Mobile Congestion Chaos In Thailand

[sand]

i dont do many logs on thaivisa.com , this but read many , however i feel obliged to speak here.

i used to work for the major telecom company in the UK

what happens is all OLO (Other licenced operators) have links within themselves thro to each other using buildings and networks rented off of each other ( a real mess)

each of these companies have switches separate from the mobile base sites but all interconnected from base sites to switch to land lines and international routes etc over many many patterns.

if a reputable company such as the one i used to work monitors alarms you will find hunderes of these ´LINKS¨are noisy, erroring and give one way transmission etc etc .

these need to be faulted - faulty cards, optic cards, codecs, line cards, erroring transmission paths etc etc

these channels are normally set to autobusy and flag alarms ´too many and you have congestion.

noise causes errors, not normally service affecting as the signalling is another path but at least you can speak, or again one way transmission.

what happened between some of these OLO companies, some had good at proactive maintenance and some relied on faults to be reported. major difference in performance.

what resulted, was say, BT, being blamed for noise, cut offs, one way transmission etc, to say telewest, C&W etc but the fault as previously stated here gets bounced. no one takes responsibilty.

what you end up with is what ever is faulty ' crap ´2/34 meg links etc ´never get sorted and you are left with a mess to try and get a connection

those that look after the network have no problems.

when i read these logs, there is nothing evident as to what the problem is and many faults can be nothing to do with this network congestion.

i know DTAC has been one way transmission faults for a long time, even within thailand from mobile BSE to landline or international.

DTAC to AIS is also dodgy.

base station BSE congestion could be an issue but you should get some indication of this and the over flow monitoring should flag this

it could be just one faulty link with say 31 channels that are affected, but we access them .

someone needs to report the faults and say what numbers dialed from where so they can reproduce a trace etc.

just complaining about scenarios is not going to fix the problem.

i guess DTAC and AIS need to look at the traffic flow on their routes, how many are autobusied out etc etc .

ORANGE being european i guess will work the similart practice as the UK and France and therefore less problems.

make a list of what calls fail. and when to what numbers etc

call your service provider and report the fault ' get a reference.

they need to act.

we did in the UK..all companies had to work together. 24 hours.

best of luck

sand

[manjara]

I thought AIS had admitted they had network problems, at least for a few hours when their network died completely.

The problem also arises when at least one network or link, is bad, all these failed call attempts clog up the signalling channel (which is also used for SMS, incidentally), stopping viable calls being connected.

I'm inclined to think it's AIS being crap, as I have most experience there, but I suppose it's more than likely that they're all as bad as each other. Having had building and electrical work done here in Thailand, the cult of the not-so-gifted-amateur is the way things get done. Training, manuals, planning? what's that?

[BPayette]

simple Thai system:

make 10 connections, but sell 10,000

When complains: ignore

When complains go to the government: pay to that minister/official, and problem has probably ended.

When the problem continues: go to temple and pray

When problem sustains: change of name, so the bed spirits cannot find you anymore

When problem persists: hire in a farang to solve it.

[kwat nueng]

easy solution, change to Hutch, they work on a completely different system (CDMA) and I have no problems.

[busgen]

Hi,

telephone chaos? Mmmm, it's okay. Personally I can live with it. Yes sure, during mobile rush hours it's sometimes hard to get come through, but hey....TIT.

But now I have landed into this topic.........some months ago I've read an article about the fact, that the Thai telephone numbers will be extended to 10 digits.

Since then, no sign or message at all.

Who knows anything about this action?

[BlackJack]

FAIL TO PLAN

PLAN TO FAIL

unfortunately responsibility and more importantly accountability is not part of the culture in Thailand

Build it and they will come - yes they have - so wheres the support - backup - after sales service

Staff training

ALL foreign to Thailand

With all the billions pouring into these companies have they allocated any to the above?

Technology hub of Asia?

I doubt it

I forgot one - forward planning

TIT

Maybe they should all go back to screaming across the road to each other

Edited May 15, 2006 by BlackJack

[drden]

Before we get the "Hounds and Flaming Torches" to go after the carriers, look carefully at the handset you are using.

