Internet : AIS vs 3BB

[AlfonsV]

Until now I used 3BB for 671 thb per month. The speed is mainly acceptable but not great (specially on weekend and on holiday).

Soon I move more into the city but within the same amphoe.

I got a hint that AIS does a good performance for a good price.

If I continue with 3BB I would upgrade anyway.

Before I will go to both shops to ask their conditions I would like to learn from your experiences.

Thanks a lot!

[lazeeboy]

i used 3bb for years 650baht a month changed to ais last month (1 st 6 months deal 99b) weather its faster or slower dont know but streams my tv and movies about the same .only changed as my router broke and 3bb spent 1 week messing me about and when they did fix it told me range is 5 metres where i need 15 metres sometimes i argued that it went 15 metres before and basically they said i was a liar same day ais came in the shop and fitted it within 3 hours and the wifi goes 15 metres plus as i have a ais phone account i get 100b a month discount so also save 1200 baht a year .im happy with the speed and after service ive had 3bb seem to think they are still the only company out there ...

[Mark123456]

They are all as bad as each other in my experience. I haven't tried AIS but True, TOT, and 3BB are all OK until something goes wrong, then they can do nothing more than show you that you can still ping a server in Bangkok on speedtest.net and get good download and upload speeds from it. I have had to explain to them all that this would be fine if all I wanted to do all day was use speedtest.net all day long but I want real world performance. Also, they all seem to give you the cheapest router possible, usually with appalling wi-fi performance. TOT use a cheap router with their fibre to the home service but it has reasonable wireless performance. Both True and 3BB actually tell you that the router they give you is rubbish and they are right as fa as wireless performance is concerned.

[writeshack]

Instead of complaining about the router they give you, buy your own modem-router. Easy to set up with either an ethernet connection and/or wi-fi. The wi-fi signal has a fair enough range in the house and you can always buy a signal booster/expander/extender thing if you need it. Not expensive and easy to use. I have a TP Link Wireless N ADSL2+ modem router (model TD-W8961ND), 900 baht and change at Advice. There are probably others around that are better, but it works well enough for me on 3BB.

[alien365]

I used to be on 3bb and always lost the Internet in the evenings. Once midnight came it was back to normal. We complained which helped for about a month and then it became problematic again. Using AIS now which is much more reliable in my experience. We occasionally have a problem but it's usually over in 15mins. Both are the standard 650b contracts.

[johnnysunshine]

I have been using CAT fiber optics out here near Wat Ram Poeng & Wat Pong Noi SW off Canal Road near the Suthep District Office and I am paying 1,500 Bht/mo. and really difficult to discern why it is "so average."

Possibly because once they get their first line in then they get too many customers...not sure...but I am definitely open to change!

[Generalchaos]

Instead of complaining about the router they give you, buy your own modem-router. Easy to set up with either an ethernet connection and/or wi-fi. The wi-fi signal has a fair enough range in the house and you can always buy a signal booster/expander/extender thing if you need it. Not expensive and easy to use. I have a TP Link Wireless N ADSL2+ modem router (model TD-W8961ND), 900 baht and change at Advice. There are probably others around that are better, but it works well enough for me on 3BB.

While I agree partially with your statement about buying a new router to improve things, you really shouldn't have to, they should supply something that is fit for purpose in the first place! A lot of users would never know where to begin in setting up a router from scratch.

TOT sent subcontractors to my place to install the Fibre To Home system, they came with a turdy TP-Link Router that I didn't want. They insisted that the internet would not work without this router and installed it anyway, they connected their own laptop to the router, got a "Ping" from Bangkok and said it was fine, then hooked up the TP-Link to my Linksys existing router - so it just didn't work, double NAT!

They also bodged up a friends connection, they fitted the wrong optical connector to his OPN Bridge router. They couldn't understand why the signal strength was so low, but still left without fixing the problem.

Later he couldn't get internet and TOT sent their own guys out to check and they found that the wrong connector had been fitted to the ZTE Fibre interface. ( The TOT connection plug is Blue in colour - They had fitted a green one, I was getting 25Mb/s and he was getting about 2!)

[Poppadom]

AIS 15/5 mbit here (Phuket) Was on promotion for 6 months, now 550 per month with Playbox TV included

Router broke once, but was replaced the following day.

