Tt&t Adsl

[grrr]

Yeah...I"m playing the same game as ChiangMaiThai...waiting and waiting. Today I might have made some progress. First of all, I learned from a TT&T employee who *seemed* like she knew what she was talking about that domestic and international speed was the same, no 40kbps international limit mentioned earlier in this thread. It is true the 2048kbps speed is shared among up to 50 users though, so speed will certainly vary. She said 50kbps would be the slowest rate at peak times.

Anyway, after numerous phone calls and bugging them at the office, I got someone on the phone who gave me the details to install the crappy USB modem they gave me for free (let me know if anyone wants the info, basically PPPoE, VPI=0, VCI=66, then LLC). Possibly all I need now is a username and password as this is PPPoE and it might just work. However, from what I can tell my modem can find no network (ADSL led on modem blinks, windoze reports "media state disconnected"). Two different TT&T people said they would call tomorrow with username/password and check the network issue. If they call and if it works, I'll be shocked (I know where I live) so I'm not holding my breath. Will report back with progress...

[ChiangMaiThai]

grr, when did they give you the modem? I've been told that they'll come out with the modem and set it up for me. Of course they've never come out, but just wondering at what point they gave you the modem. At the end of the day I can wait. Its no big deal. But this is absolutley representative of the attitude in Thailand in general. Before people start telling me to go home if I don't like it here, I obviously prefer Thailand to the US, but the constant failure to come through on promises made, especially in business, is a huge weakness in my opinion. Thailand will never be this world player as Toxin so badly wants until its people understand that you must do what you say. No excuses. No polite smiles. Just do it.

[rjcos]

I have had the TT&T 1,000 Baht ADSL plan up and running since last Saturday in Chiang Mai. For me, they delivered it 2 weeks to the day. I have a Mac, so the free modem did not work. But one of the techs in the office talked to me on the phone while the install guys were here and arranged to bring me one from their office that same day. He came after he got off work and installed it. Needless to say, I am very impressed with their customer service.

The speed has varied. Sometimes it is extremely fast. I downloaded a 20MB file in a couple of minutes. Other times it is slower, but I would estimate at the slowest it is three-four times faster than my dial-up with loxinfo (I would usually connect at 48)

The only problem has been the system has been down on occassion. Sometimes it has been down for a few minutes and others over an hour. I called the tech guy who installed it at one point and he said it wasn't my connection, it was their whole system. I am still happy as i expect they are working the kinks out.

I am loving being able to connect at these speeds and not tie up the phone line and for 1,000 baht you can't beat it.

[ChiangMaiThai]

I have had the TT&T 1,000 Baht ADSL plan up and running since last Saturday in Chiang Mai. For me, they delivered it 2 weeks to the day. I have a Mac, so the free modem did not work. But one of the techs in the office talked to me on the phone while the install guys were here and arranged to bring me one from their office that same day. He came after he got off work and installed it. Needless to say, I am very impressed with their customer service.

The speed has varied. Sometimes it is extremely fast. I downloaded a 20MB file in a couple of minutes. Other times it is slower, but I would estimate at the slowest it is three-four times faster than my dial-up with loxinfo (I would usually connect at 48)

The only problem has been the system has been down on occassion. Sometimes it has been down for a few minutes and others over an hour. I called the tech guy who installed it at one point and he said it wasn't my connection, it was their whole system. I am still happy as i expect they are working the kinks out.

I am loving being able to connect at these speeds and not tie up the phone line and for 1,000 baht you can't beat it.

Great to see that the connection seems to be decent. I went by the TT&T office today. They told me to 'enjoy Songkran first' and that it would definitley be done by the end of April. Needless to say, I am less than impressed with their customer service.

[Guest IT Manager]

rjcos perhaps you could drop a number for the tt&t chap that knew what he was talking about by PM please.

IT

[grrr]

I'm still waiting...they have not yet called me with username/password as promised the other day. During the big "meet & greet" promotion they had a few weeks ago they gave me the modem to take home when I signed up...so it's just been sitting here. Good to hear someone (rjcos) actaully is in action...you are the first I've heard of!