Old Handsets and handsets with OEM equipment (O2, Blueberry etc) seem to be the most prone to trouble. The next handset problem is the new ones there the retailer has re-loaded their version of the firmware, also causing trouble.

1st point Congestion is caused by setting overload limits low around 50% usage.

2nd point AIS have been blocking DTAC connections for some time now.

3rd point No phone carrier owns their network. All networks are owned by TOT under the telecommunications concession agreements. Build, transfer ownership agreement.

4th point AIS have replaced their ss7 network switching gear with chinese switching so there is compatibility problems.

Orange have the best network, unfortunately they left Thailand so did the experts with them.

Its not the handsets its the activities of telco competitors.

[george]

Update:

Teens enjoy mobile price battle

BANGKOK: -- The price war among mobile-phone companies to attract as many customers as possible in time for the introduction of interconnection charges has been a mixed blessing for consumers.

On the plus side, bargain-hunting consumers, teenagers in particular, have been able to get their hands on low-rate mobile-phone services.

However, on the downside, customers who count on mobile phones for business have suffered from connection problems due to network congestion _ even though they haven't taken advantage of the cut-price promotions.

In fact, for low-tariff callers there is no guarantee that bills under the promotional packages will end up being cheaper, as research shows that these customers actually make more and longer calls.

With the exception of Advanced Info Service (AIS) which was affected by anti-Thaksin sentiment, all mobile operators reported an increase in profits for the first quarter of the year.

The postpaid segment, which generates four times more revenue on average than prepaid, has been particularly affected by the heavy call traffic.

There appears to have been little consideration for the strain on the network as operators stretch their services at no extra business cost.

The only expense seen from the crisis would be a high churn rate with little customer loyalty, commentators say.

Telecoms experts consider the impending interconnection charges to blame for the swathe of cut-price promotions.

A source said: "Once the interconnection charges are introduced, operators must account for the cost of handling calls across various networks, based on actual call traffic."

Major operators had put pressure on the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to introduce an interconnection charge to create a level playing field and end cross-network disputes.

Operators, who were subjected to access charges of 200 baht per subscriber per month, are pinning hopes on the efficiency of the new regime in order to escape what some see as overly expensive costs.

Industry insiders say firms face another hurdle after interconnection rates _ which is firms raising average prices back to their previously higher rates.

--Bangkok Post 2006-05-15

[barkly313]

Yep, same, had DTAC simcard, could'nt call anyone on AIS, switched to AIS, lost all my DTAC friends! Interestingly when used Dtac, I had a problem sending text messages to my brothers overseas....the messages never arrived. I emailed a complaint to DTAC, and hey presto, they credited all my dissapearing sms's! Appears they do'nt have agreements with many overseas networks to talk with each other.

Think it's the first time I've had someone actually listen and act on my complaint in Thailand!

[Highway311]

We have the problem that I cannot call from AIS to DTAC, however can my wife with DTAC always call on my AIS!

[wilko]

I find that dialingf between AIS and Dtac between 7 and 9 pm is virtually impossible nowadays....it never was very good though...

[farangtoone]

Let's all take a minute to breath in and breath out ...

I think that these promotions earlier talked about are a good thing but the time is choosen wrong. The promotions should be a reason to call out of the peakhours but this promotion include the peakhours. And indeed the carriers might be different from other countries but i dont think they are the reason for bad connections, overload of use is the reason according to my opinion

Peace!!

Toone

[ramidin]

It is not the phones folkds, I have two brand new Nokia 6230i phones with the latest software, and two AIS numbers.

Last night I tried calling both AIS (so internal) and DTAC (external) numbers and it was taking an average of 10 attempts to get a ring tone.

I just found out someone has been trying to get me for 3 days, phones are always on.

Chaos abounds - maybe Singtel can come in now and provide the same sort of service I get on my Singapore number, which is always crystal clear. I hope!!!

