jaideeguy]

I've just got it installed 3 days ago. It is called Winet and it is based on technology from Ubiquiti Networks (www.ubnt.com).

Here is description with photos (in Thai)

http://www.overclock...634;ก-TOT

Voip calls, Skype, live streaming and Youtube (1080) all work ok.

As per ToT engineer 1 base station has 100 Mbps shared among max 20 users.

Installation cost was 4600 baht.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Thaivisa Connect App

The rig on that link you posted doesn't look like the one that my neighbor has. He is abroad now, so I can't ask, but I will take a pic and post it..

I do hope that it is capable of serving more than 20 customers because from what TOT told me, it would cover a large area......maybe they will upgrade it??

Sumrit.....thanks for the info.....4 k from tower?? maybe it will reach further?? I'll check google earth for the exact distance.

[sumrit]

I've just got it installed 3 days ago. It is called Winet and it is based on technology from Ubiquiti Networks (www.ubnt.com).

Here is description with photos (in Thai)

http://www.overclock...634;ก-TOT

Voip calls, Skype, live streaming and Youtube (1080) all work ok.

As per ToT engineer 1 base station has 100 Mbps shared among max 20 users.

Installation cost was 4600 baht.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Thaivisa Connect App

The rig on that link you posted doesn't look like the one that my neighbor has. He is abroad now, so I can't ask, but I will take a pic and post it..

I do hope that it is capable of serving more than 20 customers because from what TOT told me, it would cover a large area......maybe they will upgrade it??

Sumrit.....thanks for the info.....4 k from tower?? maybe it will reach further?? I'll check google earth for the exact distance.

Jaideeguy..............The picture on the link niccodemi supplied is exactly the same as the TOT Wi Net aerial I have. As I said it's quite small, measuring about eight inches by four inches.

[jaideeguy]

I've just got it installed 3 days ago. It is called Winet and it is based on technology from Ubiquiti Networks (www.ubnt.com).

Here is description with photos (in Thai)

http://www.overclock...634;ก-TOT

Voip calls, Skype, live streaming and Youtube (1080) all work ok.

As per ToT engineer 1 base station has 100 Mbps shared among max 20 users.

Installation cost was 4600 baht.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Thaivisa Connect App

The rig on that link you posted doesn't look like the one that my neighbor has. He is abroad now, so I can't ask, but I will take a pic and post it..

I do hope that it is capable of serving more than 20 customers because from what TOT told me, it would cover a large area......maybe they will upgrade it??

Sumrit.....thanks for the info.....4 k from tower?? maybe it will reach further?? I'll check google earth for the exact distance.

Jaideeguy..............The picture on the link niccodemi supplied is exactly the same as the TOT Wi Net aerial I have. As I said it's quite small, measuring about eight inches by four inches.

Thanks.....altho it is totally different from my neighbor's setup, which i still don't have a foto of. His is a rectangle dish measuring maybe 5 inches by 10 inches and is on a high steel pole about 10 mtrs high with many guy wires. Maybe for a totally different application??

[lomatopo]

This TOT Wi-net looks like a fairly new offer? 5 GHz, 802.11n, max. range is 10 Km line of sight.

There are a couple of Youtube videos. The towers are massive, and the Wi-Net gear is mounted near the top.

[Nowhereman60]

I have TOT wireless at my house also. The tower is at least 5 km from my home. They installed a 30 ft Antenna with some type of received. It worked good except the tower was hit by lighting and down three days. I also have the same problem that once in a while I have turn off the power to the router and turn it on again.

[niccodemi]

I've just got it installed 3 days ago. It is called Winet and it is based on technology from Ubiquiti Networks (www.ubnt.com).

Here is description with photos (in Thai)

http://www.overclock...634;ก-TOT

Voip calls, Skype, live streaming and Youtube (1080) all work ok.

As per ToT engineer 1 base station has 100 Mbps shared among max 20 users.

Installation cost was 4600 baht.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Thaivisa Connect App

The rig on that link you posted doesn't look like the one that my neighbor has. He is abroad now, so I can't ask, but I will take a pic and post it..

I do hope that it is capable of serving more than 20 customers because from what TOT told me, it would cover a large area......maybe they will upgrade it??

Sumrit.....thanks for the info.....4 k from tower?? maybe it will reach further?? I'll check google earth for the exact distance.

Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Thaivisa Connect App

One tower is usually equipped with 4 base stations (each facing its own direction), so it adds to 80 users per tower.

And Winet is easy to share at home (you plug the lan cable to router as you would from adsl/cable modem).

Just apply at your ToT office and their technicians will come and check signal at your place.

