Tot Internet Drama On Pratamnak Hill

[Shaktam]

Im in a condo on pratamnak hill and have TOT internet which is just terrible, drops out more often than not and the download speed can be reduced to 1mb at times.

Is anyone else having problems with them or better yet does anyone on Pratamnak have 3bb? Im thinking of switching just to give them a try but I have read on older threads that 3bb is just as useless.

Any Opinions would be appreciated.

Regards, Shaktam

[Nana Cowboy]

3BB is worse and they lock you into a 12 month contract thats impossible to break without massive fees should you need to. Yes 3BB connection is pretty bad but I'm not in your area

[Shaktam]

Thanks Nana Cowboy I wondered if it was worth it.

[JetsetBkk]

You should check with your neighbours. Some ISPs are OK in some areas, others are OK elsewhere.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

ADSL is intrinsically unreliable. Get cable if you can.

[JetsetBkk]

ADSL is intrinsically unreliable. Get cable if you can.

I call BS on that!

[chris2004]

I have a condo near Pratamnack Hill. I used to have TOT which as you say is crap. I switched to 3BB and i must say it is a lot better. I hardly ever lose a signal and speeds are good, even at 590 baht a month.

[pattayadingo]

More and more people seem to be having connection problems in the last few months when you scan through different threads. It does not seem to matter who you are with. If you look in the local Pattaya forum there are a few replies in there that might help you decide.

In my case I persisted for over 2 months before I finally got something sorted with TOT.

I had to admit I baulked at the idea of paying 3BB a year up front when I read some replies about their service.

The only people who do seem happiest are those who have fibre optic not ADSL.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

The only people who do seem happiest are those who have fibre optic not ADSL.

Fibre optic and/or cable, as they often go hand in hand depending on where you live.

For example, I have fibre to the condo building and cable to my unit.

[Digitalbanana]

3BB turned out much more reliable for us than TOT.

[JakeBKK]

3BB is worse and they lock you into a 12 month contract thats impossible to break without massive fees should you need to. Yes 3BB connection is pretty bad but I'm not in your area

If you can read the local language.... you would understand that there are other options for you. You went for a free modem I'll guess? So yo saved 599 thb for a crappy huawai modem and signed up for a year long promo deal. These kind of packages you can find all over the globe.

Edited February 5, 2013 by JakeBKK

[pattayadingo]

3BB is worse and they lock you into a 12 month contract thats impossible to break without massive fees should you need to. Yes 3BB connection is pretty bad but I'm not in your area

If you can read the local language.... you would understand that there are other options for you. You went for a free modem I'll guess? So yo saved 599 thb for a crappy huawai modem and signed up for a year long promo deal. These kind of packages you can find all over the globe.

When I enquired at 3BB all they would offer was a 1 year contract.

[MJCM]

3BB is worse and they lock you into a 12 month contract thats impossible to break without massive fees should you need to. Yes 3BB connection is pretty bad but I'm not in your area

If you can read the local language.... you would understand that there are other options for you. You went for a free modem I'll guess? So yo saved 599 thb for a crappy huawai modem and signed up for a year long promo deal. These kind of packages you can find all over the globe.

When I enquired at 3BB all they would offer was a 1 year contract.

What's the point in getting a contract just for a couple of months as it could take 3-4 weeks to set it up from the first day when you apply

[JakeBKK]

3BB is worse and they lock you into a 12 month contract thats impossible to break without massive fees should you need to. Yes 3BB connection is pretty bad but I'm not in your area

If you can read the local language.... you would understand that there are other options for you. You went for a free modem I'll guess? So yo saved 599 thb for a crappy huawai modem and signed up for a year long promo deal. These kind of packages you can find all over the globe.

When I enquired at 3BB all they would offer was a 1 year contract.

What's the point in getting a contract just for a couple of months as it could take 3-4 weeks to set it up from the first day when you apply

at the moment you get a line from 3 bb within approx 3 days

[MJCM]

What's the point in getting a contract just for a couple of months as it could take 3-4 weeks to set it up from the first day when you apply

at the moment you get a line from 3 bb within approx 3 days

Wow when I applied around 1 year ago, it took them 2 weeks just to call and said that we can get Internet on our address (Central Pattaya), and then it took them another 1++ week before I had a working line.

