Advice needed on internet 100Mb connection

[Roel]

I am in the process of getting a 100 Mb internet connection in our house in Kathu. First went for a price comparison and learned the following:

TRUE cannot deliver; 50 Mb is their max.

TOT 14,000+ per month plus installation costs

3BB 6,000+ per month plus installation costs

AIS 4,000+ per month with no installation costs (first 150 metres fiber cable free).

With all three you must sign a 1-year contract.

I actually need only around 50 Mb so I will be happy with any speed above that. My assumption being -based on what I heard from others- that I will probably receive a bit more than half of the advertised speed.

Apart from the financial side AIS is the only one to give you a 10-day trial period, So with AIS we went.

Their technician is very nice and helpful and I know because he has been to our house 5 times now. Three times to change the modem. One time to add a second modem (?) and every time to fiddle around a lot. He shows me good speed results using what I think is some internal AIS server solely used for new customer speed tests. When I do my own (speedtest.net) I get much different results. Yesterday evening I even managed to measure download speeds between 2 and 3 Mb (no typo).

Now I am considering changing to 3BB. But the deal with them is: sign the 1-year contract first and we will connect you. So if I end up with the same (non)speeds that AIS delivers I am <censored>. Therefore my questions:

Anyone personal experience with a 100 Mb line?

Anyone using VOIP and can advice what minimum speed is actually needed to use it?

Someone in the know out there who can explain to me that most of the time speed test results show the upload speed being higher than the download speed?

[stevenl]

In general: IMO 3BB is the best, but lately I'm getting more and more the impression they are overloading.

[fritzzz25]

do not count on speedtest.net for an accurate test. it is not accurate.

the quickest one i have found that is more accurate is http://speedof.me/ - try this one and see what results you get.

[Guest]

I don't know about the rest, but have some experience with VoIP.

VoIP need very little bandwidth. The network speed depends on which codec your VoIP is using. Many VoIP system, at least used to, use G.729 codec, which is only 8Kbit/s. Fallback codec being G.711 which is 64Kbit/s.

I suppose the current standard is using wideband codecs, which use a bit more bandwidth, but not that much more.

For VoIP more important qualities are the stability of the network and low latency. If you are calling to Europe or Americas, then there will always be noticeable latency. This is because we have not yet mastered to exchange information faster than the speed of light.

http://www.en.voipforo.com/codec/codecs.php

[LivinginKata]

I would not even consider TOT or True. No experience with AIS.

We have 8 routers through our various properties, converted all to 3BB over the years.

3 routers are 30 Meg fiber lines, and we actually get near the 30 Megs.

5 routers on 2 wire cable are supposed to be 13 Meg up and 1 Meg down but they actually deliver more like 15 Meg and 1.5 Meg down,might be they have upgraded ?

3BB are very good at correcting faults often the same day, at latest next day.

Edited December 4, 2015 by LivinginKata

[Roel]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Very much appreciated. Based on the information so far a switch to 3BB seems the way to go.

To oilinki:

I will forward your reply to a specialist who can certainly understand what you are saying here.

Do I understand correctly that if I go with 3BB let's say 50 Mb and actually (almost) receive that speed it will be sufficient for 1 VoIP line to Europe?

[Guest]

Do I understand correctly that if I go with 3BB let's say 50 Mb and actually (almost) receive that speed it will be sufficient for 1 VoIP line to Europe?

1 Mbps connection is more than enough. Actually it could do 10 simultaneous calls.

50Mbps connection is overkill for VoIP purposes. With that you could support the needs of a small city

Your current and future connections are most likely asynchronous. Downlink is faster than the uplink. When you receive voice to Thailand, you use the downlink. When you talk, you use the uplink to send the data to Europe. Anyway it does not matter in this case. Even the slowest connection in Thailand should be more than enough for both.

[Gregory Morozov]

Even 50Mbps is a total overkill, I have customers who are having up to 10 crystal clear concurrent VoIP calls with Europe on regular 30/3 package from 3BB.

On the other hand, for movie enthusiasts who want their movies in 4K, 100Mbps is not a very fast connection

Small city needs on 50Mbps? Must some somewhere in the US backcountry

[Guest]

Small city needs on 50Mbps? Must some somewhere in the US backcountry

Challenge accepted

Using GSM codec with 8kbps bitrate. 50000Kbps/8Kbps=6250 simultaneous calls.

People are making calls max 5% at the same time, therefore 50Mbps line will be enough for 6250*20=125000 customers.

That's a small city.

[Aachen]

I am connected to my router in my appartment in Germany and to Sipgate Düsseldorf/Germany. Of course all phone calls are normally crystal clear over WLAN and also via mobile networks.

50 Mbit/s: you have a company with 100 computers? Or you want to download movies in great quantity?

@oilinki: Well done!

Edited December 4, 2015 by Aachen

[bearpolar]

Just get 3bb 50mbps

id say 30 because its hard to get 50mbps here at most hours but only the 50mbps package has decent upload.

[Gregory Morozov]

Small city needs on 50Mbps? Must some somewhere in the US backcountry

Challenge accepted

Using GSM codec with 8kbps bitrate. 50000Kbps/8Kbps=6250 simultaneous calls.

People are making calls max 5% at the same time, therefore 50Mbps line will be enough for 6250*20=125000 customers.

