Real International Speed Of Thai Providers?

[moonseeker]

HI all:

I need some experts explanations, please.

Friends telling me that all local providers only give max. of 2 MB bandwith outside Thailand? So why would I have a 50-MB fiber optic line then?

Can anybody give me a short tutorial on this subject. Much appreciated. Thank you. MS>

[lomatopo]

There have been a gazillion threads on this subject.

International bandwidth is limited, but links to Singapore may be a bit more "free" currently.

Some people report being able to fully utilize higher bandwidth local access connections, through the use of proxies, VPNs or with more "simple" applications, or by subscribing to "business" oriented services.

Having a higher bandwidth local connection may, or may not, make sense for you specifically. A lot will depend on your application requirements.

You can use a speed testing service like testmy.net to get a feel for actual international bandwidth.

As more and more people stream higher quality video (NetFlix, Hulu, HBOGo, et al.) from outside Thailand, contention will only increase.

Edited April 17, 2014 by lomatopo

[inthepink]

Your friends are talking rubbish. Whilst international speeds can be quite bad at times, there is no official limit as far as I am aware. I can download files at my maximum speed of 13MB from overseas servers so it certainly isn't limited to 2MB.

[Phil Conners]

I don't know of any official number, but tests run by myself and friends suggest the download speed is limited to about 1.2 mbps per download. It is possible to download a file at higher speed by using a download manager or bittorrent which automatically split up the download into mulitple segments that are then downloaded in parallel and reassembled on the PC.

I keep hearing rumors of Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea somehow having more bandwidth, but when I asked the CAT datacenter in Bangkok they insist that any traffic out of Thailand is limited by the same restrictions. Again, I haven't been able to find anything officially or written down about that.

[inthepink]

If I use an ftp client, it is true that segmented download speeds (splitting the file into 4 separate pieces and downloading at the same time) is faster than downloading as a single file. However, I can still get speeds of around 10MB (on a 13MB service) from a Dutch server with single files, so 1.2 or 2MB is simply not true, in my case at least.

[Phil Conners]

Like I said, I don't know of any official numbers, the 1.2 mbps is the figure I came to after a lot of tests by myself and friends. I could imagine at off peak hours, whenever that may be, if there is plenty of free capacity on the international gateway, they may losen up on this restriction, maybe even automatically. And surely sometimes errors are made that give individuals a "free run", at least for a period, until found out and corrected.

[tangcoral]

hopefully i am staying on topic.but i am about to get 3bb internet in chiangmai the 590 bahts plan has 512 kb upload and 900 bahts plan 1 mb upload speed i mostly connect to usa sites. woukd the 1 mb upload make things a slightly bit snappier when i sent information over like pic and informqtion uploads or do i have to deal international cap? is 300 baht more worth it?

[moonseeker]

Doing tests in both sites below give me totally different results. Testmy.net seems to confirm limitations, but what do all the other "international tests" show or measure.

We really need some Pro to explain. THX. MS>

http://www.speedtest.net/

http://testmy.net/

[marcusd]

hopefully i am staying on topic.but i am about to get 3bb internet in chiangmai the 590 bahts plan has 512 kb upload and 900 bahts plan 1 mb upload speed i mostly connect to usa sites. woukd the 1 mb upload make things a slightly bit snappier when i sent information over like pic and informqtion uploads or do i have to deal international cap? is 300 baht more worth it?

I live in Chiang Mai and depends on where you ate in cm. Yes it is worth getting the premier 1mb service

Marcusd. Via tapatalk

[Phil Conners]

Forget most of the speed tests, they use cached data. Look at the ping they show you, anything under like 200 ms is not physically possible = cached content.

The only speedtest I know of that is reasonably correct is http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?flash=1

As for 3BB "premium" vs "standard" (or whatever they call it) it has been discussed ad nauseum alrady. My own experince when I changed from 3 mbps "premium" to 10 mbps "standard" was I more than tripled my download speed at a fraction of the cost. My personal opinion is the extra cost of the "premium" package is "farang-tax". YMMW.

[joncl]

Having used most methods of connection to various ISP's here in Bangkok, the best IMHO for international bandwidth is the real ToT Fiber connections. By real fiber I mean a fiber optic line, not docsys which many confuse it with.