Funny story how we got it connected. Went to a noodle stall outside the condo and saw a guy in AIS jacket. My gf is really good to talk to people from all walks of life so she asked if they can come and get our unit connected. The next day we were online.

[Mark123456]

Instead of complaining about the router they give you, buy your own modem-router. Easy to set up with either an ethernet connection and/or wi-fi. The wi-fi signal has a fair enough range in the house and you can always buy a signal booster/expander/extender thing if you need it. Not expensive and easy to use. I have a TP Link Wireless N ADSL2+ modem router (model TD-W8961ND), 900 baht and change at Advice. There are probably others around that are better, but it works well enough for me on 3BB.

I'm passing on pertinent information, as an earlier poster mentioned wireless performance. And as Generalchaos pointed out, they really should give you a reasonable router in the first place. It doesn't fill you with confidence when the first thing you hear from your new ISP is that the router they are giving you is rubbish. Anyway can't I do both: complain about the useless router and buy myself a new one? It's really none of your business is it?

[pilou]

Interesting thread. I am also on 3BB, for a few days I have been experiencing drop outs, 10 to 20 times a day, lasting from a minute to half an hour.

The techs came, and made a few tests, and pointed my router ( Cisco WAG 120N ), saying the readings were OK with their, but that mine had issues with SNR value.

I fiddled with my router, installing the latest firmware, the result is that I cannot access it any more , and cannot roll back to the previous firmware. It is 5 years old, but wifi coverage was much better than my former Belkin and covering the whole house.

So I guess I am on the market for a new router, if anyone has recommendations, they are welcome. The 3BB people vouched for TP Link, but I am open to suggestions.. Thanks.

Phil

[AlfonsV]

Interesting thread. I am also on 3BB, for a few days I have been experiencing drop outs, 10 to 20 times a day, lasting from a minute to half an hour.

The techs came, and made a few tests, and pointed my router ( Cisco WAG 120N ), saying the readings were OK with their, but that mine had issues with SNR value.

I fiddled with my router, installing the latest firmware, the result is that I cannot access it any more , and cannot roll back to the previous firmware. It is 5 years old, but wifi coverage was much better than my former Belkin and covering the whole house.

So I guess I am on the market for a new router, if anyone has recommendations, they are welcome. The 3BB people vouched for TP Link, but I am open to suggestions.. Thanks.

Phil

For several years I had a D-Link router for a lower 3bb performance. Perhaps for your situation it works better with a 3bb router? They offer an ADSL version, however I have the VDSL version which is needed for more than a 18 mb speed.

VDSL Router 4 Port WiFi : NT3BB-4PWN-142

[AlfonsV]

Thank you all for your contribution.

Actually AIS is now more competitive and offers nice speed for low price.

I asked a professional among us here who uses internet a lot and for years.

He said 3bb is best because of the performance and for quick service for installing and when a problem occurred (which is my experience as well).

Others as AIS and True Move are ok but offer a much slower customer service.

The worse of course is TOT, which I cancelled already long time ago.

[Mark123456]

3BB do have a much more responsive customer support team than TOT but they also limit download speeds between 6pm and midnight - a 15MB connection will slow to around 2.9MB or worse. I understand why they do that, but I hate the fact they lie about it.

[hml367]

3BB do have a much more responsive customer support team than TOT but they also limit download speeds between 6pm and midnight - a 15MB connection will slow to around 2.9MB or worse. I understand why they do that, but I hate the fact they lie about it.

In our house we have AIS Fibre and 3BB Fiber. I don't notice any slowdown other than that which may be caused by the number of users downloading at any particular time. The speed slowdown is negligible. The AIS is the least expensive plan available in our village (I think it is 799 plus tax), but the 3BB is a converted Premiere plan.

[Mark123456]

I haven't tried 3BB fibre. I have TOT fibre and 3BB ADSL. I took screen shots of task manager at 6pm to show them - you can see the download speed running steady at 15mb before taking a vertical drop at exactly 6pm and then running steady at 2.9/3mb - that's throttling, not a sudden increase in traffic. I thought TOT fibre would be more stable but it's far more erratic than the ADSL line - generally bounces around from 8-20MB during the day, and I mean from one second to the next, not over a long period of time. Still it's not a huge issue. If I have large files to download I never bother trying between 6pm and midnight nowadays.