Btw: I didn't care that it took that long as 3BB is my backup line in case ToT hicks..

[JetsetBkk]

3BB is worse and they lock you into a 12 month contract thats impossible to break without massive fees should you need to. Yes 3BB connection is pretty bad but I'm not in your area

If you can read the local language.... you would understand that there are other options for you. You went for a free modem I'll guess? So yo saved 599 thb for a crappy huawai modem and signed up for a year long promo deal. These kind of packages you can find all over the globe.

My crappy Huawei router/modem is working perfectly with 3BB in Rawai, as did my crappy Billion router/modem from TOT in Phuket town (two different models in two different houses) and as did my crappy ZyXEL from TT&T in Rawai.

I think people tend to blame the hardware in front of them rather than the wiring in their house or their location, etc.

[JakeBKK]

3BB is worse and they lock you into a 12 month contract thats impossible to break without massive fees should you need to. Yes 3BB connection is pretty bad but I'm not in your area

If you can read the local language.... you would understand that there are other options for you. You went for a free modem I'll guess? So yo saved 599 thb for a crappy huawai modem and signed up for a year long promo deal. These kind of packages you can find all over the globe.

My crappy Huawei router/modem is working perfectly with 3BB in Rawai, as did my crappy Billion router/modem from TOT in Phuket town (two different models in two different houses) and as did my crappy ZyXEL from TT&T in Rawai.

I think people tend to blame the hardware in front of them rather than the wiring in their house or their location, etc.

On the other hand : a friend of mine had a couple of meters of phone - wire stolen from the poles in his moo baan, it took 3BB over a month to replace it.

[JetsetBkk]

3BB is worse and they lock you into a 12 month contract thats impossible to break without massive fees should you need to. Yes 3BB connection is pretty bad but I'm not in your area

If you can read the local language.... you would understand that there are other options for you. You went for a free modem I'll guess? So yo saved 599 thb for a crappy huawai modem and signed up for a year long promo deal. These kind of packages you can find all over the globe.

My crappy Huawei router/modem is working perfectly with 3BB in Rawai, as did my crappy Billion router/modem from TOT in Phuket town (two different models in two different houses) and as did my crappy ZyXEL from TT&T in Rawai.

I think people tend to blame the hardware in front of them rather than the wiring in their house or their location, etc.

On the other hand : a friend of mine had a couple of meters of phone - wire stolen from the poles in his moo baan, it took 3BB over a month to replace it.

I think 3BB went though a very rapid expansion phase in Phuket. I presume the same happened elsewhere. On top of that, TT&T (I think) then said 3BB couldn't use TT&T's telephone wires for their internet service. So 3BB had to re-wire all their customers and that caused them a lot of work up to about a year ago.

But I think it has settled down now. I got my 3BB service installed in a couple of days about 9 months ago.

I just remembered, the service was called MaxNet when I had it on my TT&T line - using the 'crappy' ZyXEL modem/router.

[Shaktam]

Spoke with TOT today, so far no more drop outs suddenly, very coinsidental, and now they are checking with the technician to sort the speeds out. Ill give them a week or so to sort it, but 1 year contract with 3bb I can't justify that after hearing other bad stories. Fibre would great but I don't think think they have rolled it out in our soi as yet.

[Shaktam]

Latest update, technician called, TOT cannot support 10mb where I am so they have lowered it to 7mb. Fantastic, next move is True, anyone else using True internet in the Pratamnak area? around soi 12 Thapraya?

[Dork]

My crappy Huawei router/modem is working perfectly with 3BB in Rawai, as did my crappy Billion router/modem from TOT in Phuket town (two different models in two different houses) and as did my crappy ZyXEL from TT&T in Rawai.

I think people tend to blame the hardware in front of them rather than the wiring in their house or their location, etc.

Completely agree.

I've had ADSL since it was available in Thailand and in that time have used most of the ISP's that have come & gone and have used dozens of different ADSL modems. In my experience the single leading cause of an unstable connection is the wiring.