[inthepink]

Like I said, I don't know of any official numbers, the 1.2 mbps is the figure I came to after a lot of tests by myself and friends. I could imagine at off peak hours, whenever that may be, if there is plenty of free capacity on the international gateway, they may losen up on this restriction, maybe even automatically. And surely sometimes errors are made that give individuals a "free run", at least for a period, until found out and corrected.

I use 3BB and their peak hours, during which they strangle all traffic, are from 6pm to midnight, when the top speed i can get is 3MB. Any other time of day I can get 10-13MB downloads on single files from international servers and that's been the case since I've had this service, which is a year and 3 months. A bit long for a free run I reckon.

That's not a recommendation by the way, I can't stand them. Like all other ISPs I've used in Thailand, they tell barefaced lies. When I asked them why I can only get a quarter of my line speed after 6pm, they flatly denied shaping traffic in anyway. Also, they no longer answer your call if you press 9 for English. Instead they ask you to press 1 to leave your number and sometimes they call back, sometimes they don't. I realise I am living in Thailand but if they want to take my money every month, I'd appreciate them employing a few more English speakers.

Edited April 18, 2014 by inthepink

[GuyL]

Doing tests in both sites below give me totally different results. Testmy.net seems to confirm limitations, but what do all the other "international tests" show or measure.

We really need some Pro to explain. THX. MS>

http://www.speedtest.net/

http://testmy.net/

It's explained here: http://testmy.net/ipb/topic/30131-testmynet-shows-different-results-than-other-speed-tests/

[joncl]

testmy.net reports on ToT 25/5mbis fiber

Download :: 22 Mbps 2.7 MB/s Upload :: 4.6 Mbps 581 kB/s

testmy.net reports on True docsys 50/5mbis

Download :: 2.5 Mbps 311 kB/s Upload :: 1.5 Mbps 188 kB/s

Edit:typo

Edited April 18, 2014 by joncl

[robblok]

I am often downloading files internationally with 30MB second. But that is using newsgroups on a US server with split files. Using 3BB

[robblok]

Like I said, I don't know of any official numbers, the 1.2 mbps is the figure I came to after a lot of tests by myself and friends. I could imagine at off peak hours, whenever that may be, if there is plenty of free capacity on the international gateway, they may losen up on this restriction, maybe even automatically. And surely sometimes errors are made that give individuals a "free run", at least for a period, until found out and corrected.

I use 3BB and their peak hours, during which they strangle all traffic, are from 6pm to midnight, when the top speed i can get is 3MB. Any other time of day I can get 10-13MB downloads on single files from international servers and that's been the case since I've had this service, which is a year and 3 months. A bit long for a free run I reckon.

That's not a recommendation by the way, I can't stand them. Like all other ISPs I've used in Thailand, they tell barefaced lies. When I asked them why I can only get a quarter of my line speed after 6pm, they flatly denied shaping traffic in anyway. Also, they no longer answer your call if you press 9 for English. Instead they ask you to press 1 to leave your number and sometimes they call back, sometimes they don't. I realise I am living in Thailand but if they want to take my money every month, I'd appreciate them employing a few more English speakers.

I opened a topic about that, yes they limit you to a quater or less of your original speed at 6pm. I never questioned them about it as its bloody obvious. They say on their site they have the right to do this but they don't state it is policiy as you and I know. Anyway just don't download from 6pm till 23pm or so. Or accept the slower speeds. I just plan ahead with my downloads.

[lomatopo]

testmy.net reports on ToT 25/5mbis fiber

Download :: 22 Mbps 2.7 MB/s Upload :: 4.6 Mbps 581 kB/s

testmy.net reports on True docsys 50/5mbis

Download :: 21.2 Mbps 2.7 MB/s Upload :: 4.5 Mbps 558 kB/s

Which server did you use? Singapore?

As more and more people transition to higher speed access methods here - price is not really the limiting factor - physical access is, and discover higher bandwidth applications, you should expect these numbers to decrease.

I suspect that much of the content desired by foreigners here will probably never migrate here, save local seedboxes.

[joncl]

testmy.net reports on ToT 25/5mbis fiber

Download :: 22 Mbps 2.7 MB/s Upload :: 4.6 Mbps 581 kB/s

testmy.net reports on True docsys 50/5mbis

Download :: 21.2 Mbps 2.7 MB/s Upload :: 4.5 Mbps 558 kB/s

Which server did you use? Singapore?

