3BB Premier internet

[Rigsby]

I've been following these internet threads with interest & have a question of my own.

I'm in Pattaya and about 4 years ago (when 3BB was Maxnet) I signed up for their Premier service which was 6Mb for 2.5K Bht. I was told for good international speeds & to use VOIP to the USA, the Premier plan was the way to go. This was correct, because with the standard package I couldn't connect at all.

I'm still paying 2.5K Bht for 6Mb. I realise that 10Mb and more is available/advertised for a much lower price. The Premier service is not mentioned - hasn't been for a while.

I get full speed downloads/streaming 24/7 and am reluctant to investigate more bandwidth for a lower price in case I lose what I consider a very good service at the moment. I get the 6Mb download speed consistently.

Should I go and have a word or should I stay as I am, paying more for a consistently great service ??

Any input welcome.

[NanLaew]

Yes, go and have a word and see if they say that your current, legacy 'Premier' service is better. That is what I was told in Udon when I was paying around 1.2k/month for 'Premier' and I asked about the newer, faster, CHEAPER services. I will admit that once they ditched the TTT phone-line tie-in and ran a direct wire into the house, the service was very, very good. But short of canceling your existing service and getting a new account with one of the new services, there's no real way of telling what's best since 3BB aren't about to let you get away with a faster service for way less than you are paying now.

I just relocated to Pattaya and got hooked up with 3BB's 590 baht + tax service (10Mb?)and it's up around 11Mb pretty much all the time.

[tfc]

I'm pretty sure that unless you cancel they'll keep you on that plan even when there are plans going for 100 baht/month for 20Mb. Their philosophy is if you're willing to pay it they're willing to take your money. I'm in Chiang Mai so can't comment on 3BB speeds in Pattaya but I've been happier with the service/speed I get here than with what I had back home.

[HAL9000]

That doesn't make sense because I am on the cheaper 3BB plan, and they keep automatically upgrading my speed to the current rate. You might see if your terms of service actually match the current premium internet plan. In any case, downgrading to normal service means it often doesn't reach advertised speeds because of being oversold on capacity, hence the better performance of premium service because your data transfers get priority.

[jschorr]

I think you are paying too much. I pay B963/mo. for 10+MB download speed from 3BB here in Chiang Mai. The service also includes a 40 GB cloud storage location and 3BB hotspot WiFi service all over Thailand. I'd go to the 3BB office and ask them to make the change unless they can give a compelling reason to stay with your current plan.

[Rigsby]

Thanks for all the replies, I appreciate it. I will go & investigate at the 3BB office.

[RicePudding]

I've been having the same dilemma. I've had the same package as you for 5 years, although on Samui. Sent the wife in to 3BB to ask about the cheaper, faster packages. They say that the premium package is a dedicated line, while the other packages use a shared line with up to 20 other users, so that at peak times the internet could slow down. They tried to convince her that the premium was the best package available. Don't know how much truth there is in that, but I'm also like you, in that I am happy with what I have and am reluctant to change and end up with something worse. I do lots of downloading and live streaming of sports, and go through over 200 gigs some months. I have read on other threads that the cheaper packages get throttled after a few gig a day, although they don't seem to be able to give you exact details about this in the office. Fibre optic cable is supposed to be coming to Samui around Xmas time (with 3BB, already here with TOT) I was told so I will be switching to that. Half the price for 4 times the speed. Not sure if it's in Pattaya but I would be looking at it.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I think Internet users here in Thailand need to be careful about the service they select, and particularly be conscious of what kind of Internet use they have.

If you're mostly making just local connections inside Thailand or in Asia, that's one thing. But if you're depending on your Internet service for International connections, that's an entirely different matter.

Most of the regular retail Internet packages are shared user lines and services. So for example, I have supposedly a 15 Mbps True cable internet package for 699b per month. And while it may deliver those speeds locally, the international connections are far slower, maybe 5 Mbps at best during the day for single streams and 1 Mbps or 2 Mbps single stream rates in the evenings, with the rates usually wildly fluctuating within those averages.