[jaideeguy]

Hopefully a pic is attached of my neighbor's dish and as you can see, it is quite high and maybe a lightning magnet.....I would much prefer the type of setup mentioned and pictured in an earlier reply, as it is much more low profile and maybe cheaper to install.......for sure less obtrussive......estimate 12-15 mtr tower..

Can anyone identify this type of dish/receiver??

Also I did a google earth measurement and was surprised to see that my actual distance to the proposed tower is 7.5km.....hopefully it will reach that far.

[jaideeguy]

_{OOPs!! sorry, wrong pic....try this one.}

[lomatopo]

Not sure what your neighbor's antenna is? It could be a number of things including point-to-point supporting up to 100 Mbps ethernet up to 30 Km. I guess you could ask them what it is?

For Wi-Net your antenna would look like this, I think: http://dl.ubnt.com/datasheets/nanostationm/nsm_ds_web.pdf

Specs say up to 10 Km, so 7.5 Km seems possible?

I wonder if anybody is monitoring all this gear and the spectrum? Probably not.

Even the BTS and MRT chose the exact same (overlapping) TETRA frequencies.

Edited June 3, 2012 by lomatopo

[Kron]

TOT explained to me that the dish type antenna is used when the signal strength is weak.

I am 4.1km from TOT's tower and heavy rain does seem to reduce the signal. Also TOT Engineer did advise the overhead HV power cables which are between me and the tower will have an affect. So I guess the further you are from the tower more things can affect the signal strength/air quality.

When I asked TOT why I did not have the dish type antenna things sort of got lost in the translation.

Anyhow I am very happy with the service, works well when the signal is good. However, when poor, the data transfer rate fluctuates dropping to zero for short times. Whilst for normal internet surfing and downloading its not a problem, but on skype, parts of the conversation are lost.

Currently it is raining and my signal strength is down, normally nearer the 90 mark.

[jaideeguy]

A follow up to the 'TOT wi-net antanae'.....Wife and I went into our local TOT office and they said 'no problem' with the 12mtr antanae and the only cost for us is 3,000thb for the 12mtr pipe. All the other hardware and instalation is offered to existing TOT subscribers for free. My neighbor, with a new instalation paid 20kthb. monthly costs for their lowest program 7meg down and 512k up is only 590thb.

Will report on the performance, after it's installed.

Oh, we had to sign a 1 yr contract.....no problem.

[necronx99]

Does anyone have a link to the TOT site that describes this service?

It doesn't appear to be on their regular menu, the internet/wi-fi menu item only refers to the generic 1mb city wifi hotspots.

[up-country_sinclair]

Giving this thread a bump to see if people are still pleased with TOT WiNet.

If anyone has a link to the TOT site where I can find pricing information that would be very helpful.

Thanks.

[Crossy]

Ours is still working well, no drop outs during even heavy rain and it's been stable with no service interruptions that I've noticed now for two months.

I've failed miserably to find any TOT pricing other than by going to their office and picking up a brochure

AIS have a similar service, details here http://www.ais.co.th...ckage_home.html of course I've not managed to get the English page working

[lomatopo]

pricing information that would be very helpful.

Wi-net Home

1.

- 4-6Mbps/512 kbps ราคา 590 บาท

- 7-9Mbps/512 kbps ราคา 890 บาท

There are some SME (small business) packages which might offer higher upload speed, and QoS?

You can grind through the adslthailand site for more details/experiences:

Google: tot wi-net site:adslthailand.com

[THAILIBAN]

any experience with other providers ?

I used to have wired ADSL with TRUE for 6 years, but at my new place I have not decided yet which system to use.

It seems there is some sort of router (actual a huge huge box) on the groundfloor inside the security guard's room.

But I have no clue how such thing works and particularly how safe it is.

There are flyers abound offering Home-WiFi from different providers at different prices / speeds, BUDDY, TRUE and others.

some even offer some sort of "pre-paid plan", which would actually suit me well, as I am out of the country frequently.

It is just that I am a bit worried regarding the installation. I read some information from TRUE/TOT and I didn't understand a woird of what they were talking about, sounded very very complicated.

In particular I must make sure I can use my notebook (I don't operate a desktop anymore) at any other places in Asia without problem, and switch to other WiFi or wired networks, without the need to change (and subsequently, as I am a Compu-DUMMY, mess-up) my configuration.

any recommendations / advice ?

[Crossy]

WiNet and the other services we are discussing in this thread are dedicated point-to-point 5GHz links aimed at providing internet connectivity where there are no landlines available rather than the WiFi services offered by the various providers.

As such there would be no issue with your lappie, as it would actually not need to be re-configured to work with such a service (just a wired or wireless connection to the router).