DTAC 4G is it good?

[vento]

Hello

on http://www.dtac.co.th/en/4g/ DTAC claim to have 4G, so i went to a DTAC center (MBK) when i was in Bangkok, but the sales rep insisted that DTAC did not have any 4G, well... after a while, he said "sort of" and works only in SIAM????? or did he say sIlom

Either way, anyone have any experience with DTAC 4G, does it work at all? what about the coverage?

Cheers

[RichCor]

DTAC 4G Coverage Map (zoom out to look at all of Thailand)

DTAC marketing descriptions:

I'm 4 I see beyond 4G on dtac is ready for you to experience its ultimate speed today in Central Bangkok.

4G Try it to love it 4G coverage at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Don Muang Airport and MRT

Haven't had the opportunity to enter one of their 4G/LTE coverage areas to try the service yet.

[vento]

i bought a 4G sim today... will try it out the following days... a fast speed net test in bkk said 10mb dl

[wooloomooloo]

Had DTAC 4G for nearly a week and, yes, it does work and significant improvement on 3G.

Though, don't be expecting dizzying speeds like in the UK. Random download tests vary between 7 to just over 10Mbps download and much the same for upload.

It's an improvement as far as I'm concerned. Quite pleased, actually, at 650 baht per month for 6GB of data.

[roly]

I'm on DTAC 4G in Hua Hin with often more than 20 Mbps download speed and 10 Mbps up. That's comparable to UK "dizzying" speed, as according to Ofcoms reports I recall reading recently even EE which has the biggest 4g network averages about 19 Mbps. Though in Japan last year I was regularly receiving 40 Mbps or more. So yes, DTAC 4G is good and I'd also say that the latency is around 16 Ms. Very good.

Edit: here's a quote from Ofcoms nov 2014 report about UK 4g: "The average mobile broadband download speed on 4G (15.1Mbit/s) was more than twice as fast as 3G (6.1Mbit/s) across all the networks.

The research found that performance varied by operator. EE and O2 offered faster than average 4G download speeds at 18.4 Mbit/s and 15.6Mbit/s respectively. Vodafone delivered an average 4G download speed of 14.3Mbit/s and Three, 10.7Mbit/s."

You can find the report here: http://media.ofcom.org.uk/news/2014/3g-4g-bb-speeds/

So, it seems DTAC 4G is as good as the UK, I would say, but obviously depends where you are and how busy the cell is.

Edited May 10, 2015 by roly

[casualbiker]

I've been on Dtac for about 10 years.. I was happy to get 3g and it worked well BUT in the last year or so I found that were I used to have H or H+ I was getting E. This steadily got worse so last weekend I decided to upgrade to an LTE phone in the hope of getting decent connectivity back... I have mostly but still get E where according to their map should be 4G ( admittedly my home is near the edge of coverage) hopefully will get better.

[bubba]

DTAC have deployed 4G all over Thailand. Even small towns like Mae Hong Son how have it. Here is an English link for their coverage map:

http://www.dtac.co.th/en/network/coverage.html

I use DTAC 4G and it is a huge improvement over AIS (which I used to have), even when using DTAC on a 3G connection. Of course, AIS only have a few 4G installations in central BKK now, so that are no comparison to DTAC for 4G coverage.

[RichCor]

Bubba, how is your "coverage" link any different from mine?

[pby92]

Hi

I use it during 3 weeks in April in Bangkok,Phuket,Nakhon Si Thammarat.

Honestly better but same as my 3G in France.

Patrice

[Jdiddy]

DTAC uses a 5Mhz FDD-LTE channel for 4G which can only do ~27mbit/sec theoretical max, other parts of the world use higher bandwidth channels like 15-20mhz which is good for 75-110mbit/sec

Edited May 11, 2015 by Jdiddy

[Jiu-Jitsu]

I've been on Dtac for about 10 years.. I was happy to get 3g and it worked well BUT in the last year or so I found that were I used to have H or H+ I was getting E. This steadily got worse so last weekend I decided to upgrade to an LTE phone in the hope of getting decent connectivity back... I have mostly but still get E where according to their map should be 4G ( admittedly my home is near the edge of coverage) hopefully will get better.