Likewise, the scattered reports thus far from members here who are using various fiber connections with high speed packages haven't generally been impressive, particularly regarding any improvement in slow international internet connections.

Lastly, if you're inside Thailand, don't rely on any speedtest.net website to give you an accurate, correct measurement of your internet speed for international connections, because their results are invariably wrong, and instead reflect the connection and speed between you and your local ISP... not any international connection.

I'd be interested to see some real, reliable international speedtest results for the 3BB Premier service, and see if it's really delivering the type of service promised.

http://testmy.net/download

http://mlb.mlb.com/tools/bandwidthdetect/index.html

http://208.78.10.73:1855/nlspeedtest/

Edited November 25, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[recom273]

Just to point out the differences in premier packages, there is no throttling during the hours of 6.30 PM - 12.00 and there is a lower contention ratio, meaning that the "line" is restricted to a certain number of users. I was really happy with the 2 month free trial they gave me, but I couldnt justify the cost to the missus.

Are you paying too much ? Probably. Are you happy with what you have at the moment ? You say so. Will you be happy on a shared connection ? No.

If you come up with a better deal, I would be grateful to hear about it.

[BudRight]

Jeez, just select a server in Chicago or Brussels or Rio or something on speedtest.net to check your 'international' speeds.

[thailandbeachisland]

Whatever you change in this country you take a risk of future bad service... I have the minimum packages from TOT, 3BB and True but don't want to upgrade anything as I exactly know what will happen and I am not born crying victim :-)

[marioc]

I've been having the same dilemma. I've had the same package as you for 5 years, although on Samui. Sent the wife in to 3BB to ask about the cheaper, faster packages. They say that the premium package is a dedicated line, while the other packages use a shared line with up to 20 other users, so that at peak times the internet could slow down. They tried to convince her that the premium was the best package available. Don't know how much truth there is in that, but I'm also like you, in that I am happy with what I have and am reluctant to change and end up with something worse. I do lots of downloading and live streaming of sports, and go through over 200 gigs some months. I have read on other threads that the cheaper packages get throttled after a few gig a day, although they don't seem to be able to give you exact details about this in the office. Fibre optic cable is supposed to be coming to Samui around Xmas time (with 3BB, already here with TOT) I was told so I will be switching to that. Half the price for 4 times the speed. Not sure if it's in Pattaya but I would be looking at it.

I have the standard 3BB package: 590 + tax(total 631 bath) and I am very happy with it but it is true that near my house only very few people use 3BB (I guess only 2)....I had the same info your wife has got, your line is a dedicated one so if you have many people in a 50/100 radius distance using 3BB is better to stick with your premier package, because the cheaper one shares the same IP and line with your neighbors.... if not I can garantee you the the lower package is at least as good, fast and reliable.

[jacko45k]

Is the service you have not adequate?

The price you pay is a little high these days, but I would be wary of changing as you sound quite content.

These well subscribed plans often mean that the claimed bandwidth is in reality only there if you get up at 4am.

Get some feedback first, particularly in your region if you can.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The question is, are 3BB's much higher plan prices worth it for the performance they provide:

Without any reliable speed test results for international connections, it's hard to know.

http://www.3bb.co.th/promotion/en/9mb.php

[DickS]

I have good service with 3BB and was able to get a 7 percent discount by paying 1 year in advance. Speeds have been as advertised. I am not getting the following message for several commercial websites. Has anyone else been experiencing this problem with 3BB?

Gateway GEO-IP/BOTNET Alert

This request is blocked by the SonicWALL Gateway Geo IP Service. Country Name:Thailand Initiator IP:171.4.16.216

[Naam]

Jeez, just select a server in Chicago or Brussels or Rio or something on speedtest.net to check your 'international' speeds.

and get a nonsensical reading because 3BB cheats on speedtest.net!

when you see a ping of 25ms to Boston, USA you realise that this can be only bullsh*t².

