Here's specs on the AIS/1-2-call 2G->3G/4G "free" smartphones

[Chris Pirazzi]

Like many here, I recently received an SMS from AIS saying that my 2G dumbphone would stop working at some unspecified date and that I need to get a 3G or 4G phone to keep using AIS service.

And also like many here, in amazement I searched on the internet to find that this is because AIS lost the frequency auction for the 900MHz spectrum that they use for 2G, so they are scrambling to migrate as many of their 11 million 2G customers to 3G/4G as possible!

AIS has a "free" trade-in program that lets you exchange your old 2G phone for one of four models. The requirement is that when you change phones, you must top up your new phone by an amount that depends on the model you choose.

http://www.ais.co.th/judhai/en/ (warning: annoying autoplay video)

You dial 90099 to "reserve" your free phone and after dialing 90099 you will eventually receive an SMS with a date to go get your new phone. Though the AIS shop person I talked to seemed to say you don't really need to wait for that date (nor even stick with the model choice you make when dialing 90099) if you can go into an AIS shop.

On the website above you can see there are four models:

- 3G dumbphone with buttons and no touchscreen

- 3.5" 3G smartphone

- 4" 3G smartphone

- 4" 4G smartphone

So far so good, but they leave out many key details on these smartphones, such as how much memory they have.

For those of us who do not live in large cities, there is often no Telewiz shop we can go to to get any additional details.

I managed to find some details on the smartphones by talking to someone at an AIS shop, and thought this might be helpful for others in the same situation.

As you would expect with subsidized phones, these phones are really the bottom-of-the-line phones.

For those making the choice, I would be wary of the two 3G smartphones because they only have 4GB of internal memory. Due to a design flaw in Android, even if you put a 32GB SD card into these devices, most of the apps you use still squeeze into the very very limited 4GB space and will not be able to take advantage of your SD card. Using the Android "move to SD card" feature found in the Settings app almost never fixes the problem, because, due to the same Android design flaw, Android still counts your internal memory as "the SD card" for icky backwards compatibility reasons. Your photos and (maybe) music will go on your SD card but many apps still cannot use that space. The advantage of the offered 3G smartphones is that they have 2 SIM slots, if you need that.

3.5" 3G smartphone (requires 790B topup)

- is an AIS Lava Iris 360

- normally costs 1,690B

- runs Android KitKat 4.4 (NOTE: OLD!)

- has 512MB RAM (so-so)

- has 4GB ROM (NOTE: THIS IS REALLY SMALL!)

- has 2 SIM slots

4" 3G smartphone (requires 990B topup)

- is an AIS Lava Iris 510

- normally costs 2,190B

- runs Android KitKat 4.4 (NOTE: OLD!)

- has 512MB RAM (so-so)

- has 4GB ROM (NOTE: THIS IS REALLY SMALL!)

- has 2 SIM slots

4" 4G smartphone (requires 1290B topup)

- is an AIS Lava 4G Iris 550

- normally costs 2,490B

- runs Android Lollipop 5.1 (reasonably recent)

- has 1GB RAM (ok)

- has 8GB RAM (small-ish but usable)

- has 1 SIM slot

[alansiporin]

Dumb Phone

I prefer the dumb phone option.

Any thing positive or negative to know about the dumb phone AIS offers?

Thanks

[steve187]

good op thank you

[hobobo]

My teachers called me dumb, my parents called me dumb, but if I buy a smartphone, can I ditch the dumb label? Please advise before I get more confused...

[bazza40]

My teachers called me dumb, my parents called me dumb, but if I buy a smartphone, can I ditch the dumb label? Please advise before I get more confused...

It's smarter to buy a dumbphone. Hope that helps.

[Chris Pirazzi]

Dumb Phone

I prefer the dumb phone option.

Any thing positive or negative to know about the dumb phone AIS offers?

Thanks

I wasn't able to see that model at the shop. So we have to just use the picture on the website above to judge. But dumbphones have a pretty consistent feature set these days. This one looks a lot like my old Samsung cheapie.

