Internet Connection in Rural Isaan

[Brapple]

I am moving to a village just outside Si Saket and want to know if it's easy to set up a wifi broadband internet connection.

Does anybody have experience of setting up a connection in rural Isaan? Is the internet fast and reliable?

I know TOT are the only ones who operate here. I am worried of going through all the hassle of setting it up and then having a slow and unreliable internet connection.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

[MJCM]

That's the problem, you don't know what you get until you get it up there.

I am in same process as you (moving to rural Isaan) and at the moment I only have 2 options.

ToT WiNet and 3G

There is someone in the village nearby how got WiNet but he says, 2 weeks working 2 weeks out.

3G would be too expensive for me (5GB at +/- 599 THB and I would need a lot of them every month )

Edited September 27, 2014 by MJCM

[gerry123]

Hi BRAPPLE

Is the internet fast and reliable? a no to either question as previous poster said set it up and see

sort of depends on location near the exchange more possibility of faster connection

i live about 3 k from the main line and get up to 2 mb down but like you do not have choice of providers

get it organised see what you get you can always bend their ear later i have found TOT to be pretty quick to respond to my call for more umph in my connection keep calm it will work out in the end

might be worth checking out CAT they sometimes run in tandem withTOT certainly they are the 2 cheapest options for genuine unlimited service

[KhunBENQ]

You maybe lucky or not.

I live about 1.3 km from a main road where the fibre optic cables run (16 km from a district/Amphoe town).

For the first year I had a 7 Mbit/s DSL line from ToT and in general it worked reliable (with the usual slowdowns at certain times of day).

It delivered 5 Mbit/s quite steadily.

Then I got courageous and upgraded to a fibre optic connection (FTTx) with entry level performance of 20 MBit/s down, 2 Mbit/s upload.

I had to invest a 5 digit sum for a new fibre optic cable to my home (some few hundred meters).

For everything from within Thailand/SEA (incl. the mirrored youtube/Google/MS/FB etc) it actually performs at this rate,

When using my (HD) IPTV service streamed from Bangkok I even see the capping at 20 Mbit/s (some overshoots).

international connections can still go down to the 2 Mbit/s.

Overall I am happy with the investment.

So go to ToT and try to find out whats available for money.

Fibre optic makes you practically independent of cable length but can cost quite a fortune.

And I know that my location is fairly good while there are still areas in Isan where it might be more troublesome.

Edited September 27, 2014 by KhunBENQ

[DILLIGAD]

3BB also cover some areas outside Sisaket

[MJCM]

3BB also cover some areas outside Sisaket

I have no idea if 3BB Sisaket is the same as 3BB Buriram, but if you only live a couple of Kms outside of the city centre, you are shear out of luck. But then again, it doesn't hurt to ask them if they have anything available for you.

So summarising:

Ask TOT, CAT, 3BB and maybe even True if they can provide you with "reliable" Internet, and also check which 3G is available for you (12call/AIS, DTAC or True)

[GinBoy2]

It's all location, location, location. As previously stated you won't really know until you try it. I'm pretty lucky I get a 'reasonably' reliable 16/1 connection from TOT, given the usual caveats of; time of day, international congestion, rain, mental state of my local monk etc.

There are many many threads on TVF related to this topic, so do a quick browse through them will give you a pretty good idea of options, or lack of them. But again it depends on where you are. If you want a seamless connection for video streaming etc, you really need some flavor of a fixed connection (I'm including WiNet in that definition), since the 3G options are good for being out in the boonies, but you run up against the download cap problem.

[MYKTHEMIN]

I live in very rural Loei and use a True H 3g dongle and it is very good. and you can take a laptop any where and it works.

[DILLIGAD]

I live in very rural Loei and use a True H 3g dongle and it is very good. and you can take a laptop any where and it works.

How long to download a movie torrent?

[MYKTHEMIN]

Sorry I have no idea, do not watch movies on the internet have true tv for that

[sometimewoodworker]

I am moving to a village just outside Si Saket and want to know if it's easy to set up a wifi broadband internet connection.

Does anybody have experience of setting up a connection in rural Isaan? Is the internet fast and reliable?

I know TOT are the only ones who operate here. I am worried of going through all the hassle of setting it up and then having a slow and unreliable internet connection.

You haven't actually said what you really want to do or rather how you want to do it.

If you want a land line broadband internet connection that you can use your own, or provider, supplied WiFi base station. Then it isn't difficult to do but the speed of your landline connection is extremely variable. So if you are going to get broadband speeds depend on where you are, time of day, and how many other people are on the same link.

If you don't want the land line then the answer is a simple no.

An as to "Is the internet fast and reliable?" Fast, sometimes. Reliable, no.

