The government is pushing Phuket as a IT competitor to Singapore.

A pre-requisite will be reasonably priced broadband access.

IPSTAR is a start, but look at the prices for relatively low speed,

and severely capped data amounts.

Will they ever get it right?

When?

We sure hope so

monopoly run the broadband industry, as long as they can still rip you off, nothing will happen

well said chingy.

a start would be to make sure power supplies and telephone lines are stable.

wanna take over in 2 years?

I'd love to start up an IT business in Phuket, but certainly the lack of IT infra-structure means it's a no-no. I'm having a house built near to the airport, but I can only use IPSTAR for 'decent' internet connection. My business is SMS text messaging services, and I run these very successfully over in the UK and US. I'm sure I could do some decent business (and employ Thai staff) in Phuket, were it not for the lack of IT infrastructure.

Until Phuket offers this, my house on the island is going to be only a home, and there is no way I will build an IT business on the island.

Of course we know who owns IPSTAR, so maybe we will some investment.

Personally I'd settle for a reliable electricity supply.

I'm just happy that ADSL has started coming to the island - we're one of the early adopters (read guinea pigs) but slowly it's starting to appear more stable.

We went for the TT&T/CAT 2mbps connection but only achieve speeds of around 200kbps through to the US and UK so plan on switching down to the 512kbps service as it's not worth the extra dosh.

It seems to cut out when we get rainstorms, although it only cuts out for about 5 minutes and then comes back on. I guess that's what happens when the giant beetles get washed off the line

And apart from a DNS outage lasting 2 days it's working quite well.

What are the monthly charges?

2mb vs 512k..

I work for a very sucsessful E-Commerce company on Phuket, and i work as a programmer for them. Half decent Internet is available but its a tad expensive.

The introduction of ADSL to the island will change this, but as with anything thats going to take some time to filter through to everyone (who wants it)

I cant see Phuket competeing with Singapore, but i can see things improving (slowly)