Does your LTE phone support Band 1(2100MHz)? As this is what they use in Thailand.

[bubba]

Bubba, how is your "coverage" link any different from mine?

Your link was to the Thai language coverage page. The one I posted was to the English language coverage page.

[casualbiker]

I've been on Dtac for about 10 years.. I was happy to get 3g and it worked well BUT in the last year or so I found that were I used to have H or H+ I was getting E. This steadily got worse so last weekend I decided to upgrade to an LTE phone in the hope of getting decent connectivity back... I have mostly but still get E where according to their map should be 4G ( admittedly my home is near the edge of coverage) hopefully will get better.

Does your LTE phone support Band 1(2100MHz)? As this is what they use in Thailand.

Yes... I've seen the 4g symbol just not with any decent signal strength.. 1-2 bars at most. As I said I am near the edge of current 4g coverage but only about 1.5 km from a Dtac cellsite ( obviously one that hasn't been upgraded yet) but given that I should get a strong 3g signal.. This alternates between H and E. The networks need more bandwidth urgently!

[Jiu-Jitsu]

I've been on Dtac for about 10 years.. I was happy to get 3g and it worked well BUT in the last year or so I found that were I used to have H or H+ I was getting E. This steadily got worse so last weekend I decided to upgrade to an LTE phone in the hope of getting decent connectivity back... I have mostly but still get E where according to their map should be 4G ( admittedly my home is near the edge of coverage) hopefully will get better.

Does your LTE phone support Band 1(2100MHz)? As this is what they use in Thailand.

Yes... I've seen the 4g symbol just not with any decent signal strength.. 1-2 bars at most. As I said I am near the edge of current 4g coverage but only about 1.5 km from a Dtac cellsite ( obviously one that hasn't been upgraded yet) but given that I should get a strong 3g signal.. This alternates between H and E. The networks need more bandwidth urgently!

What happens if you choose 3G only? Do you lose signal altogether at times?

[casualbiker]

On this phone when I choose 3g it seems to be holding a signal.. We shall see over the coming weeks. Thanks

[Jiu-Jitsu]

On this phone when I choose 3g it seems to be holding a signal.. We shall see over the coming weeks. Thanks

....and if you choose 4G only? I only get one or two bars here in the UK, but it's stable and fast. But mine is in a modem, so not moving around. 3G should be fine if you are moving around.

[TramsRepus]

I've been on Dtac for about 10 years.. I was happy to get 3g and it worked well BUT in the last year or so I found that were I used to have H or H+ I was getting E. This steadily got worse so last weekend I decided to upgrade to an LTE phone in the hope of getting decent connectivity back... I have mostly but still get E where according to their map should be 4G ( admittedly my home is near the edge of coverage) hopefully will get better.

THANK YOU for writing this. I have had my dtac for almost 12 years and have experienced exactly the same problems as you lately. For that i freaked out on my 10 month old phone a few days ago (smached it on the ground) and bought a Galaxy Note 4 (SM-910C) here in Thailand. But still same problems. Getting E most of the time. Was told to change SIM card. But it didn't help much.. I am seriously thinking about to switch to True as my friends with True seem to always have covarages whil I dont have.

Edited August 8, 2015 by TramsRepus

[bamnutsak]

I've been on Dtac for about 10 years.. I was happy to get 3g and it worked well BUT in the last year or so I found that were I used to have H or H+ I was getting E. This steadily got worse so last weekend I decided to upgrade to an LTE phone in the hope of getting decent connectivity back... I have mostly but still get E where according to their map should be 4G ( admittedly my home is near the edge of coverage) hopefully will get better.

THANK YOU for writing this. I have my dtac for almost 12 years and have experienced exactly the same problems as you. For that i freaked out on my 10 month old phone and bought a Galaxy Note 4. But still same problems. Getting E most of the time. Was told to change SIM card. But it didn't help much.. I am seriously thinking about to switch to True...