[wayned]

I don't live in rural Issan, I live in the sticks in Nakhon Sawan Province, the last and only telephone line connected to a new line extender amp that is exactly 924 meters from my home that was installed about 2 years ago. It took me 6 years to get anything and was limited to 1mb and lived with that for 8 years until they installed the new line extender amp. I now get 5mb but the service has been down, "limited or no connectivity", 17 days so far this month. My only option is TOT as 3BB won't come out here. TOT service is total crap and I know more than many of the techs that they have sent. I think that TOT is an acronym for "Tits On Turkeys"!.

We even tried WiNet but it's LOS and there seems to be a small "mountain" between me and the tower!

[MYKTHEMIN]

I have no land line anywhere near me, so not an option and having used a dongle far more use full as you can take it with your laptop where ever you go, and mine always works great, never lost a day in over 2 years cannot say the same for my dtac and ais previous ones.

[GinBoy2]

Check out this thread, it answers a lot of similar questions being raised here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/763104-need-the-best-solution-for-internet-in-the-sticks/

[Issangeorge]

I have TOT Wynet, or whatever they call it. When it works I get 3 to 4 Mbs download and under 1 upload. The problem is it is about a fifty - fifty probability of it working. On weekends it is pretty useless. I have True 3g on my phone and use it as a hotspot when TOT is useless, so most of the time I have a connection of some sort.

[Brapple]

Thanks for all the feedback so far.

I have to use the internet for my job so being able to use skype, cms programs, email, trading software etc. without constant breakdowns is important. I don't want to use 3g as I have tried that on my wife's nephews phone and it was very hit and miss, so I will have to go for the land line broadband connection.

It seems like location is going to be a big factor. So I guess i'm just going to have to take the plunge and see what results I get from TOT.

[MJCM]

Brappie.

If there is one thing you may have learned from this thread is, Have a BACKUP.

Even if you (can) get a Land line in, there is no guarantee whatsoever that it will work 100% of the time, as an example read the post by issangeorge.

Good Luck

[GinBoy2]

Brappie.

If there is one thing you may have learned from this thread is, Have a BACKUP.

Even if you (can) get a Land line in, there is no guarantee whatsoever that it will work 100% of the time, as an example read the post by issangeorge.

Good Luck

Yep backup is essential, since MJCM is absolutely right, none of them work 100% all of the time. Inexplicable outages WILL happen, and trust me, after a while you stop complaining, since it quickly becomes apparent that the only person that really cares, is you!

I use a D-Link DSL-2750U modem/router which has the useful feature of having a USB 3G modem connection option as a backup. When the DSL line goes down it automatically switches to the 3G modem until the DSL connection is restored. That might be a useful option to explore if reliability is a key feature for you

Edited September 28, 2014 by GinBoy2

[citizen33]

I stay quite often in a rural village about 5km from a small central Isan town. I understand that some people with landlines are getting rather slow internet via ADSL, but as I do not want to pay monthly for the whole year I haven't investigated that route. What I have tried is 3G, experimenting with all three main providers. In truth I think that which is best is purely down to your main location. I find that in my village True is best, that AIS is available only at limited (EDGE) speed, and that DTAC can only be received by holding the smartphone near an upstairs window in one corner of the house. The problem is that True, like all the others, only gives you a couple of GIGs of fast internet, after which the connection reverts to about 380K. I tried streaming live football matches in August, but found that my package ran out of fast internet very quickly. I don't know if anybody has any knowledge of the cheapest way to get an acceptable monthly volume allowance,

Edited September 29, 2014 by citizen33

[MJCM]

<snip>.

What I have tried is 3G, experimenting with all three main providers. In truth I think that which is best is purely down to your main location. I find that in my village True is best, that AIS is available only at limited (EDGE) speed, and that DTAC can only be received by holding the smartphone near an upstairs window in one corner of the house. The problem is that True, like all the others, only gives you a couple of GIGs of fast internet, after which the connection reverts to about 380K. I tried streaming live football matches in August, but found that my package ran out of fast internet very quickly. I don't know if anybody has any knowledge of the cheapest way to get an acceptable monthly volume allowance,

May I suggest that you open a new topic in the Mobile internet and devices Sub forum

There is where the experts in this live

Link: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/forum/146-mobile-internet-and-devices/

[KunMatt]

We had 8Mbps ToT broadband 30 mins away from Sisaket and 1 hour away from Ubon. I usually got the max bandwidth and traffic shaping was barely noticeable however our connection developed a fault and ToT could not or rather would not fix it for a whole year before I just stopped paying and cancelled it, they still charged us for every month that it was not working and never gave me an answer of what could be wrong with it. If there was another company then I would've switched to them the first time I found out that ToT lied to me and realised how incompetent the Ubon office are.

It was a complete chore dealing with such an immature customer service and a lot of grief for me to keep chasing them up only to be read the same script every time, I made a thread about it in the Isaan forum. In the end I just used AIS mobile internet in Ubon, you can get 1 week unlimited on AIS for 69 baht and it is fast enough to stream YouTube.