[hml367]

TallGuy has a good knowledge about the internet and its workings. Perhaps he could explain here how internet server caching works. This should give a little better insight into why ping results are what they are for popular speed test sites. My own communication skills are not good enough to explain this correctly.

Personally, I don't believe Thai isp's "game" the speed test sites. They explain that the speeds they advertise are inside Thailand and I don't recall seeing any that guarantee international speeds.

Knowing how internet server caching works should help some people understand about ping results and then they can look for a different speed test site to get a more accurate result.

Edited November 26, 2013 by hml367

[Naam]

TallGuy has a good knowledge about the internet and its workings. Perhaps he could explain here how internet server caching works. This should give a little better insight into why ping results are what they are for popular speed test sites. My own communication skills are not good enough to explain this correctly.

Personally, I don't believe Thai isp's "game" the speed test sites. They explain that the speeds they advertise are inside Thailand and I don't recall seeing any that guarantee international speeds.

Knowing how internet server caching works should help some people understand about ping results and then they can look for a different speed test site to get a more accurate result.

fair results with

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/?&again=1

[hml367]

TallGuy has a good knowledge about the internet and its workings. Perhaps he could explain here how internet server caching works. This should give a little better insight into why ping results are what they are for popular speed test sites. My own communication skills are not good enough to explain this correctly.

Personally, I don't believe Thai isp's "game" the speed test sites. They explain that the speeds they advertise are inside Thailand and I don't recall seeing any that guarantee international speeds.

Knowing how internet server caching works should help some people understand about ping results and then they can look for a different speed test site to get a more accurate result.

fair results with

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/?&again=1

I would think this site is not hit as much as speedtest, therefor the site is not cached at the Thailand server. That is my point.

Also, when I ran the test on that site, it gave me results to Tokyo. That does not help me with speed to the US.

Edited November 26, 2013 by hml367

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Jeez, just select a server in Chicago or Brussels or Rio or something on speedtest.net to check your 'international' speeds.

and get a nonsensical reading because 3BB cheats on speedtest.net!

when you see a ping of 25ms to Boston, USA you realise that this can be only bullsh*t².

3BB.jpg

That's correct. Internet speeds are governed by the quality of the connection/lines, congestion on those lines and the physical distance from point A to point B.

For data to get from Thailand to the U.S., the mere physical distance involved means it's going to take at least 200 milli-seconds, and usually somewhat more than that.

So, any website that shows you a 20-50 ms ping time (data travel time) for a speedtest from Thailand to the U.S., is instead really measuring just the time from you to your Thai ISP's servers.

That's how you know those kinds of measurements are totally false.

Speedtest.net-based speed tests usually give those kinds of false results for Thailand to international connections.

Whether it's the Thai ISPs deliberately gaming the system, or some flaw in how Speedtest.net operates, I don't know.

But various other speedtest sites, including those I posted links to above, don't produce those same kind of patently false results.

Meanwhile, the Thai ISPs seem content to regularly point their customers to those kinds of false speed test results, making them think they're getting much faster Internet speeds than they're really getting.

[hml367]

5:34 p.m., Tuesday, 26 November, 2013, Speedtest.com

I just doubt that I get that download speed.

3bb Premiere, Chiang Mai

5:38 p.m., TestMy.com, 5 mb download

Edited November 26, 2013 by hml367

[cacruden]

Different testing methodology as well. testmy.net will give me a test result but I will get higher download bandwidth than it -- and if it is not peak hours it will pretty well match Speedtest.net..... I would prefer both give you single connection tests and multi-connection tests (torrenting uses multiple connections, video-chat, youtube are all single connection).

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I was tinkering with some different kinds of TestMy.Net speed test settings for single streams this morning.

And in doing so, for example, I found I got markedly slower test results when I manually selected a larger 25 MB single stream download as opposed to the automatic speed test with its much smaller download data amounts, which rendered faster test results.