That's a small city.

Oh, you meant calls only? Then yes, wholeheartedly agree with you

[Dan5]

I have True 20 mb service and using speedtest.net I've seen speeds ranging from 12 to over 20 mb/sec. But I'm in Bangkok. Maybe its different out in the provinces.

[kbelyeu]

I have the 3bb FTTX @ 100 mb/s and am quite happy with it but in reality my actual download speeds are much closer to 50 mb/s. They had a special last year 4999 baht per month for the 100 mb/s which I signed up for.. with taxes the total is about 5300 per month. If you think you may move in the future you can move the contract to your new home.

Kurt

[Jeffrey346]

I think your wasting time and money with 100Mb service. I use 3BB Fibre and always get around 40Mb down all for B1284. a month.

I also have a VoIP service and never have an issue.

[thailanddogerator]

Anybody who speaks in general is plain stupid because each carrier offers different quality depending on the place, day, weather....

So they all are ridiculous and I even feel weird that anybody even expect getting half of what they propose.

Anyway you will never even get 20MB for international connection, so any faster speed that you would pay for is a stupid idea.

[bearpolar]

I think your wasting time and money with 100Mb service. I use 3BB Fibre and always get around 40Mb down all for B1284. a month.

I also have a VoIP service and never have an issue.

who did you massage for such a deal and how do i contact them

[Gregory Morozov]

Anybody who speaks in general is plain stupid because each carrier offers different quality depending on the place, day, weather....

So they all are ridiculous and I even feel weird that anybody even expect getting half of what they propose.

Anyway you will never even get 20MB for international connection, so any faster speed that you would pay for is a stupid idea.

That is simply not true - I occasionally see UDP data transfers from the servers in Hong Kong or Singapore maxing out 30- and 50Mbps connections. Not normally, but it happens

[ljd1308]

As others have mentioned you don't need much for stable Voip calls.

I have 3bb 30mbs connection and am making Voip calls all day to Australia with now issues, I also do it off my mobile network with no issues,

[Jimi007]

I have a local cable company. For 800 Baht a month I get torrent downloads at up to 1.4 MB, 500Mb up. Tests are never that fast, but for what I need it's great, plus 80 something channels of TV, though few in English...

[eisfeld]

Download speeds depend on the route from whoever is sending the data to you.

3BB is maybe the top choice in terms of ISPs here unless you pay premium for a commercial connection from CAT.

Lately it seems that 3BBs pipes to Europe and US are maxed out during the late afternoon and evening hours as I get maybe 1-2 mbps when receiving data from servers in these places.

But if you use something like Bittorrent, it will usually give full speed. Connections to servers in Thailand or Asia in general don't seem as slow.

Now that the high season started, there is probably a shitload of tourists who fill the transits and peerings with western carriers of 3BB.

For VOIP anything over 1mbps is overkill and adds nothing unless you or someone in your household also watch Youtube or similar at the same time.

Much more critical for that are packetloss and latency. Fiber can be a good choice here. My pick would be 3BB 30mbps fiber.

Edited December 4, 2015 by eisfeld

[innerspace]

For voip a 256k leased line will be best but will cost similar or more than a 100Mb line.

The only thing you might possibly need 100Mb for is heavy streaming or downloading. Normal use you would not notice the difference.

[killickr]

My wife and I have a standard 3BB 10M Bit line in the Cape Panwa area of Phuket. We have both UK and German VoIP numbers used for incoming and outgoing calls. In a couple of years, I think we have 2 calls drop out mid-call. The same line is often used simultaneously to download files from home in the UK with no issues.

[jphasia]

I am in Kathu and use 3BB 30mb FTTH. We have plenty of computers at home, as well as 4 smart TV's connected to internet, watching hd movies on utube, also watching movies on apple TV, downloading a lot, also online gaming (pc and Playstation). No issue so far and working well. Did several times speed test and got close to 30mbps and 3 for upload but as said, no sure how speedtest are reliable. Also, no issues using VOIP with my family when i am abroad.

I have considering upgrading to 50Mbps because of course i want faster and faster but not sure i will see the difference as 30Mbps doing ok.

If that can help the original poster for Kathu, 3bb fiber and voip.

[bearpolar]

you can always load balance two 30/3 connections to get 60/6

cheaper than 50/10 and you get a dcent upload speed

[Roel]

Thanks for all the replies and I am relieved to see that they overall point in the same direction and not as often is the case lots of contradicting personal opinions.

Will switch to 3BB Fiber 50 Mb being aware that I not really need 50 for VoIP but I guess it won't hurt either.

A remark on the free trial period from AIS. It is free Thai style. So only if you sign a 1-year contract you pay nothing but if you decide against using it you pay 4,000+ Baht for the 'free' trial. Why am I not surprised.

[FritsSikkink]

I would not even consider TOT or True. No experience with AIS.

We have 8 routers through our various properties, converted all to 3BB over the years.

3 routers are 30 Meg fiber lines, and we actually get near the 30 Megs.

5 routers on 2 wire cable are supposed to be 13 Meg up and 1 Meg down but they actually deliver more like 15 Meg and 1.5 Meg down,might be they have upgraded ?

3BB are very good at correcting faults often the same day, at latest next day.

upload is always less then download