Anyone use a TOT leased line?

[rwdrwdrwd]

Hoped I could get some reports from others regarding Leased Lines from TOT

Where we live is in a bit of a black spot, 3BB can't install, current TOT ADSL can't go beyond 8mb, no TRUE and we're still waiting on CAT to come and check. There is TOT Fibre Optic reasonably close by, and that may be a possibility, but the installer is claiming there will a couple of months wait to get this installed (it's taken us 3 weeks to get this far), no matter which package we sign up for (we already said we'd go for a business one, up to 85/10 for 7.5k a month which seemed at the time to shift the status from 'not possible' to 'possible') nor how much we pay for the cabling.

They have offered a quick install on a 10mb/5mb Leased Line but it costs 8k a month and obviously the download speed is significantly lower. I'm aware that Leased Line means a lower contention ratio, and that we'd (hopefully) get new and dedicated cabling, but it still offers no guarantee for international speed (it would however be difficult to perform worse than our current setup). To be honest if 10mb really means 10mb and zero contention, and we get ~75% of that for international traffic, I'd consider it, but there are no guarantees on offer so I wanted to get feedback from other Leased Line users.

At present we're thinking about just holding off and trying to reduce the wait for fibre optic in one way or another, but in the event that proves unworkable it would be good to know if Leased Lines really offer a significant improvement on the 690b consumer package in terms of international traffic.

Edited February 24, 2014 by rwdrwdrwd

[muratremix]

TOT has terrible international routing, I would avoid TOT at all costs.

Why do you need high speed? If it is for multiple users, why not buy several adsls up to 8Mbit and use a cheap pfsense multi wan firewall/router to combine them all? That won't give you 4 * 8 mbit for single connection but for multiple users trying to browse net it should be sufficient.

[rwdrwdrwd]

TOT has terrible international routing, I would avoid TOT at all costs.

Why do you need high speed? If it is for multiple users, why not buy several adsls up to 8Mbit and use a cheap pfsense multi wan firewall/router to combine them all? That won't give you 4 * 8 mbit for single connection but for multiple users trying to browse net it should be sufficient.

Unfortunately it seems they are my only option, unless CAT can install - waiting on a visit. If they can, I'd probably go with them given prior experience in a couple of places with CAT.

It's a single user, but need to reduce latency to San Francisco as much as possible, and squeeze as much speed as I can (though to be honest a stable 2mb would be sufficient - latency reduction is the primary need).

Edited February 24, 2014 by rwdrwdrwd

[muratremix]

You'll get minimum 190-200 ms to San Fransisco no matter what you use. If you have budget yo buy leased line / business internet package, you should be able to get it.

Perhaps talk to 3BB for 3bb fttx (fiber) and tell them you'll pay for deploying fiber cable, in this case they should be able to set up your connection. 30/3 mbit for 1200 baht + vat is a killer deal.

Make sure a thai person talk to them on phone.

[rwdrwdrwd]

You'll get minimum 190-200 ms to San Fransisco no matter what you use. If you have budget yo buy leased line / business internet package, you should be able to get it.

Perhaps talk to 3BB for 3bb fttx (fiber) and tell them you'll pay for deploying fiber cable, in this case they should be able to set up your connection. 30/3 mbit for 1200 baht + vat is a killer deal.

Make sure a thai person talk to them on phone.

Currently getting 450 - 550ms, so would be a big improvement for sure.

My wife did mention fibre to the 3BB surveyor but I don't think they offer it in this area at all - only ADSL and only up to a theoretical 13mb (though they refused to install, citing that it would not be a good service - more like 7 or 8mb). I don't think my wife mentioned paying for a line but having used 3BB ADSL before I'm not sure I would pay for it - it did perform slightly better than our current service but still used to get ~350ms

Will keep my fingers crossed for CAT, but if anyone has first hand experience of a TOT leased line (or indeed TOT business fiber) please post a review.

Edited February 24, 2014 by rwdrwdrwd

[muratremix]

With TOT leased line you should get 200-240 ms to SanF. but at what cost? And if you don't like performance of your newly deployed leased line, you'll lose money if you cancel it. Or worse, you'll end up paying huge amount of money every month.

Don't underestimate the stupidity of network engineers in Thailand.

[rwdrwdrwd]

With TOT leased line you should get 200-240 ms to SanF. but at what cost? And if you don't like performance of your newly deployed leased line, you'll lose money if you cancel it. Or worse, you'll end up paying huge amount of money every month.

Don't underestimate the stupidity of network engineers in Thailand.

I know, that's why I'd like some reports from people who have or have had leased lines from TOT - just so I can get an idea of their experiences, though I appreciate these won't directly translate to my scenario.

It is tricky, the current setup is not sufficient for sure, so I have to do something. TOT fibre will most likely give some improvement and the ability to test lower package levels first, but there is no sign of when this could be installed yet, and it's possible we'd have to either go for a business package or pay 65k for cabling, which ends up being the same level of investment as a leased line along with the same risk in the event it is awful.

I do feel a bit like the dangling of a quickly installed leased line alternative might be more about hitting sales targets than providing a service to be honest. At this stage I'm certain to see how CAT respond, and likely to wait a little longer to see if TOT Fibre suddenly becomes more easily installable - the reason I am being given for the delay is that they are installing something for the govt first, though this raises the question of why they can spare the time to install a leased line as an alternative (unless the extra fibre simply isn't currently available - we had that issue with CAT in Trang)

Edited February 24, 2014 by rwdrwdrwd