[raybkk]

I have always used Orange. From Koh Chang to Chaing mai and kanchanaburi I have never had a problem. In fact when I splash out on a 1000 credit they often give a bonus of several hundred baht.

I can't find fault with Orange.

I have always used TH GSM from AIS, never bothered changing promotions and still pay the 5 Baht/min charge.... Never have problems, never had. Might it be that the promotional packages run to one system and the non-promotional through another outlet?

Wonder if Thaksin has phone problems

[skippy]

My wife just got a package from Dtac 5am -5pm free calls for 299 Baht a month.

Before there were these crazy promotions Thai's had their phones glued to their ears.

What do you expect if you give out unlimited calls, people are going to use them to the fullest.

No wonder the networks are jammed

FREE calls 5pm-5am it is.

Wait until your wife sees the next bill.She'll go through the roof !!!!!

[astral]

It certainy explains why I cannot reach my wife's mobile from overseas.

I expect she will be worrying that something has happened to me...................

[BPayette]

i dont do many logs on thaivisa.com , this but read many , however i feel obliged to speak here.

i used to work for the major telecom company in the UK

what happens is all OLO (Other licenced operators) have links within themselves thro to each other using buildings and networks rented off of each other ( a real mess)

each of these companies have switches separate from the mobile base sites but all interconnected from base sites to switch to land lines and international routes etc over many many patterns.

if a reputable company such as the one i used to work monitors alarms you will find hunderes of these ´LINKS¨are noisy, erroring and give one way transmission etc etc .

these need to be faulted - faulty cards, optic cards, codecs, line cards, erroring transmission paths etc etc

these channels are normally set to autobusy and flag alarms ´too many and you have congestion.

noise causes errors, not normally service affecting as the signalling is another path but at least you can speak, or again one way transmission.

what happened between some of these OLO companies, some had good at proactive maintenance and some relied on faults to be reported. major difference in performance.

what resulted, was say, BT, being blamed for noise, cut offs, one way transmission etc, to say telewest, C&W etc but the fault as previously stated here gets bounced. no one takes responsibilty.

what you end up with is what ever is faulty ' crap ´2/34 meg links etc ´never get sorted and you are left with a mess to try and get a connection

those that look after the network have no problems.

when i read these logs, there is nothing evident as to what the problem is and many faults can be nothing to do with this network congestion.

i know DTAC has been one way transmission faults for a long time, even within thailand from mobile BSE to landline or international.

DTAC to AIS is also dodgy.

base station BSE congestion could be an issue but you should get some indication of this and the over flow monitoring should flag this

it could be just one faulty link with say 31 channels that are affected, but we access them .

someone needs to report the faults and say what numbers dialed from where so they can reproduce a trace etc.

just complaining about scenarios is not going to fix the problem.

i guess DTAC and AIS need to look at the traffic flow on their routes, how many are autobusied out etc etc .

ORANGE being european i guess will work the similart practice as the UK and France and therefore less problems.

make a list of what calls fail. and when to what numbers etc

call your service provider and report the fault ' get a reference.

they need to act.

we did in the UK..all companies had to work together. 24 hours.

best of luck

sand

Sand, what the h__l language are you trying to speak here

[sillyfools]

I'm on AIS. Two days ago in the evening I also started having problems that 90% of my sms messages did not get through. Deffered, and finally failed.

I called helpdesk two times and sure there was nothing wrong of course they said. It must me my phone!! I've been using it for 3 years now with the same settings. "I will give you the correct number xxx.xxx.xx" ..Me..."That's the one I've got!!". "Just reset and check again sir".

I called again, had another smarty on the phone said the same thing... oh it's not them. but they will call me back.

Never heard from them again. Around 2am messages finally started to get delivered again.

The only thing I hate even more then their technical incompetence is their helpdesk (or managers telling the helpdesk) to fool customers as there is nothing wrong with the service the company provide.... YOU, THE CUSTOMER MUST BE THE FOOL!. Why bother us?

The only thing that keeps me shackled to AIS is the number, but a few more of these shenanighans and they can expect an even bigger nosedive in profits. Ignorant B**tar*s.