[ChiangMaiThai]

Because I know you're all on the edge of your seats wanting to know, still no DSL for me. And still no phone call either to apologize for never coming or to set up an appointment. Any luck yet Grrr?

Rjcos, still happy with the DSL? How many hours a day would you say you get true broadband? (Not including say midnight to 7am)

[rjcos]

I am still happy with the DSL. Yesterday was the first day that the system was up every time I tried to get on. I am not sure what you mean by "true broadband". The connection is always faster than my dial up account was (and I usually connected at 48.8 with dial up). Last night (I assume from 6-10pm would be prime time) I downloaded a bunch of files. A file that would have taken a half an hour with dial up was taking a couple of minutes.

If many of you are still waiting, the question I am asking myslef is will it slow down as more people get connected? I don't know. But right now it is working great. I am amazed at the speed for the price.

Hang in there, it will be worht the wait.

[grrr]

I'm still waiting. After a few more calls I got a username/password but it does not work. The ADSL light on my modem blinks...meaning no network connection. It is possible the modem driver settings they told me were incorrect. Rjcos, when you turn on your computer are you online, or do you have to click something to connect (like with dialup). Did they give you a username/password?

Yesterday they told me someone was coming to my house today to check...I'll wait and see...

[rjcos]

I do not have to do anything to connect. When I turn the computer on, I am connected. I do have a userrname and password, but it is set in the modem itself and I don't have to enter it at any time.

One thing that might be different is I am not using the free modem that came with the deal. Because I have a Mac, I purchased an actual router from TT&T.

[mrmnp]

I was fat, dumb and happy three weeks ago with my wireless GPRS connection to AIS working fast enough for me at a reported 40 kbps then now for two weeks, except for one day, I can't even connect to Thaivisa.com, my computer keeps telling me the page is opening, or downloading, or whatever, but no web page comes up.

I can usually get hotmail but nothing else. I have been told it is a bandwidth probem, ie. the system is just too busy for my bandwith provided by AIS or 40kbps.

From the majority of posts on this thread, it would seem your able to connect to web pages with no difficulty but that the download speed is slow.

Since the internet is my window to the world, I am very frustrated and willing to pay almost anything to get reliable and fast itnernet service.

I too am anixously awaiting favorable system for reliable and reasonably fast connection to the web. Since I don't have a phone line to the house, I will need to get one and I was waiting until some company could give me a ADSL line to my house. Neighbors have TT &T, so assume I can get one of those lines, but I doubt it is ADSL.

I live 8 kms north of the super-highway in Chiang Mai, so am more "provinicial" than most.

Any any advice on how to improve my service would be appreciated.

I am creating a thread in the Chiang Mai forum for this issue as other ciities have other problems than Chiang Mai and it would be nice to go to the Chiang Mai forum and find Chiang Mai experiences to base my decision on. Many thanks.

[camerata]

I am still happy with the DSL. Yesterday was the first day that the system was up every time I tried to get on. I am not sure what you mean by "true broadband". The connection is always faster than my dial up account was (and I usually connected at 48.8 with dial up). Last night (I assume from 6-10pm would be prime time) I downloaded a bunch of files. A file that would have taken a half an hour with dial up was taking a couple of minutes.

If many of you are still waiting, the question I am asking myslef is will it slow down as more people get connected? I don't know. But right now it is working great. I am amazed at the speed for the price.

Hang in there, it will be worht the wait.

My experience with ADSL in Bangkok is that the ISP will set a "contigency ratio" (also known as a fan-out ratio) for the service, i.e. a ratio of user bandwidth to the actual bandwidth between ISP and ADSL carrier. For example, suppose the ISP rents a 2Mb circuit to the ADSL carrier. That would handle just 16 128K customers downloading flat-out simultaneously. If the ISP applies a contingency ratio of 10:1, it means they'll accept 160 128K customers on that 2Mb link! If everyone downloads for just an hour at a different time of day, there should be no problem. But if everyone is going ######-for-leather at the same time, you can imagine what happens.

