Isp Options In Rural Areas

[Josh88]

I live in a very rural area of Sukhothai. The only internet option I was able to find here was TOT 1mb satellite internet. I currently pay 2,800 baht a month for it, and it is BY FAR the worst internet connection I've ever used. Not only is it insanely slow and not even close to the advertised 1mbps, but the connection drops out on average every five minutes (no exaggeration) for a minute or two, rendering it next to useless. I've had TOT out here multiple times to fix the issue, and they are honestly the single most useless, incompetent company I've ever dealt with. They don't understand the issue, do nothing to attempt to correct it, they just feed me bullshit and then leave. At this point I don't think there is any chance of them ever resolving the problem, and I am desperate for an alternative. The price I pay for the service I get is just absurd, I'm tempted to just use my phone as a wifi hotspot and tell TOT to <deleted> off.

So basically, does anyone know of any alternative ISPs I could use out here? Obviously there aren't any broadband lines out here, so it would have to either be satellite or if I could find a fast enough mobile data connection I would go that route. I'm really not sure what my options are, but honestly anything would be better than what I have right now, I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks in advance

[thaimite]

It depends on exactly where you live.

3G (if available in your area), or a slow Edge connection using GPRS is probably your only hope.

However in my case as I live next to a major highway I was able to get a good reliable and fast fibre to the home connection for 1,600Baht / month, even though TOT had told my wife on several occasions "that there was no ADSL and no phone lines available to my house / area". In frustration at being cut off I told her to try one last time as I would consider anything. . When pushed by my wife they happened to mention they had Fibre to the Home available for use by businesses, but had not offered it because of the steep 40Kbaht installation fee and they thought I would did not need that speed/ bandwidth. (see my post here). They had all but convinced my wife that it was not suitable for us until she phoned me to double check.

Long story short after a full year of admittedly low use by the family (I work away from home) it has worked well and on my last visit I did several tests with speed test.net and noted I was even getting the claimed speeds to international sites. It was recently upgraded to a 20Mb connection with a 10% discount when I offered to pay 12 month in advance as the biggest problem was disconnection due to my wife forgetting to pay the bill!

I am not saying this will be available for you, but I do know that in Thailand if you do not specifically ask they will not offer the information.

I hope you find a solution, but having started with the dreadful IPStar then CDMA I am at last happy for now, so do not give up.

[Josh88]

Ahh yes, the joys of IPStar. How TOT can charge 2,800 a month for <1MB with ~80% uptime while my girlfriend pays 600 a month for 10MB with no uptime issues baffles me. I guess that's what you get living out in the sticks.

So you had to pay a 40,000 installation fee for this connection? I live about 3-4 km away from one of the major highways in Sukhothai, so I'm not sure if that would be an option for me. I believe they did mention before that if we could get something like 10 people signed up in this area then they would run an ADSL line out here, but I'm not completely sure about that as it was relayed to me through someone who spoke poor English. There's not a chance in hell of 10 households signing up of course, but I'm curious what their installation fee would be. To be honest though, I don't plan on living in Sukhothai any longer than I have to so I would be hesitant to spend a lot of money on that just to move in 6 months.

As far as mobile goes, I can get an EDGE connection here but no 3G. How do you think that would compare in terms of download speeds? I can guarantee I would have less problems disconnecting over a cellular connection (sad but true) so I would really just be concerned with what type of speeds I could get. Do any Thai mobile companies offer a dongle package or something similar with unlimited data for a reasonable price?

[thaimite]

Ahh yes, the joys of IPStar. How TOT can charge 2,800 a month for <1MB with ~80% uptime while my girlfriend pays 600 a month for 10MB with no uptime issues baffles me. I guess that's what you get living out in the sticks.

So you had to pay a 40,000 installation fee for this connection? I live about 3-4 km away from one of the major highways in Sukhothai, so I'm not sure if that would be an option for me. I believe they did mention before that if we could get something like 10 people signed up in this area then they would run an ADSL line out here, but I'm not completely sure about that as it was relayed to me through someone who spoke poor English. There's not a chance in hell of 10 households signing up of course, but I'm curious what their installation fee would be. To be honest though, I don't plan on living in Sukhothai any longer than I have to so I would be hesitant to spend a lot of money on that just to move in 6 months.

As far as mobile goes, I can get an EDGE connection here but no 3G. How do you think that would compare in terms of download speeds? I can guarantee I would have less problems disconnecting over a cellular connection (sad but true) so I would really just be concerned with what type of speeds I could get. Do any Thai mobile companies offer a dongle package or something similar with unlimited data for a reasonable price?