[grandad]

Dumb Phone

I prefer the dumb phone option.

Any thing positive or negative to know about the dumb phone AIS offers?

Thanks

http://www.siamphone.com/spec/en/ais/super_combo_lava_w1.htm

or

http://www.siamphone.com/spec/en/i-mobile/hitz_20_3g.htm

[GordonP]

Note- The 2 sim model is 'locked" and won't take a UK sim. Took guy at Tukcom 2 hours to unlock mine after several others said they couldn't unlock it.

[Jessi]

OP< Thank you for putting this info up.

If I change to DTAC will I still be able to use my 2G phone?

I have been thinking of changing to DTAC because of problems I am having with AIS

plus I really dont need a new phone.

Any other options?

Many thanks for you help

[Chris Pirazzi]

OP< Thank you for putting this info up.

If I change to DTAC will I still be able to use my 2G phone?

I have been thinking of changing to DTAC because of problems I am having with AIS

plus I really dont need a new phone.

Any other options?

Many thanks for you help

Apparently DTAC is facing the same problem as AIS (it will lose its 1800MHz 2G frequency) but much later in the future: DTAC will lose its 2G frequencies in 2018 (for more on that, Google "AIS, DTAC allowed to oversee 2G users").

So in theory that could be one solution to keep your current phone, for a while at least. That assumes your current phone can do the 1800MHz frequency that DTAC uses, which is nearly certain unless that phone came from outside Thailand.

Also, the situation with AIS and 2G is very very in flux right now.

For example here's an article from today where AIS says it has "reached an agreement" to allow its 2G customers to roam on DTAC's 2G network (meaning you keep your phone and keep your AIS SIM card and it just works):

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/AIS-reaches-agreement-on-roaming-with-DTAC-for-its-30278693.html

however roaming means extra charges (article mentions 0.35-0.40B/minute), so it's really not an ideal solution.

I've also seen other articles from the last few weeks/months where AIS was thinking about roaming on other networks too.

And AIS is currently being investigated for trying to block people from calling the True call center to switch to True, which is the new owner of the 900 MHz frequencies that your phone is using right now. So that's another option (thanks AIS for calling our attention to that )

So I doubt we've heard the end of this story yet.

[Chris Pirazzi]

Hi all,

Just an update on the "free" 2G->3G phone replacement options AIS is offering.

First of all, just to let people know that the dumbphone they offer is HUGE!!! It is not what you would expect: it is not just the small convenient phone you are used to, plus 3G. The body of the phone is at least 1.4x bigger in each direction, it has a large color screen that (while not a touchscreen) tries to make you feel like you have a modern smartphone by showing you color icons and offering a primitive web browser and Facebook (yes, Facebook). You can't even delete the damn Facebook icon: you have to look at it every time you use the phone. That large screen will no doubt suck down tons of battery too, making this phone not last several days on one charge as we are used to.

So AIS's dumbphone option will really disappoint all those of us who purposely wanted to get away from anything resembling Facebook and internet, while maintaining the nice small easy-to-fit-in-your pocket size, long battery life, etc. Sigh. I am not sure whether there are any small, simple, non-Facebook 3G phones.

I decided to try this 4G smartphone model from AIS:

4" 4G smartphone (requires 1290B topup)

- is an AIS Lava 4G Iris 550

- normally costs 2,490B

- runs Android Lollipop 5.1 (reasonably recent)

- has 1GB RAM (ok)

- has 8GB RAM (small-ish but usable)

- has 1 SIM slot

Well, as expected, it is a really bottom-of-the-line phone, but in some ways that surprised me.