[wimster]

Bastards they are at AIS Customer "Service". Clueless also.

I'm on AIS postpaid (Serenade Gold customer) and my wife on Dtac postpaid. She has/had less problems then I do with calls.

I did have both AIS and Dtac give me back 30-40% of our monthlies for 3 months last year, but the problem has worsened. When do we get number portability in Thailand ? Or when will AIS invest OUR money into the network upgrades needed ? I could of course email Temasak/SingTel about this and make them responsible...

On top of this I found out that sending email from my smartphone (Palm Treo 600) routes 90% of the time through a AIS mail server (203.170.228.172) that is blacklisted as spam server, so many mails do not arrive at it's destinantion because of this ! When I roam in SGP, HKG, KL, SHA or SYD I never have this problem... when I sent the callcenter an email with questions (and proof) about this problem I got an automated response mentioning they would answer "the valued customer within 24 hours". That's 4 emails and 10 days ago...

They are clueless....except when it comes to counting the money !

[ColPyat]

I'm on DTAC, no problems whatsoever.

[topspin]

Well said mai reuh........

All i,ve heard is blah blah blah.....some of you guys should get out more

[Dragonmode]

Whew! What a relief. And here I was thinking my girlfriend in Phuket just changed her cel # on me!!! I've been trying to call her from NYC for nearly a week and haven't heard from her either!

[stepenwolf1958]

As far as we saw,many things on Thailand dont work well...We,as farangs have many bad consequences about Thai way...Many...Are we able to protect ourselves in any other way then just to standing as we doing?Do we have a way to protect ourselves?I am wondering why we don't have some kind of asociation,with Thai lawyers,as way we help to each other when we have troubles because we are different cultures ot way of life so we dont know Thai customs well and that is most common reason we have a problems?There we could have some kind of advicers for to stay and living on Thailand...Any sugestion about this?

Milos

[stepenwolf1958]

Whew! What a relief. And here I was thinking my girlfriend in Phuket just changed her cel # on me!!! I've been trying to call her from NYC for nearly a week and haven't heard from her either!

[stepenwolf1958]

This is fun for you and i am glad it is but this is more serious problem and the real one...as i see that happened to me and i thought it is some her trick,again...now we both know what was the reason...hehe...Milos

[dotcom]

In a year from now people are gonna be like "GSM What?" This antiquated technology is maxed out at 2.5G.

Guys that work for Hutch know the skinny.

CDMA is the future. Sadly the Finns & The Swedish are gonna hold onto GSM for as long as possible.

[Clipped]

DTAC has been acting funny for me lately, sometimes when my girlfriend calls, its her voive, but a different number shows up on the screen..like the lines are being crossed...

this also has me wondering if, by any chance the same thing is happening to my own number....eg; someone makes a call , but it goes through on my line, and i end up having to pay for it...

i got the DTAC 'work' promotion @ 2.5 baht per minute for the first 3 minutes, then free for the remaining hour(57 minutes)...but it is proving to be only marginally cheaper than my old AIS number...and my usage is the same...

for any DTAC users, a bit of advice, there is a cap on the baht amount you can make if using their promotions

(in thai= woang nguen chai bureegan)...but what they fail to tell you is, your 'cap' amount is automatically raised by predetermined criteria...

my cap was previously 800 baht, but went up to 1500 baht without my authorization....i was informed by their customer service( a slip of the tongue by her) that in order to avoid the automatic raising of your limit you must tell them to 'cease' the automated protocol...

you can only lower the limit after you have paid your current bill.

for some this may be a inconvenience;having their service cut off abruptly, but this cap protects you from people grabbling your frequency and using it...you keep your losses to a minimum...

[giffarine]

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[giffarine]

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[Scott]

I use my phone almost exclusively for business purposes--and as little as possible. I am not much for talking on the phone. This has been helpful because I was having trouble connecting, mostly in the early evenings and also having problems with disconnects. I thought my phone was going bad!!

I'll try to rearrange my phoning to times that are less congested.