Fortunately for me I live less than 100Metres from the highway, and it took them half an hour to run the cable, but it must be said the price was quoted without a site survey, so maybe it is a fixed price, and "I was a nice little earner" for them. Especially as they did not even need to erect the poles they had brought to run the fibre on, they just taped it to my incoming power lines which was perfect as my meter is very close to their junction box (on the main road) and the power lines pass outside the window of my office!

It depends what you need to do with the connection. Edge is slow, but OK for emails and browsing the web, and MAYBE even youtube on a good day, but I want remote access to my servers and I like to download documentaries and things to keep me entertained, and that would not be possible with anything other than at least a 2Mb connection (actual not quoted).

I also heard about the 10 people to sign up when the promised me a phone line within 2 years and that was 2 years ago. and I am still waiting.

Good luck

[Josh88]

Hmm, well looks like I'm shit out of luck on both of those options then.

As you said that installation fee may have been a flat rate, but if you were only 100 meters away and I'm looking at a few kilometers, somehow I doubt they would do that for 40k.

I don't think EDGE would work for me unfortunately. It would be nice to not disconnect every 5 minutes, but I just don't think it would be fast enough to be practical. I do a fair amount of youtube watching, sports streaming, torrent downloading, gaming, etc. which is all pretty bandwidth intensive. It's barely doable with my TOT connection in terms of download speeds, it's mainly the disconnects that drive me insane.

Thanks for the advice anyway. Looks like TOT will be milking me for awhile.

[lomatopo]

Many people have commented positively on some of the wireless PTP (2.4 GHz/5 GHz) options available from TOT (Wi-NET), AIS (AirNET) and 3BB.

A search of this forum, and the internet will yield details.

https://www.google.com/search?q=tot+wi+net+site%3Athaivisa.com&aq=f&oq=tot+wi+net+site%3Athaivisa.com&aqs=chrome.0.57.6459j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[apetley]

Many people have commented positively on some of the wireless PTP (2.4 GHz/5 GHz) options available from TOT (Wi-NET), AIS (AirNET) and 3BB.

 

A search of this forum, and the internet will yield details.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=tot+wi+net+site%3Athaivisa.com&aq=f&oq=tot+wi+net+site%3Athaivisa.com&aqs=chrome.0.57.6459j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

+1

If there is a mast nearby winet could be an option.

It is used in our village with quite good connection speeds.

When I enquired about getting it installed the engineer found out the signal was being blocked by a major plantation of trees which was irritating.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[lomatopo]

When I enquired about getting it installed the engineer found out the signal was being blocked by a major plantation of trees which was irritating.

Not sure how tall these trees are, or if you have a chainsaw , but I have seen some pictures of ~ 30 m masts.

(Ubiquiti Networks makes the gear which TOT Wi-NET, and others use.)

http://community.ubnt.com/t5/The-Lounge/Extension-mast-debate/td-p/392496

https://www.google.com/search?q=UBIQUITI+NETWORKS+home+mast&aq=f&oq=UBIQUITI+NETWORKS+home+mast&aqs=chrome.0.57j0l3j62.5074j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[XINLOI]

Josh, is there a telephone line running past your village, at any point? TOT isn't the best by far but if there is a splice box near your ville or close, they charge only after the first 700M . I used them and for 6ooBT I get a 10 MB ADSL which works fine for me. I get 6.5 MB on most speed tests, and 4kbps up.

[SweatySock]

Ihttp://www.speedtest.net/result/2717389310.png

I'm also in a very rural area and I use a CAT connection. 700 bht a month and just used the speedtest and I have 6mb download and 2mb upload, very reliable. Been using it for around 6 months and no complaints.

[Crossy]

Many people have commented positively on some of the wireless PTP (2.4 GHz/5 GHz) options available from TOT (Wi-NET), AIS (AirNET) and 3BB.

+1

If there is a mast nearby winet could be an option.

It is used in our village with quite good connection speeds.

+2 on TOT Wi-Net we have it at 800 Baht for the 7Mb connection, got to be worth investigating.

Our little dish is on one of the power poles as Wifey didn't want it spoiling her roof.

[Josh88]

Appreciate the replies guys.

Many people have commented positively on some of the wireless PTP (2.4 GHz/5 GHz) options available from TOT (Wi-NET), AIS (AirNET) and 3BB.

A search of this forum, and the internet will yield details.https://www.google.com/search?q=tot+wi+net+site%3Athaivisa.com&aq=f&oq=tot+wi+net+site%3Athaivisa.com&aqs=chrome.0.57.6459j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

I know AIS and 3BB don't offer that service in my area, not sure about TOT. I doubt they do, but it's certainly worth investigating. Unfortunately my Thai sucks and in my experience the TOT operators are incapable of speaking comprehensible English, so that will have to wait until my girlfriend is back in Thailand.