I just wanted to warn everyone of what they will get:

The worst problem is that the screen responds REEEEEEAAALLLLYY slowly to touches. That makes the rest of the device (especially the built-in TouchPal keyboard, which is normally great but relies on a responsive screen) aggravating to use. For example, suppose you just want to scroll down in ANY app. So you touch the screen with your finger, and drag up. This device is so slow to recognize your touches that it first only recognizes your down-touch and often SELECTS the thing under your finger----a basic violation of the UI principle of smartphones. It is embarrassing that they would ship anything so broken. Then, way too late, the device recognizes your drag, but by then it's too late because you've already gone to a new screen, checked something, or maybe even deleted something, depending on what happened to be under your finger at that spot. You have to learn to adapt by slowing down to this device's turtle-like pace.

I suspect the fault lies with a super-cheapie touch sensor, not the CPU or software speed of the device. Once you run an app it seems pretty quick on this device. Perhaps it is even a budget 1990s resistive sensor instead of capacitative sensor. I noticed the device can only recognize two touches at once at most, suggesting a cut-rate sensor.

The second major problem is one we see all over the Android industry, but it is particularly bad for this Lava phone. Although sold as an 8GB device, when you get the device you really only have about 2G of space available for new apps. That is first and foremost because Lava has inexplicably chosen to partition your storage into a 4G partition that is only for Android, and another 4G partition for your data which is also crowded with various AIS crapware apps. But even after you remove the AIS crapware (or at least the part they let you remove) you still only have a little over 2G for your own apps and data.

Now, phone vendors will always say that you can put in a 32G SD card and store stuff there. But that is not currently a full reality for Android. Due to design flaws in various versions of Android, only some apps can access your SD card to store their data, and only some apps can even be installed on the SD card. So Android users often find themselves out of space when there are 30GB free on their SD card. Your photos and music can be on the SD card no problem, but even today many users have lots of problems installing apps because, for various nasty backwards compatibility reasons, the apps must store data on the cramped <2G data partition. Why OH WHY do they insist on partitioning the 8GB down to 4GB? Not every vendor does it so clearly it's not required. Argh!

Does anyone know how to put an alternate ROM on the Lava phone to undo the partition mistake and perhaps also allow removal of the other crapware?

[Jessi]

Chris, Thanks for taking the time to write this report.

[dddave]

I agree that 4gb of phone memory is paltry by today's standards but when you think about it, those who have clung to their 2G "feature" phones and Nokia 1100's until now probably won't even use the 4gb of memory available in these phones they are now forced to deal with. They will more than likely continue to use them exactly as they have their old tried and true antiques...for phone calls and maybe an occasional SMS, I suspect they will not dive headlong into the Facebook/Instagram/WorldofWarcraft universe any time soon.

The people to be most pitied are the close relatives and neighbors of these unwilling smartphone users who will be constantly barraged with "Help me with this *&%+& thing...I touched something and now it won't work!"

If they are smart, they will not explain the app store.

[Chris Pirazzi]

Oh, I almost forgot the third big surprise with the Lava 4G phone. And this one will really affect even people who never install any apps.

I expected the battery life to be poor compared to dumphones that regularly last days on one charge, but I was amazed to find that EVEN if I disable WiFi and disable ALL data (including mobile data) ALL DAY, the phone DOES NOT EVEN LAST ONE DAY!

Consistently, day after day, the phone totally runs out of battery after less than 10 hours. And that assumes NO data usage at all: just staying alive enough to receive phone calls and texts.

That also assumes you only have the screen on for a few minutes per day.

If you enable data because you want to know if you get email or whatever, forget even being able to use your phone past lunch.

I spent hours trying to find if some rogue app was consuming battery in the background, killing every app I could. Same result.

Pathetic!

[chenposeb]

Am I being 'dumb' here? I thought it only mattered if you use internet.

I have a rugged phone for use out on the farm and got a similar message but ignored it as I don't use internet.

I take it the actual phone signal doesn't run on the same frequency as 2G?

If I don't use apps or internet do I have to change?

[chenposeb]

for some reason i really am being 'dumb'. No 'edit' choice on my last post. A bit of research proved both phone and owner to be of this calibre.

So I am still confused about the whole 2g/3g thing apart from the 900mhz transmitters 'may' be shut down. Jas apparently still has to pay.

