Best Speed Choice for True Fiber Internet & VPN Restrictions?

[Canuck50]

I have just moved into a rented condo in Bangkok (1 year lease) which has True fiber (and only True) wired to the building (FTTB) and coax from the wiring closet at ground floor to the room. They offer Internet packages ranging from 15/1.5 to 50/5 mbps (and higher). I do stock trading in Canada, download a fair amount of movie torrents, watch NHL hockey through NHL Gamecenter, and want to establish some online TV streaming (F1 races, etc).

My question is, what speed package should I buy, setting aside the price difference for the moment? I have read many comments that the international speeds are much slower at the best of times and decrease to a crawl sometimes during peak-use hours. Is this speed decrease proportional to your contract speed or is it absolute? In other words, if I have a 15/1.5 package and the download speed drops to 6mbps during peak-use hours, would the 50 mbps also drop to 6 mbps or am I likely to get much higher speeds? I do not want to pay for a 30/3 or 50/5 package if my download speeds attained internationally are no more than a 15/1.5 package!

Also, I have heard some comments about a download limit based on a fair use policy. How is this restriction implemented? Is it based on daily or monthly data and is it scaled to your contract speed? Anyone know the exact limits for a 15, 30, or 50 mbps package?

One more...I use a VPN (Private Internet Access) and found last year when I was on TOT in a different area in the south, that they blocked UDP traffic so to use my VPN I had to use TCP which made it painfully slow. Does anyone know if I am likely to run into similar restrictions with True in Bangkok?

Any and all replies, comments, or suggestions would be much appreciated!

[muratremix]

They tend to throttle cheaper packages more than the expensive ones.

I'm happy with 30/3 package using Singapore personal VPN on private VPS server (5 usd / month)

[Pib]

You "might" get a little more international speed...it's going to depend on your internet service provider(ISP), your location, number of subscribers in your area, is it a retail or business plan, etc. And just because you will find posts where some folks seem to be getting outstanding international speed with ISP XYZ does not mean you will get outstanding speed with ISP XYZ in your particular area. With my personal testing of True plans ranging from around 12Mb to 20Mb over 4 years here in western Bangkok and conversation with folks who I trust in their speed testing, I feel pretty confident in saying at least for True plans in most cases there will be little difference in international speeds for plans ranging from around 10Mb to 30Mb.

Just for example See this post for example talking a 15Mb and 30Mb True Cable/DOCSIS plan. And this is not implying plans above 30Mb will give significantly greater international speed. It can be a crap shoot.

And just because it's fiber connection, think of that as the last mile of the connection. But that last mile back up stream still has to hook back into major trunk lines which ADSL, DOCSIS, and fiber hook into...probably a fiber trunk line. Then they all meet at the ISP's international gateway before going out to the rest of the world. The ISPs international gateway is real choke-point for international speeds.

Edited November 30, 2015 by Pib

[Canuck50]

They tend to throttle cheaper packages more than the expensive ones.

I'm happy with 30/3 package using Singapore personal VPN on private VPS server (5 usd / month)

Thanks for your tip! Are you talking about DigitalOcean? If so, I had a quick look and it seems to run on Linux which I have no experience with, although I see they have a tutorial to walk you through it. Did you find it difficult to set up? Also, how do they feel about torrenting...any restrictions on that?

[Canuck50]

You "might" get a little more international speed...it's going to depend on your internet service provider(ISP), your location, number of subscribers in your area, is it a retail or business plan, etc. And just because you will find posts where some folks seem to be getting outstanding international speed with ISP XYZ does not mean you will get outstanding speed with ISP XYZ in your particular area. With my personal testing of True plans ranging from around 12Mb to 20Mb over 4 years here in western Bangkok and conversation with folks who I trust in their speed testing, I feel pretty confident in saying at least for True plans in most cases there will be little difference in international speeds for plans ranging from around 10Mb to 30Mb.

Just for example See this post for example talking a 15Mb and 30Mb True Cable/DOCSIS plan. And this is not implying plans above 30Mb will give significantly greater international speed. It can be a crap shoot.

And just because it's fiber connection, think of that as the last mile of the connection. But that last mile back up stream still has to hook back into major trunk lines which ADSL, DOCSIS, and fiber hook into...probably a fiber trunk line. Then they all meet at the ISP's international gateway before going out to the rest of the world. The ISPs international gateway is real choke-point for international speeds.

Thanks for your comments and the link....some really good info there which suggests I am better off saving my money and going with the 15/1.5 Mbps package for conventional use. But what about some of the suggestions I just read that suggest the higher speeds can actually be utilized for overseas downloads if using a private VPN service on a VPS in Singapore (for example), rather than the typical StongVPN, Private Internet Access (as I use), etc. Do you have any knowledge of the effectiveness of those or how difficult it is to set them up?

[Pib]

I can't speak to the Singapore VPN but I do use StrongVPN service with a U.S. IP address when my surfing to U.S. sites slow down to much or a website is blocking a connection from Thailand. I only use it when one of those two situations occur...oh..one more reason: when wanting to reflect a U.S. IP address to open an account like a new bank account. Using a U.S. IP address does not necessarily increase my international speed a whole lot but allows a "consistent, steady" flow of data which can make all the difference.