Josh, is there a telephone line running past your village, at any point? TOT isn't the best by far but if there is a splice box near your ville or close, they charge only after the first 700M . I used them and for 6ooBT I get a 10 MB ADSL which works fine for me. I get 6.5 MB on most speed tests, and 4kbps up.

Yes, as far as I understand there is a telephone line to my house actually. I'm not sure I'm exactly following what you're saying though. Do you mean they would run an ADSL line, and only charge me if it has to be run more than 700 meters? I wasn't aware this was even an option, nor do I understand why they wouldn't have suggested this initially.

[kwonitoy]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/617670-better-internet-at-last-bye-bye-ipstar/?hl=%2Bbye+%2Bbye+%2Bipstar#entry6103665

Try getting ahold of CAT for a wireless router like this, see above link

I suffered with IPStar for 5 brutal years.

Got this wireless modem with a dongle/antenna attachment installed for 10,000 baht and it cost me 700baht per month, I get 2-3MB download which seems liking lightning compared to the old piece of crap IPStar

[lomatopo]

Yes, as far as I understand there is a telephone line to my house actually. I'm not sure I'm exactly following what you're saying though. Do you mean they would run an ADSL line, and only charge me if it has to be run more than 700 meters? I wasn't aware this was even an option, nor do I understand why they wouldn't have suggested this initially.

DSL is an internet access technology which can be provided over existing analog telephone copper wires, within limitations of distance from the nearby point where this data service might terminate.

Do you currently have a working fixed line telephone service? Which company provides that service?

You may be too far for DSL at present but it may be possible to extend this service through the use of some remote data equipment.

I always recommend speaking with neighbors to find out what they might be using for internet access, also check with any government institution (schools, administrative, police), and even temples, nearby to see what they might be using.

[lomatopo]

FWIW, I do know someone who has Cat On Net FTTx, but they live in Sukhothai (new) city. They have 20 Mbps/3 Mbps, "Silver", for 1,500 baht/month. Supposedly the service is very good.

We did try to get CAT On Net for a few customers here in metro-Bangkok but ran into issues with property managers who maintain exclusive agreements with True, and even a 10,000 baht incentive was not enough to motivate them.

Running fiber from the main road, especially given that there may be poles already in place - judging from the mention of a telephone line, and may not require a significant outlay for installation?

I would also push on the TOT Wi-NET option; it may be available.

You can also grind through, or ask a Thai person, forums like adslthailand and ict.in.th . Ask a Thai friend to post a question on your options, maybe provide a general location. IME, Thai people are incredibly repsonsive, positive and helpful on these forums

[Somrak]

May try this: http://truemoveh.truecorp.co.th/coverage

[Josh88]

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/617670-better-internet-at-last-bye-bye-ipstar/?hl=%2Bbye+%2Bbye+%2Bipstar#entry6103665

Try getting ahold of CAT for a wireless router like this, see above link

I suffered with IPStar for 5 brutal years.

Got this wireless modem with a dongle/antenna attachment installed for 10,000 baht and it cost me 700baht per month, I get 2-3MB download which seems liking lightning compared to the old piece of crap IPStar

I looked into this before, and apparently I'm not close enough to get a signal. Really sucks because it seems like a great alternative.

Yes, as far as I understand there is a telephone line to my house actually. I'm not sure I'm exactly following what you're saying though. Do you mean they would run an ADSL line, and only charge me if it has to be run more than 700 meters? I wasn't aware this was even an option, nor do I understand why they wouldn't have suggested this initially.

DSL is an internet access technology which can be provided over existing analog telephone copper wires, within limitations of distance from the nearby point where this data service might terminate.

Do you currently have a working fixed line telephone service? Which company provides that service?

You may be too far for DSL at present but it may be possible to extend this service through the use of some remote data equipment.

I always recommend speaking with neighbors to find out what they might be using for internet access, also check with any government institution (schools, administrative, police), and even temples, nearby to see what they might be using.

I'm not the homeowner so I'm not 100% sure, but I believe they do pay to keep a landline operational, even though they don't use it anymore. I couldn't tell you for sure which company provides the service, but I believe it's TOT. No one in this area that I know of has internet access, certainly none of the neighbors. It's a really poor and rural area.

FWIW, I do know someone who has Cat On Net FTTx, but they live in Sukhothai (new) city. They have 20 Mbps/3 Mbps, "Silver", for 1,500 baht/month. Supposedly the service is very good.