Yes and I reposted/changed the speeds as my notebook swapped back to the default tot line instead of the true docsys line - a big difference in speed.

testmy.net reports on ToT 25/5mbis fiber

Download :: 22 Mbps 2.7 MB/s Upload :: 4.6 Mbps 581 kB/s

testmy.net reports on True docsys 50/5mbis

Download :: 2.5 Mbps 311 kB/s Upload :: 1.5 Mbps 188 kB/s

[wprime]

Your friends are talking rubbish. Whilst international speeds can be quite bad at times, there is no official limit as far as I am aware. I can download files at my maximum speed of 13MB from overseas servers so it certainly isn't limited to 2MB.

That would depend on the ISP though in general Thai ISPs don't have enough international bandwidth to offer decent speeds for international traffic.

The benefit of a high speed connection is for accessing local sites. A good proportion of Thai users would for the most part use local sites, the high speed benefits them.

[UKCanuk]

For connections outside of Thailand on True Internet, it very much depends on where you are connecting to. This URL takes you to the True international gateway page and if you scroll down to the bottom there is a diagram with international bandwidth from Thailand.

http://webcorp.trueinternet.co.th/eh/linkinter/gateway.php

Not that I recommend True, but they seem to be the best of a bad lot.

[Phil Conners]

Funny, that's also been my impression. For the raw download speed (i.e. something like SCP or torrents that doesn't get cached) I get better speeds through True. On the other hand I find True's proxy server to be much slower than 3BB's, and often producing wrong/old/outdated content as opposed to 3BB's which, at least for me, works fine. As a result of this I have configured my pfsense router to route all http traffic through 3BB, everything else balances between 3BB and TRUE (I have two lines).

The 1.2 mbps result is a few years old, it may well be they've upped that to around 2.5 mbps by now.

[KamalaRider]

hopefully i am staying on topic.but i am about to get 3bb internet in chiangmai the 590 bahts plan has 512 kb upload and 900 bahts plan 1 mb upload speed i mostly connect to usa sites. woukd the 1 mb upload make things a slightly bit snappier when i sent information over like pic and informqtion uploads or do i have to deal international cap? is 300 baht more worth it?

I just changed from 3BB 10Mb/512Kb ADSL to 3BB fiber 30Mb/3Mb, a tremendouse change even with international traffic. I still get very low bandwidth to download, approx. 10Mb but the upload is where I won the most.

I don't want to complain only to give some info to some of the responders, in IT there's a huge difference how you type megabit and megabyte, Mb and MB. In the wrong sentence it will be confusing to know which one is which.

For those who just now had a whistling sound over their heads, here's a small description.

1 bit = 0 or 1 , off or on , for example the small letter "a" looks like this in a binary presentation, this is what computers understand, 01100001 (Standard ASCII = American standard code for information interchange)

1 Byte = 8 bits = 1 character , I'm not going to confuse with 32bit or 64bit representation, keep it simple

1 KByte = 1 KB = 1024 characters

1 Mb = 1 megabit = 0.125 Megabyte

1MByte = 1024 * 1024 characters = 1,048,576 bytes

Now you can do the calcula for the rest by yourself.

Edited April 18, 2014 by KamalaRider

[Rorri]

moonseeker, on 17 Apr 2014 - 14:56, said:

Doing tests in both sites below give me totally different results. Testmy.net seems to confirm limitations, but what do all the other "international tests" show or measure.

We really need some Pro to explain. THX. MS>

http://www.speedtest.net/

http://testmy.net/

OK..one thing readers need to realise is that any testing done to "speedtest" sites, needs to be taken with a grain of salt... popular "speedtest" sites are being cached in Thailand, by cheating ISP's, these give a false test. Try this site, all US,http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?flash=1, and see the difference, Parsippany was being used for speed tests, by a Phuket site, http://www.khunwoody.com/phuket-internet-speed/report/add, to show speed tests, the ISP's cottoned onto it, then start caching the site in Thailand, this is why Parsipanny gives such good results. Remember, data travels at close to the speed of light, so the different sites should be similar. Anyone paying for a package greater than 1/13Mbps is wasting their money...and the only reason I have that speed is simply to get a higher upload for Skype video calls. Anyone whose getting higher than 2Mbps D/L's, from overseas, I'd like to see to proof, bearing in mind what I have already said about speedtest.net (aka Ookla), I'd prefer tests from www.testmy.net.