It sounds like there is an issue with your configuration, SIM, phone, plan, location or provisioning. It should be easy to sort out.

But maybe also get a pre-paid TrueMove H SIM (79 baht) and try it out. If it works then port your DTAC number out to TrueMove H.

I get decent speed with TrueMove H...

[TramsRepus]

Dtac G4 in Pattaya now.

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1400994539

[speedtripler]

In bkk too, I saw it recently being pimped in a lot of shopping malls

Haven't had time to do a Speed test or figure out the coverage but their packages are good if they service where you live

A friend got close to 50/MB per second and loves it

I have a screen shot but I don't know how to upload it via phone lol

[balo]

I do not get 4G here in Jomtien area with DTAC. I visited Bangkok this weekend and 4G speed was very good there so not sure if the coverage is as good as they claim down here.

[casualbiker]

I've been on Dtac for about 10 years.. I was happy to get 3g and it worked well BUT in the last year or so I found that were I used to have H or H+ I was getting E. This steadily got worse so last weekend I decided to upgrade to an LTE phone in the hope of getting decent connectivity back... I have mostly but still get E where according to their map should be 4G ( admittedly my home is near the edge of coverage) hopefully will get better.

THANK YOU for writing this. I have had my dtac for almost 12 years and have experienced exactly the same problems as you lately. For that i freaked out on my 10 month old phone a few days ago (smached it on the ground) and bought a Galaxy Note 4 (SM-910C) here in Thailand. But still same problems. Getting E most of the time. Was told to change SIM card. But it didn't help much.. I am seriously thinking about to switch to True as my friends with True seem to always have covarages whil I dont have.

My new phone (Lenovo K910L) allows me to set it for 3g only which then forces it to stay on H. I've worked out the coverage in the area's that I go to most and its simple to swap back to 4g. But honestly most of the time I don't bother!

[TramsRepus]

I've been on Dtac for about 10 years.. I was happy to get 3g and it worked well BUT in the last year or so I found that were I used to have H or H+ I was getting E. This steadily got worse so last weekend I decided to upgrade to an LTE phone in the hope of getting decent connectivity back... I have mostly but still get E where according to their map should be 4G ( admittedly my home is near the edge of coverage) hopefully will get better.

THANK YOU for writing this. I have had my dtac for almost 12 years and have experienced exactly the same problems as you lately. For that i freaked out on my 10 month old phone a few days ago (smached it on the ground) and bought a Galaxy Note 4 (SM-910C) here in Thailand. But still same problems. Getting E most of the time. Was told to change SIM card. But it didn't help much.. I am seriously thinking about to switch to True as my friends with True seem to always have covarages whil I dont have.

My new phone (Lenovo K910L) allows me to set it for 3g only which then forces it to stay on H. I've worked out the coverage in the area's that I go to most and its simple to swap back to 4g. But honestly most of the time I don't bother!

The phone i smashed was also a Lenovo, a K920 Vibe Z2 Pro. Sold my Galaxy Note 4 yesterday and bought me a Huawei P8Max instead. Still have the same problem. Went to Dtac yesterday and asked for a transfer of my number as True asked me to do. So in a few days i will have True.

[tolsti]

Will True offer me anything if I transfer from AIS after 4 years on a post paid contract?

[speedtripler]

I've been on Dtac for about 10 years.. I was happy to get 3g and it worked well BUT in the last year or so I found that were I used to have H or H+ I was getting E. This steadily got worse so last weekend I decided to upgrade to an LTE phone in the hope of getting decent connectivity back... I have mostly but still get E where according to their map should be 4G ( admittedly my home is near the edge of coverage) hopefully will get better.