We did try to get CAT On Net for a few customers here in metro-Bangkok but ran into issues with property managers who maintain exclusive agreements with True, and even a 10,000 baht incentive was not enough to motivate them.

Running fiber from the main road, especially given that there may be poles already in place - judging from the mention of a telephone line, and may not require a significant outlay for installation?

I would also push on the TOT Wi-NET option; it may be available.

You can also grind through, or ask a Thai person, forums like adslthailand and ict.in.th . Ask a Thai friend to post a question on your options, maybe provide a general location. IME, Thai people are incredibly repsonsive, positive and helpful on these forums

I'm quite far from the new city, practically on the Kamphaeng Phet border. It's unfortunate because there's some decent options in the city, or even northern Khirimat. I'm just really in the middle of nowhere.

I definitely want to make some calls and investigate some of these options further, but my girlfriend is in Germany for another month so I have to wait for her to get back to do it for me. In the meantime I'll have her post on that forum and see if anyone there has a good idea of what's available in this area. Thanks for the link.

May try this: http://truemoveh.truecorp.co.th/coverage

It's tough to say if I would have 3G coverage by looking at that map, I'm definitely close to a deadzone. I know when I first moved here I used truemove for my cell phone, and the signal at my house was not good. I'm guessing it hasn't changed.

[Somrak]

Somrak, on 20 May 2013 - 14:43, said:

May try this: http://truemoveh.tru....co.th/coverage

It's tough to say if I would have 3G coverage by looking at that map,

I'm definitely close to a deadzone. I know when I first moved here I

used truemove for my cell phone, and the signal at my house was not

good. I'm guessing it hasn't changed.

.. i think i was in the same situation as you.

For 899.-- Bath you can buy a True UBS - Aircard and then it may works same as where i stay. (True shop / 7 Eleven / ..?)

(where i stay, true tel. does not work , but the UBS stick does )

[lomatopo]

I suspect DSL may not be an option, save installing a relatively expensive remote cab., based on the run length.

There is probably fiber on the main road (Rt. 101?), possibly from CAT and/or TOT, so I'd venture to the closest - within your Province/District - TOT and CAT offices to see if they could run fiber to your home from the main road. You could also ask about Wi-NET (from TOT).

For 3G, both My by CAT (850 MHz) and TOT (2100 MHz) would likely be options. TOT has a tower in Khiri Mat on Rt. 101, and a couple near the 1132/101 intersection. 3G would offer reasonable connectivity remembering that you'd want the highest fair use speed limit as possible. My by CAT has an unlimited internet usage 4 GB plan with a 384 Kbps FuP (TrueMove H is a reseller of CAT.)

You've got to get out and talk to people; don't assume everyone is poor and doesn't know about internet access. If you see a CAT or TOT truck stop and talk to them.

[Josh88]

Well I've done some more investigation and not had any luck. CAT, AIS, 3BB, and TOT's wifi internet options are not available in my area. As I'm roughly 3 km from 101, running a line from there to my house doesn't seem to be an option either.

AIS and DTAC don't have 3G in my area, TrueMove does. However, their "unlimited" internet plan using a USB stick is essentially soft capped at 5GB on the most expensive plan. If you exceed 5GB within a month then your speed is capped at 128k, which is next to unusable. I will easily exceed 5GB in a month, so this doesn't appear to be a legitimate option either.

I have talked to people in my area too, and no one that I know of has internet access. The only option that I can find is the TOT disaster that I'm currently using. Really don't know what else I can try at this point.

[Josh88]

Looks like I've finally solved the problem.

After having two different CAT employees tell me I was too far from their tower to get a signal with CDMA, I did some research and discovered their tower is actually less than 3 km away from me on a nearby mountain and clearly visible from my backyard. I went down to the CAT office in Sukhothai and bought a CDMA router for 3,200 baht as well as a test SIM card to see if I have reception from my house. I just set it up and tested it, and I have a perfect signal. I'm getting 3.5 MB download on speedtest with 54 ping, as opposed to .93 MB with 850 ping using TOT. It's a world of difference.

The only downside is they have the same restrictions as TrueMove, where my speed will be capped when I exceed 5GB in a month. However, the CAT manager told me the speed is capped at 256k instead of TrueMove's 128k. I was told I would be getting 2MB down with this router which I'm exceeding, so I'm hopeful my capped speed will still be better than what I have now with TOT. I'll also be paying 750 baht a month instead of 2,800, so I can live with the cap.

Thanks for the help, especially those who suggested CAT. Can't wait to call TOT and tell them to get their POS satellite of my roof.