So, in summary, you have no choice but to use ToT who are fine unless you need them to fix anything so it would be a good idea to prepare a backup for if your Internet fails.

Edited October 8, 2014 by KunMatt

[MJCM]

We had 8Mbps ToT broadband 30 mins away from Sisaket and 1 hour away from Ubon. I usually got the max bandwidth and traffic shaping was barely noticeable however our connection developed a fault and ToT could not or rather would not fix it for a whole year before I just stopped paying and cancelled it, they still charged us for every month that it was not working and never gave me an answer of what could be wrong with it. If there was another company then I would've switched to them the first time I found out that ToT lied to me and realised how incompetent the Ubon office are.

It was a complete chore dealing with such an immature customer service and a lot of grief for me to keep chasing them up only to be read the same script every time, I made a thread about it in the Isaan forum. In the end I just used AIS mobile internet in Ubon, you can get 1 week unlimited on AIS for 69 baht and it is fast enough to stream YouTube.

So, in summary, you have no choice but to use ToT who are fine unless you need them to fix anything so it would be a good idea to prepare a backup for if your Internet fails.

Please post a link for that 1 Week 69 THB unlimited Ais package, never seen it, would it be fast enough for Internet TV ?

Edited October 11, 2014 by MJCM

[KunMatt]

Please post a link for that 1 Week 69 THB unlimited Ais package, never seen it, would it be fast enough for Internet TV ?

Dial 1175 and go through the menus, it's in there. I've not been able to activate from the menu for a while cuz when I press 1 to activate it the system loops back to the activation prompt so I either call the operator to activate it for me or dial *777*731# to activate it.

I'm using it in Ubon right not and I use it to stream TuneIn radio and YouTube videos with no lag. You can get about 50kBps bandwidth which is also enough to download TV torrents overnight.

Edited October 11, 2014 by KunMatt

[MJCM]

Please post a link for that 1 Week 69 THB unlimited Ais package, never seen it, would it be fast enough for Internet TV ?

Dial 1175 and go through the menus, it's in there. I've not been able to activate from the menu for a while cuz when I press 1 to activate it the system loops back to the activation prompt so I either call the operator to activate it for me or dial *777*731# to activate it.

I'm using it in Ubon right not and I use it to stream TuneIn radio and YouTube videos with no lag. You can get about 50kbps bandwidth which is also enough to download TV torrents overnight.

Thanks, do you know what it is called in case you need to talk to the operator or do you just say "69 THB Internet 1 week " ?

Edit: Found it: http://www.ais.co.th/3g-one-2-call/promotion-detail.aspx?language=th&type=net&id=39

69 บาท ไม่จำกัด

(ความเร็วสูงสุด 384 kbps) 7 วัน

กด*777*731#

Limited speed to 384 kbps !

Thanks for this !!

Edited October 11, 2014 by MJCM

[KunMatt]

I always just say the 7 day 69 baht package. It is 74 baht with tax. You can have to renew every week or just be on for 1 week.

Now listening to Heart FM on my phone and it hasnt dropped or lagged even once, in that respect it is much better than the TOT broadband we used to have.

Edited October 11, 2014 by KunMatt

[MJCM]

Will be up in the village next week, will try this out in combi with my AIS Mifi.

Thanks much appreciated !!

[MJCM]

If we only could convince them to double the speed for let say 150 THB a week, that would make it a real good alternative for internet in the Sticks !

Just a thought but would it be possible to combine 2 Mifi's so you get double the speed (load balancing ???)

[KunMatt]

If we only could convince them to double the speed for let say 150 THB a week, that would make it a real good alternative for internet in the Sticks !

Just a thought but would it be possible to combine 2 Mifi's so you get double the speed (load balancing ???)

My phone is connected at the moment using HSPA+ which has a much, much higher bandwidth potential than the limited GPRS/Edge speed that AIS is limiting to but for the price and stability I'm more than happy at the moment.

When I first came to the sticks I used to get 20kBps for 49 baht a day. Now I just buy it every week and leave my mobile internet on all the time while I am in Bangkok even though there is free wifi everywhere.

Edited October 11, 2014 by KunMatt

[MJCM]

I will try it out in the PocketWIfi I bought from AIS so will not use it in my Phone, so I have no idea (yet) what speed it will connect to.

The good thing about this device is you can connect up to 5 devices through Wifi.

[MJCM]

I always just say the 7 day 69 baht package. It is 74 baht with tax. You can have to renew every week or just be on for 1 week.

Now listening to Heart FM on my phone and it hasnt dropped or lagged even once, in that respect it is much better than the TOT broadband we used to have.

KunMatt, I have to thank you one more time for this. I have been upcountry for over a week and been using this package and it works great. However it is a bit slow at times, but when downloading something just leave it running and it will finish eventually

Thanks again.