THANK YOU for writing this. I have had my dtac for almost 12 years and have experienced exactly the same problems as you lately. For that i freaked out on my 10 month old phone a few days ago (smached it on the ground) and bought a Galaxy Note 4 (SM-910C) here in Thailand. But still same problems. Getting E most of the time. Was told to change SIM card. But it didn't help much.. I am seriously thinking about to switch to True as my friends with True seem to always have covarages whil I dont have.

My new phone (Lenovo K910L) allows me to set it for 3g only which then forces it to stay on H. I've worked out the coverage in the area's that I go to most and its simple to swap back to 4g. But honestly most of the time I don't bother!

The phone i smashed was also a Lenovo, a K920 Vibe Z2 Pro. Sold my Galaxy Note 4 yesterday and bought me a Huawei P8Max instead. Still have the same problem. Went to Dtac yesterday and asked for a transfer of my number as True asked me to do. So in a few days i will have True.

How do you find the p8 max? I was going to get one but it seems to be order only in the Huawei shop at fortune

I'd like to hold it and feel it before I buy one, I'm also using a note 4 but 6.8" screen and monster battery sounds great

[TramsRepus]

Central Festival 3rd floor in Pattaya.... Name on the receipt is in Thai. It is on the side where all the Samsung shops are. Only one shop sells Huawei there. There is a BKK number on the receipt though 02 308 9000

Paid 18990 baht for the top model with 64gb

Edited August 17, 2015 by TramsRepus

[sup3r1or]

I left Dtac after 7 years with them. Swtiched to True since they give 12 months 50% off for every package and they do transfer for you. I like dtac customer service, but their overall coverage is really bad and I'm not talking about 4G. I would travel with people in a bus, my mate on true able to use internet in between the cities and mountains, I would only get EDGE or nothing at all.

[TramsRepus]

I've been on Dtac for about 10 years.. I was happy to get 3g and it worked well BUT in the last year or so I found that were I used to have H or H+ I was getting E. This steadily got worse so last weekend I decided to upgrade to an LTE phone in the hope of getting decent connectivity back... I have mostly but still get E whaSere according to their map should be 4G ( admittedly my home is near the edge of coverage) hopefully will get better.

THANK YOU for writing this. I have had my dtac for almost 12 years and have experienced exactly the same problems as you lately. For that i freaked out on my 10 month old phone a few days ago (smached it on the ground) and bought a Galaxy Note 4 (SM-910C) here in Thailand. But still same problems. Getting E most of the time. Was told to change SIM card. But it didn't help much.. I am seriously thinking about to switch to True as my friends with True seem to always have covarages whil I dont have. My new phone (Lenovo K910L) allows me to set it for 3g only which then forces it to stay on H. I've worked out the coverage in the area's that I go to most and its simple to swap back to 4g. But honestly most of the time I don't bother!

The phone i smashed was also a Lenovo, a K920 Vibe Z2 Pro. Sold my Galaxy Note 4 yesterday and bought me a Huawei P8Max instead. Still have the same problem. Went to Dtac yesterday and asked for a transfer of my number as True asked me to do. So in a few days i will have True.

How do you find the p8 max? I was going to get one but it seems to be order only in the Huawei shop at fortune

I'd like to hold it and feel it before I buy one, I'm also using a note 4 but 6.8" screen and monster battery sounds great

Jaymart is the name of the shop. I zaw it at Jaymart at Big-C south Pattaya today as well. http://www.jaymart.co.th/productdes1.asp?proID=8895

Edited August 20, 2015 by TramsRepus

[TramsRepus]

I bought a True G4 today but it seem to have the same speed

[skippybangkok]

I left Dtac after 7 years with them. Swtiched to True since they give 12 months 50% off for every package and they do transfer for you. I like dtac customer service, but their overall coverage is really bad and I'm not talking about 4G. I would travel with people in a bus, my mate on true able to use internet in between the cities and mountains, I would only get EDGE or nothing at all.

Spot on.

The "coverage map", if DTAC have one town in a province, the mark the whole province as "4G". Try locking you phone on DTAC 3g and the 4g, strangely in BKK you get better download on 3g than 4G