Connection To Civilisation

[bentje60]

Have already posted the following in another tread but hav'ent had any answers. Might be because the question was not related to the topic in the tread (Sorry for that. Relative new on this forum. I'll have to learn). Anyway, i will give it a new shot here:

Last visit in Isaan i used my AIS prepaid mobile as modem but it was slow as hell. Have read about people using ”dongle powered internet”. Is that the same as using your mobile. If not, what speed to expect and where to buy.

[jamescollister]

Dongle is as fast as the signal you get, if you get 3 G then it will run fast, if Iike me you hardly get a signal it will be slow. Blue tooth from a phone can be fast if again 3 G. It's not the device that counts out here, but the signal. Jim

[Lickey]

I seem to remeber that there was a thread on this forum about dongles, the general conclusion was that the further away the dongle was from LT/PC the better they worked,

I had one when cuts were frequent, supposed to have 30hours for 100bht, never got anywhere near that, seemed to be dead after 5/6 hours, and I wouldnt think you would be able to watch Youtube with it, but ok for mail ect,

Thank Budddha i have BroadBean here, fast internet can relieve the boredom of a Thai village, its like your only contact with the real world,,

[thaimite]

Dongle or tethered smart-phone your reults will be the same if using the same type of connection.

However if you do not have a 3G contact on your phone, then a 3G dongle (if there is a signal available in your area will be better.

During my last visit to Issan, I did not get any 3G signal from AIS or DTAC only edge was available, so unless another company such as True have a faster connection you will be on the slow speeds regardless of using a phone or a dongle to connect.

The other previous option of CAT CDMA has now been closed down, thus you can ignore any older threads talking about that option.

[SlyAnimal]

Large parts of Isaan have 3G via true move now, I pickup 3G signal even when I go out into the real countryside (I live in the main town for our amphur rather than out on a farm).

However, as one of my friends unfortunately found out recently. Apparently the frequency in some areas (ours being one of them apparently), is in a band where they need a newish iPhone or galaxy in order to get the signal. I don't know all the ins and outs about this though, as I've got an iPhone so never had any problems regardless lol.

In general though, from what I have seen. True has 3G almost everywhere, AIS/DTAC Have very limited coverage in Isaan (previously while on AIS I wouldnt even get 3G in sarakham/roiet city, but since I changed to true I get it almost everywhere.

So yeah, id reccommend an iPhone or similar with true to get your Internet. It's usually faster than my fixed line broadband too, although lower data caps