Wireless Internet In Pattaya? Or Hotel?

[jeffrap]

Hi,

I come to thailand often on a tourist visa (i dont work in thailand, so I dont have a workers permit). But I do need to use my laptop and really would like to have high-speed intenet access on it.

The only hotels that offer high speed cost about 100+ dollars a night. I was thinking that maybe I can get a wireless card for my laptop, but then learned that unless i have a workers permit visa, I am pretty much out of luck.

What are my options?

I stay mostly in Pattaya, but also on occasion I stay in BKK.

Thanks in advance...

[monty]

Hi jeffrapp,

Royall cliff in Pattaya offers high speed wireless access in the public places of their hotels, but price tends to be on the high side...

If you don't mind staying in Jomthien, the Jomthien Beach Paradise Appartments have high speed internet in their rooms (there is even a PC in the room!), but since it is satellite based you'll pay by how much data you download! You're on 24 hours a day though...

Rent is 1000 Baht/daily for short stays in high season, longer stays or low season will give you a decent discount...

Check out

Jomtien Beach Paradise Appartments

[Phil Conners]

Would would you need a work permit to get a wireless PCMCIA card? They're just very expensive, that's all. Check pattayamail classifieds under computer stuff, they're advertised. I think the price is about 15k for the PCMCIA card and then some comms costs on top.

[monty]

Pricing of the Hutch Aircard:

http://www.hutch.co.th/Hutch_promotion_PCMCIA.htm

Please note that this is a promotion which was supposed to end on 31 May 2003!!

You'll need to get in thouch with them for confirmation.

I don't think you need anything else then your passport to subscribe, but you're stuck with a 1 year subscription!!

Not much use for a tourist...

I did hear that it's working really well, at leat in PTY, with true speeds of around 100Kbps. This however is not considered broadband by many people! For me the 256 i get through satellite is just the first step in the right direction...

But hey, this is Thailand and credit where credit due, things are improving in a rapid way at the moment, both price and speed wise.

Now we need a little more covered areas, not only Bkk

[PlanetMan]

Hi,

I come to thailand often on a tourist visa (i dont work in thailand, so I dont have a workers permit).  But I do need to use my laptop and really would like to have high-speed intenet access on it. 

The only hotels that offer high speed cost about 100+ dollars a night. I was thinking that maybe I can get a wireless card for my laptop, but then learned that unless i have a workers permit visa, I am pretty much out of luck.

What are my options?

I stay mostly in Pattaya, but also on occasion I stay in BKK.

Thanks in advance...

Jeffrap,

You can get noname Taiwan PCMCIA cards at Pantip or elsewhere for under 2000 Baht. If you travel, you can get even a better price on name brand kit (Linksys, 3com, NetGear) in Hongkong, Singapore, US, heck almost anywhere else. It all should play nice together as long as it is "IEEE802.11b" or "IEEE802.11g" and has a "WiFi" symbol on it.

About "high speed Internet", fuhgeddaboudit. You might find, and probably pay out the wazoo for a fast local connection, wired or wireless, but to get to the Internet you'll still pass through CAT, and neither of us can afford a pipe to the Internet that fat.

Cheers

[jeffrap]

Thanks for your help.

I dont mind paying 15k baht for the card, and even paying 2k per month for the service.

I just heard that if you dont have a workers permit it isnt an "all you can eat" connection. I hear things like 1 meg costs 150 baht. That is pretty scary, as I can burn that pretty quickly.

I will check out the jomtein beach one.. wonder what the cost is per megabite there....

But if anyone knows if a very frequent tourist can subscribe to an "all you can eat" high speed internet plan, well, I would be really grateful for the info.

Jeff

[Guest IT Manager]

I was offered an AIS GPRS card the other day but hi speed it aint

its ok but not great, at 56K, that was in dot com in Sriracha. 10990 baht.

[monty]

Hi Jeff,

to sum it up in short, outside of Bangkok there is no such thing as an unlimited high speed internet package, wired or wireless It symply doesn't exist, not for tourists, residents or Thai people...

Even in Bangkok these packages are available only to people having their own wired phonelines (adsl capable) . These packages are so recent that only right now the first reports on quality and speed are trickling in...

Up until a short while ago you'd pay between 30 and 50 Baht/hour (yes,thats right for home use!) plus extra for the use of your adsl enabled phoneline...unlimited access was for home use simply unaffordable.

In pattaya the cheapest adsl unlimited package (256/128) available at the moment is KSC's still at 6750 Baht/month +vat 7% + 500 Baht/month for the adsl phoneline

If you hear about anything unlimited, there's a big chance it's only for a short amount of time when you just signed a one year contract. The rest of the contract would be limited in data, with a heavy surcharge if you go over...

AIS indeed charges 100 Baht/mb on their GPRS network when you go over 150 mb included in the monthly package and the promotional period has ended. This is at speeds equalling a 36kbs modem good circumstances...

Be patient and stay informed (this forum is a good place to start) because things are improving out here (albeit a little slow)

Cheers...

Monty

[El_D]

Hi Jeff,

There's a net cafe in the Royal Garden Plaza shopping center where you can plug into their DSL line for 120 baht an hour.

Also, a friend of mine has one of the Hutch cards. He paid 18,900 baht for it and pays 1500 baht a month for 300 megs. It works quite well.

The guy he got it from claimed he would buy it back for that same price if he ever got tired of it, and he has no long term contract requirement and didn't need a work permit to get it either. He just pays the guy in cash every 3 months.

He got his from http://www.logcorp.com/aircardindex.htm

Good luck!

[monty]

Good deal if they buy back the equipment!!!

Works well all over Pattaya, a friend of mine has it and he gets mostly between 80 and 100 kbps! Only tends to slow down a bit during peak hours. This is double of what you would get through a 56kbps modem...

Still not really broadband, but certainly not bad considering it uses a mobile phone network! (the cdma system)

[nevele]

This came in really handy while i was working remote from Pattaya. They have a search engine full of wifi places that are all free and current. They also have a map that shows you how to find them all, which is excellent.. Can see it at travelmonks.com... Actually, let me find it..