In Bangkok the peak times are around 11am and 4pm when business users are active, but sometimes the whole time from 9am to 5pm has slower response. There aren't many home users of ADSL (yet), so night-time and weekends is fast.

The speed seems to increase and decrease in cycles. When the service starts and there aren't many users, it's fast. As the service approaches the 10:1 (or whatever) ratio, it slows down. Then the ISP rents a bigger circuit to the ADSL provider and everything speeds up again.

It might be worth asking TT&T/CAT what contingency ratio they are applying to your service. Of course, they might not want to tell you...

[monty]

contingency ratio of the TT&T adsl network is 50:1. Their international bandwith will be 2Mbps, so they are only able to guarantee 40kbps at peak times...Their local bandwith will be much higher so no problem there...

[rjcos]

Thanks Camerta. I assumed peak times would be when people got off work, but your explanation makes sense and corresponds with my short experience with TT&T. It does seem like the slowest time is during the day (especially the morning). However, slow is still much faster than what I had before.

[holm188]

Got the TTT 1000 installed plan installed today, over the phone to help with setup. It's not fast all the time, but for 1000 it's pretty good (for Thailand).

At 8:20pm I just got the update from Norton, with dial-up at 1-2 kB/sec, now at about 10-20 kB/sec (too fast to get it more accuratly!!!).

I might change my mind later, but so far, I'm very pleased.

Cheers, Holm

[ChiangMaiThai]

Glad someone else got hooked up. As for myself, still waiting and haven't even received a single phone call to set up an appointment ot apologize for being 2 weeks late.

[camerata]

Thanks Camerta. I assumed peak times would be when people got off work, but your explanation makes sense and corresponds with my short experience with TT&T. It does seem like the slowest time is during the day (especially the morning). However, slow is still much faster than what I had before.

Up to now, about 90% of the broadband users here have been SMEs, because they are the only ones who can afford it. And SMEs tend to go for the all-you-can-eat type services, and hang 10 or 15 PCs on the line. So their overall bandwidth usage tends to be high and they are all online at the same time. This isn't good for the other users, and it's the reason some ADSL and cable services are restricted to one PC or "home use."

Ironically, the government has got the right idea in promoting cheap broadband because ultimately it should lead to a higher percentage of home users and less overall bandwidth usage. That should translate into faster response.

What I understand is that the TT&T/CAT ADSL service is part of the government's ua-arthorn "help the people" scheme. It was impossible for ISPs to participate in this because of the high half-circuit cost CAT charges on the international links. But when CAT acts as the ISP, I assume it can simply waive that cost and effectively subsidize the service. After all, CAT has oodles of money and is looking to grab a share of the ISP business ahead of any IPO (ha ha ha... AS IF!) or liberalization.

But a contingency ratio of 50:1 sounds pretty wide to me. If they allow SMEs to use this service to hook up their office LANs, I reckon you can forget about good response before 5:30pm on weekdays. Anyway, let's hope that doesn't happen.

[monty]

This ratio applies only to the 1000B package... Probably the only way to be able to give it at that price is such a high ratio! (They quote this ratio being the reason of this low price!!!)

They hopefully will not allow SME's to hook up to this package...

[grrr]

Well...it turns out the guy I was talking to at TT&T didn't quite know what he was talking about and the ADSL modem settings/username/password he gave me were just made up. Now they are saying they are out of something(?) again and won't be hooking up any new customers until sometime next week. I'll be in the US for six weeks, so hopefully when I get back in May I can try again!

[ChiangMaiThai]

I'm in the same boat as you grrr. They tell me they're out of something and have to wait on BKK. Yesterday they told me this Monday is the day, but I doubt they will show or bother to call. (And I called them about 5 times before I got an answer. They've still never called me.) It seems to me that if you're going to run a big promotion and be one of the first companies to offer DSL cheaply, you should be well prepared. But then again, I'm not Thai. Don't get me wrong, there's more positives than negatives here, but certain things I simply can not accept.