TMH seems to offer a good alternative anyway, for now.

Does anyone know if it's easy to take your number with you when you swap?

[Chris Pirazzi]

Am I being 'dumb' here? I thought it only mattered if you use internet.

I have a rugged phone for use out on the farm and got a similar message but ignored it as I don't use internet.

I take it the actual phone signal doesn't run on the same frequency as 2G?

If I don't use apps or internet do I have to change?

AIS will stop using their 2G frequencies entirely, so if your current phone only does 2G frequencies, then you won't be able to use it at all, not even to make regular calls or send SMS text messages.

I think most AIS customers don't use internet either. AIS has >12 million customers using their service with 2G-only phones. So that's why they're going on this crazy rally to give people free 3G-capable phones (which are overkill since most people don't care about connecting to the net). They don't want everyone switching to DTAC or other companies.

DTAC does not currently have this same problem; they will hold their 2G frequencies for many more years at least.

It's really too bad that the replacement phones they offer are not so good.

I believe Thailand does have a system to 'port' your number from one company to another, but they make you jump through some hoops to do it. Like you may end up having to be in a big city, and you may have to walk between an AIS office and the other company's office more than once to really finish the switch. That's what my friend had to do last year to dump AIS.

[chenposeb]

Thanks for the info, have to just wait and see, apparently I have 3 different bands on my phone, 900MHz being the lowest one, I may have to do the jump through hoops option as my current phone lasts me about a month on 1 charge, and I really can't survive on daily charges as I am semi-off-grid and not near a powerline for long enough to charge an android type phone more than once a week. I mostly use solar charging for my current phone anyway.

[Chris Pirazzi]

Looks like maybe 1 month left (or not...TIT)

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/903339-court-gives-ais-one-month-to-migrate-400000-2g-subscribers/?utm_source=newsletter-20160316-0735&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

[Jessi]

Looks like maybe 1 month left (or not...TIT)

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/903339-court-gives-ais-one-month-to-migrate-400000-2g-subscribers/?utm_source=newsletter-20160316-0735&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news

I went to AIS about the 100B "Smart phone" its a piece of garbage.

I have a NOKIA 206 which has been a great phone so now all I want is one the same only 3G.

Any ideas Chris.

[bt2017]

I have 2 friends who purchased AIS Lava phones which are made in India 1 being a 4.5 touch screen which lasted about 10 months it started to get extremely hot especially when charging until it finally gave up the ghost losing all his info - unfortunately he'd left the receipt in the UK AIS so refused to refund him or even trade although you could see clear evidence of burn damage.

The other one is a 1690bt job also AIS Lava which is 5 mths old and starting to get quite hot apparently there has been cases of these phones catching fire so I would be extremely wary - my friend went to another store and bought two Samsungs his GF had another Lava the shop owner would'nt trade saying the Lava was unsaleable.

[Chris Pirazzi]

I went to AIS about the 100B "Smart phone" its a piece of garbage.

I have a NOKIA 206 which has been a great phone so now all I want is one the same only 3G.

Any ideas Chris.

I haven't yet found any 3G capable basic phones that don't suck. It seems like as soon as they have 3G they want to make the screen really huge, and add all this horrible nonsense cruft like Facebook.

I think the only real hope for people who like their current 2G phone is to switch to DTAC. And even that might only work for a year (or might work for longer, depending on how DTAC does in their next frequency auction). There's supposed to be guaranteed "number portability" by law in Thailand, so you won't lose your number, but the switching process is only really practical if you live in a big city and can bounce back and forth at least twice between DTAC and AIS offices as they make you jump through hoops.

- Chris Pirazzi

[Jessi]

I got a DTAC sim & they drove me crazy with promotion SMS. Twice I went in and asked them to stop the SMS but the reply was "Can Not"

Like you say to keep your old number is like trying to get a personal loan from the bank.

Thanks for your help Chris.

Edited April 3, 2016 by Jessi