I'm guessing that's related to the "bursting" speeds that a lot of the ISPs are using, whereby the initial data requested may come at a higher speed, but then the speeds will slow for longer duration data pulls.

Also, all other things being equal, L.A. is closer to Thailand and a bigger Internet hub, so it's likely to produce somewhat faster results, vs. someplace smaller and more inland like Dallas. But not the difference between 4.75 and 2 Mbps.

FWIW, I have a program on my PCs called "Networx" that directly measures the speed and volumes of my Internet traffic. And when I compare the various single stream speed test website results with those measured directly off the actual streaming and other downloads coming into my PC, the TestMy.Net results come closest to my own real-world results.

Edited November 26, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[hml367]

For anyone that is interested, this page explains a little about "caching". In my opinion, the thing that makes the pings so small on some speed tests is a result of web server caching. A web server caches similar to the way your personal computer keeps temporary internet files (it caches them), but the web server somehow filters sites that are requested often and at some predetermined number of requests, it caches the page. However, pages requested through web page links may not be cached because of less requests.

Anyone that knows for sure would be nice to hear what really happens.

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/tweak/cache/

Edited November 26, 2013 by hml367

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3bb Premiere, Chiang Mai

5:38 p.m., TestMy.com, 5 mb download

FWIW, I just ran the same speedtest at 7 pm local time here, using my True Cable 15 Mbps (699b per month) plan from Bangkok, and got back to back results of about 1 Mbps download speed. Those results being about an hour and a half later into primetime than your test.

But when I ran a 25 MB download speedtest off the same site a few moments later, my result was a faster 2.1 Mbps. I was watching as the data flowed to my PC, and Networx likewise showed an incoming stream averaging between 2.1 and 2.2 Mbps for the entire duration.

Edited November 26, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[hml367]

7:18 p.m. 10 mb download

As I have said before, this is pretty consistent for me at all times of the day when I have run the tests. Not every time but more consistent than any other isp I have used.

I have the 3bb 10mb 599thb service at my wife's studio and it is not as consistent and has disconnects at times. The Premiere at my house hardly ever has a disconnect.

My point in any of my posts in this thread is that, for me, the Premiere is worth the extra cost. I use the other account only about once per week.

Edited November 26, 2013 by hml367

[Naam]

TallGuy has a good knowledge about the internet and its workings. Perhaps he could explain here how internet server caching works. This should give a little better insight into why ping results are what they are for popular speed test sites. My own communication skills are not good enough to explain this correctly.

Personally, I don't believe Thai isp's "game" the speed test sites. They explain that the speeds they advertise are inside Thailand and I don't recall seeing any that guarantee international speeds.

Knowing how internet server caching works should help some people understand about ping results and then they can look for a different speed test site to get a more accurate result.

fair results with

http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/?&again=1

I would think this site is not hit as much as speedtest, therefor the site is not cached at the Thailand server. That is my point.

Also, when I ran the test on that site, it gave me results to Tokyo. That does not help me with speed to the US.

the result changes with (nearly) every time you run the test. TOT does not cache, 3BB does.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

HML, so you are paying 2500b plus tax per month to 3BB for their 5 Mbps/1Mbps Premiere plan...and getting a pretty consistent 2 Mbps downloads (as measured by TestMy.net) from the U.S via Chiang Mai.?

[hml367]

HML, so you are paying 2500b plus tax per month to 3BB for their 5 Mbps/1Mbps Premiere plan...and getting a pretty consistent 2 Mbps downloads (as measured by TestMy.net) from the U.S via Chiang Mai.?

Correct, TallGuy. Plus add tax to the 2500, so I pay 2675 thb per month. I understand some people would not want to do that.

In addition to the consistent speed, I have rarely had a disconnect or no service with the Premiere. On the 10mb plan at my wife's studio north of Chiang Mai there are disconnects, though not that bothersome since it is rare, but certainly much, much more than the Premiere account.

I am aware that it could change at any time.

[hml367]

4:01 p.m. Thursday, 28 Nov., 2013, 25 mb download