[sbk]

Well, the tt&t guys came and hooked up adsl last week. Unfortunately for us we are outside the range (7.5k from the main exchange, needs to be within 5k). But loads of other people in town got it and are very happy. Noone here signed up for the CAT offer but went with JiNet and are thrilled. Super fast. Big Sigh.

[mrmnp]

When the government made its announcement months ago about their 1 million people with broadband this year, it was followed by a more accurate article that advised that the service would only be available within 5 km of the switching station and I duly posted that information.

Knowing this, it is TIT to take an order and send out an installation crew to a customer who lives beyond that range.

SBK: Are you BKK?

[ChiangMaiThai]

Yesterday I had a 9am appointment for TT&T to finally install DSL. Needless to say, they never came or bothered to call. After a number of conversations with the manager, I finally got a couple guys out to my place in the afternoon. They installed and it worked. They left and it did not. I called the office and was told the problem is with Go Sa Tor (phonetic spelling?). Okay fair enough. I plug in my phone line for a little dial up action. The phone line is dead. And today it still is. The landlord refuses to pay to have her guy come look at it as she insists it has something to do with the internet. TT&T says they'll send someone out today. We'll see. So now I have no DSL, no dial up and no home phone. And here I am at at an internet cafe... The fun continues.

[rjcos]

Yesterday the network was down for a long time. That is a bummer it coincided with your install. My neighbor decided they wanted to get hooked up as well after seeing mine. When they went to TTT to sign up they were told there is now a three to four month waiting list. I guess their promotion exceeded thier capacity.

[sbk]

When the government made its announcement months ago about their 1 million people with broadband this year, it was followed by a more accurate article that advised that the service would only be available within 5 km of the switching station and I duly posted that information.

Knowing this, it is TIT to take an order and send out an installation crew to a customer who lives beyond that range.

SBK: Are you BKK?

Nope, and only one of two serious internet users where I live so probably no chance of getting another one installed either. My husband is friends with the tt&t linemen, who were the ones that made sure we were first on the adsl list, so, if we could get it, I am sure we would have gotten it by now. Big Sigh.

[ChiangMaiThai]

Ok, my temporary password works finally. Monday I will get a new one apparently.

When the system is up, its quite impressive, especially when you consider its only 1000 baht a month unlimited. The question is, how many hours a day will the system be down? Will they sort out the kinks? We'll wait and see.

Here's what the speeds look like going back to yesterday. I'll some speeds from other times in the day later tonight.

4:41pm 44.64Kbps

4:43pm 37.28Kbps

5:06pm 69.76Kbps

5:10pm 179.12 Kbps

5:14pm 57.28 Kbps

7:20am 84.88Kbps

7:35am 154.4 Kbps

7:41am 125.44Kbps

8:06am 198.08 Kbps

[ChiangMaiThai]

I want to retract the statement about it being impressive. At times it can be, but it seems that it can spend many hours hovering around 40Kbps. I'll give a more complete update in a couple days. At present, you're getting internet which is always connected at at least dial up speeds and will sometimes surprise you with faster (although not DSL level) speeds. For 1000 baht it is still a reasonable deal, but it is hardly the high speed internet that TT&T advertised.

I'm wondering if anyone else outside of BKK has an unlimited connection that is always at least 200Kbps and sometimes 500 plus. Does this exist in Thailand outside of Bangkok?

[rjcos]

I am in Chiang Mai and I clock speeds at a minimum of 100 and usually in the 150-250 range. I guess the speed is going to vary by location and how many people they have hooked up. I am going to be disapointed if I end up dropping below 100.

[rjcos]

OK I just checked my speed again after my last post and got the highest speeds thus far. At 7:07pm I ran three tests at the McAffee site and clocked 1.136 Mps, 1.491 Mps and I did not write down the third but is within the same range. That is Mps, not kps (i.e. over 1000k). Not bad.

[rjcos]

Wanting to take advantage of the speed I was clocking right now and wanting to make sure I was not getting a false reading I dowloaded a 31.3MB file. It took 2 minutes and 40 seconds so i guess the speed is real, for now.