When looking at the jumble of phone wires on the street, it seems obvious that is where the problem lies. Though that can be the case, it's often surprised me to eventually find that the real problem lies in the internal phone wiring in the house/apartment. Mostly the internal wiring has been done by an electrician or contactor and they will simply plug an analog phone into the outlet. If they hear a dial tone, that's it - job done. With ADSL though, it's not that simple.

If a stable ADSL connection is a priority for you then your best bet is to have one single cable pair coming from the street, as short as possible and connected directly to your modem. Every analog phone and extra wall plug (even when nothing is connected) will cause the SNR to decrease and Line Attenuation to increase, sometimes quite remarkably.

In short, if your internal phone wiring isn't near perfect then no matter how good the signal coming for the ISP's local DSLAM is and no matter which brand of ADSL modem you use, you won't get an optimal connection.

[Shaktam]

3BB turned out much more reliable for us than TOT.

Where do you live? Pattaya? Pratamnak?

[Shaktam]

I have a condo near Pratamnack Hill. I used to have TOT which as you say is crap. I switched to 3BB and i must say it is a lot better. I hardly ever lose a signal and speeds are good, even at 590 baht a month.

Where you locked into a contract? Last time i spoke with 3bb they wanted some 5000thb approx deposit which I would imagine I would lose if I opted out of the contract.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

Latest update, technician called, TOT cannot support 10mb where I am so they have lowered it to 7mb.

That's how ADSL works: if you get frequent loss of sync they drop the line rate down until it stays synchronised. This can be an automatic or manual procedure. What speed your line can reliably support depends entirely on the distance between you and the exchange and the thickness/quality of the wire.

[JetsetBkk]

Latest update, technician called, TOT cannot support 10mb where I am so they have lowered it to 7mb.

That's how ADSL works: if you get frequent loss of sync they drop the line rate down until it stays synchronised. This can be an automatic or manual procedure. What speed your line can reliably support depends entirely on the distance between you and the exchange and the thickness/quality of the wire.

Or, slightly more accurately... "What speed your line can reliably support depends entirely on the distance between you and the DSLAM in the exchange or street, and the thickness/quality of the wire."

[Shaktam]

Calling True today to see if their exchange is closer, and we have true tv so maybe we could get a package, god I have to have some luck lol.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

Or, slightly more accurately... "What speed your line can reliably support depends entirely on the distance between you and the DSLAM in the exchange or street, and the thickness/quality of the wire."

Indeed. But there's not much point using words that most people wont understand, especially when it makes no difference to the end result.

[tropo]

3BB is worse and they lock you into a 12 month contract thats impossible to break without massive fees should you need to. Yes 3BB connection is pretty bad but I'm not in your area

I've had 3BB in the Pratunmak area for nearly 7 years. I started with the standard connection, but after a year I switched to the premier connection and i've been very pleased with it - I guess that's why I still have it.

To the OP, you could have a modem/router issue. I was getting frequent dropouts on a Zyxel router (using CAT), which I switched over to a new TP Link router - problem solved.

[tropo]

More and more people seem to be having connection problems in the last few months when you scan through different threads. It does not seem to matter who you are with. If you look in the local Pattaya forum there are a few replies in there that might help you decide.

In my case I persisted for over 2 months before I finally got something sorted with TOT.

I had to admit I baulked at the idea of paying 3BB a year up front when I read some replies about their service.

The only people who do seem happiest are those who have fibre optic not ADSL.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if people who have standard (cheap) connections are having problems in the peak season or any other time of year as more and more people are getting connected. People always seem to forget that these services are shared by many people and there is no way that the ISP can guarantee a speed unless you have a dedicated (and very expensive) line.

When you buy a cheap service you need to rely on luck... how many people are downloading bittorrents on your line?

BTW, I have not experienced any service problems on 3BB over the last 2 months or year. It has always been reliable. I have the premier service. It's not a super fast service (3Mb/1Mb), but it is always there when I need it. This is fortunate because their customer service is not great.

Edited February 10, 2013 by tropo

[Shaktam]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/2532591829.png

This is the latest they are supplying me with! LOL.