[inthepink]

Like I said, I don't know of any official numbers, the 1.2 mbps is the figure I came to after a lot of tests by myself and friends. I could imagine at off peak hours, whenever that may be, if there is plenty of free capacity on the international gateway, they may losen up on this restriction, maybe even automatically. And surely sometimes errors are made that give individuals a "free run", at least for a period, until found out and corrected.

I use 3BB and their peak hours, during which they strangle all traffic, are from 6pm to midnight, when the top speed i can get is 3MB. Any other time of day I can get 10-13MB downloads on single files from international servers and that's been the case since I've had this service, which is a year and 3 months. A bit long for a free run I reckon.

That's not a recommendation by the way, I can't stand them. Like all other ISPs I've used in Thailand, they tell barefaced lies. When I asked them why I can only get a quarter of my line speed after 6pm, they flatly denied shaping traffic in anyway. Also, they no longer answer your call if you press 9 for English. Instead they ask you to press 1 to leave your number and sometimes they call back, sometimes they don't. I realise I am living in Thailand but if they want to take my money every month, I'd appreciate them employing a few more English speakers.

I opened a topic about that, yes they limit you to a quater or less of your original speed at 6pm. I never questioned them about it as its bloody obvious. They say on their site they have the right to do this but they don't state it is policiy as you and I know. Anyway just don't download from 6pm till 23pm or so. Or accept the slower speeds. I just plan ahead with my downloads.

Sure, it's no big deal for me, I do pretty much the same as you do. I only mentioned it to them when I was calling about another problem because they were being less than helpful and I fancied having an extended rant. It just annoyed me that they told me they did no such thing when it's so obvious that they do.

[FAlanL1275]

Thai Internet much slower now than 2 years ago. As my condominium complex has filled up the speed has gone down, without any adjustment for additional users.

True Sucks,

[robblok]

I use 3BB and their peak hours, during which they strangle all traffic, are from 6pm to midnight, when the top speed i can get is 3MB. Any other time of day I can get 10-13MB downloads on single files from international servers and that's been the case since I've had this service, which is a year and 3 months. A bit long for a free run I reckon.

That's not a recommendation by the way, I can't stand them. Like all other ISPs I've used in Thailand, they tell barefaced lies. When I asked them why I can only get a quarter of my line speed after 6pm, they flatly denied shaping traffic in anyway. Also, they no longer answer your call if you press 9 for English. Instead they ask you to press 1 to leave your number and sometimes they call back, sometimes they don't. I realise I am living in Thailand but if they want to take my money every month, I'd appreciate them employing a few more English speakers.

I opened a topic about that, yes they limit you to a quater or less of your original speed at 6pm. I never questioned them about it as its bloody obvious. They say on their site they have the right to do this but they don't state it is policiy as you and I know. Anyway just don't download from 6pm till 23pm or so. Or accept the slower speeds. I just plan ahead with my downloads.

Sure, it's no big deal for me, I do pretty much the same as you do. I only mentioned it to them when I was calling about another problem because they were being less than helpful and I fancied having an extended rant. It just annoyed me that they told me they did no such thing when it's so obvious that they do.

Yes so obvious i wonder why they lie about it.

[lomatopo]

These maps were updated last week (April 8, 2014) even though the titles say March.

http://internet.nectec.or.th/webstats/internetmap.current.iir?Sec=internetmap_current

Total domestic bandwidth: 1,675.265 Giga-bits per second (Gbps)

Total international bandwidth: 778.394 Giga-bits per second (Gbps)

Always a surprising ratio to me, I always expected it to be more like 7 or 8 to 1, rather than 2.15:1

Edited April 18, 2014 by lomatopo

[KamalaRider]

A few years back I remember some ISP's had a problem agreeing who would pay for new fibercables to SG, not the cables themselves as I think it was an American company placing them in the ocean.

They couln't agree who and how much each and one should pay to connect the cables with domestic cables.

I haven't heard anything about it since, I think it was 2009/2010.

My memory is a little fuzzy about the details so I can't name any particular company.

Anyone else have any type of information about it?

Edited April 18, 2014 by KamalaRider

[KamalaRider]

Interesting map for cables, apperantly for telecom and internet alike.

http://www.submarinecablemap.com/#/