Internet Connections Speeds And Packages (Again, Sorry!)

[TehBen]

I have been having a read through some of the threads on here but still have a few questions I hope someone can help me with...

Specifically referring to this thread: And transfer speed with 3BB when compared with True.

I have a 3BB package that I signed up to a few years ago, it was when they had the 3 packages available (Indy, Premier and I think the other was aimed at businesses). I was initially signed up to their 599 indy package; the cheapest they offered at the time. However, when I got my PS3 I found that I was unable to connect to any international gaming servers and the requests constantly timed out, meaning that I was unable to play any games online.

So I then upgraded to the 1,100 baht per month Premier package which offered better transfer rates and I was then able to connect and play to my heart's desire with the only issue being the 250ms latency to euro and US servers.

Following on from that I read somewhere that it could have been due to an increase in priority at local servers meaning that while the transfer rates didn't increase that much, I was able to gain a better connection due to the higher priority my latest package offered compared against most other users in my area.

So my first question is, does this make sense and is it likely that this is what happened? i.e I upgraded from Indy to Premier and received higher package priority at the local exchange servers?

The reason I am asking is because 1,100 baht per month is now giving me a router advertised speed of 8mbps dload and 600kbps upload (other sites suggesting 5-6mbps and 450kbps), and I am wondering whether I can get a better/faster connection for my money with a different 3BB package or True (True have very recently begun offering internet packages in my area).

The current offers on the 3bb website advertise packages very different to what my router is telling me I am getting, so I am reluctant to immediately assume that they are 'doing me over' for 200 baht per month more compared to their 900 baht per month package...

The issue I realise I am up against is that my primary use would be online gaming, which is affected mostly by the ping and there isn't much that can be done about the 250-400ms delay in packets from here to the UK, but I also do a lot of file transferring from international sources so....

[Pib]

So I then upgraded to the 1,100 baht per month Premier package which offered better transfer rates and I was then able to connect and play to my heart's desire with the only issue being the 250ms latency to euro and US servers.

Following on from that I read somewhere that it could have been due to an increase in priority at local servers meaning that while the transfer rates didn't increase that much, I was able to gain a better connection due to the higher priority my latest package offered compared against most other users in my area.

Yes, your Premier package basically gives you higher priority, lower contention ratio in the 3BB network. Kinda like you are allowed to speed along at 100KmH for international access while others are limited to 50KmH although both the standard and premier plans would get approx same in-Thailand speed. But one thing for sure, until internet providers discover how to make internet signals go faster than the speed of light and reduce delay retransmission time in hops along the way, your latency/ping times to farangland can't get much better (you might be able to squeak out a 200ms ping time on a really good day).

Whether another Thai ISP's service/speed in your area might be better and/or cheaper is a matter of Location, Location, Location and luck of the draw. No shortage of postswhere many people will say ISP XYZ sucks while many people say the same ISP XYZ works just fine. An ISP's local circuits can make all the difference in how well your internet package works...once again you can see many posts of people being on ISP Plan XYZ (say a 10Mb plan) and it works good for them; then comes the posts of people being on the exact same plan but in a different area which could be close by or far away and they say the plan sucks.

[TehBen]

Thanks for the reply.

So I basically have a connection that allows a quicker response time to international servers due to packet priority, but that doesn't mean I have a faster connection. I guess that would probably equate to a better (more secure/smooth) connection to game servers in terms of real world noticability.

After speaking to 3BB today they said that their 9MB package would offer a higher connection speed (to Thai servers) but it wouldn't necessarily be better, the old premier package that I signed up to 3 years ago still allows me higher priority over the standard non-premier package they offer now (currently the only one they offer is a 2500 per month package).