3bb vs ais fiber vs true online ( fttx)

[Pib]

What has always kept me from signing up for a business, premier, pro, or whatever name an ISP gave to their plan which supposedly gave better international speed (and usually some other benefits like static/public IP) in comparison to a their standard, regular, home plan was primarily the cost but also driven by the question in my mind of "Did the business/premier/pro plan really provide significantly better speed than a regular/standard/home plan?"   The only thing I usually had to go on was the ISPs advertisements knowing they had a X-amount of hype in them as they are  trying to sell you something.  

 

Shariq607 and I have been able to do two speed comparisons between his AIS 50/10 Pro plan and my AIS 50/10 Home plan.   In the first comparison although my speed was good, his was significantly better.  But in a later test, his and mind were basically the same.  And of course they were done several hours apart....but at least we are both in Bangkok.

 

I just did a couple of Testmy.net Download Manual 100MB file size tests to the 3 locations below.  Done on this Friday morning at around 8:30am.  Please feel free to post some comparisons using the same Testmy.net Download Manual 100MB test....and if you happen to be reading the post this Friday morning and want to post a comparison then that would be good since the time would be similar as speeds can change throughout the day and night.

"

Singapore

 

Los Angeles

 

London

 

[denby45]

On 21/10/2016 at 1:59 PM, elgordo38 said:

Running into the same problem in Chiang Mai with 3BB lately keeps dropping off and cannot locate websites. This part is getting worse. Looking for a good alternative. When you phone them they ask ask is everything OK NOW! well yes at this moment but it is a reaccurring problem. 

Got the same in South Pattaya. 3bb is OK when it's working but now it's down completely so no internet at all. 10 phone calls and 4 days later and no show for any service personnel. Service is crap. Guy next door has the same problem. Still waiting and I will dump them as soon as I can.

 

 

Den 

[colinchaffers]

I've True fibre optic, whilst OOKLA says I've a blazingly fast connection, playing online games is sometimes almost impossible..... I don't get it.


Sent from my toaster using Thaivisa Connect

It's very likely that your Speedtest is to a local Thai server, whereas your game is probably hosted some where else in the world, and hence the speed difference

[Pib]

OOKLA testers, like Speedtest.net, are "multi-thread" testers which open up multiple threads (i.e.., pipes) to the server your are testing or playing to...it's acting very similar to a download manager which because of the ability to open multiple pipes makes the download go much faster.   No real help of upload speeds.   OOKLA testers can open up to eight pipes if the server they are testing to is setup to allow up to eight pipes but that requires more server resources.  Speedtest.net uses up to 4 pipes.....and to be more specific it uses either 1, 2 or 4 pipes depending on the condition of the connection between your devices and the server you are testing to somewhere in the world.  Therefore, you get significantly higher speeds to most servers in comparison to "single-thread" testers such as testmy.net.   

 

The big thing about gaming online is you need low latency (ping) for many games.  And of course how many threads it may allow per player...multiple or single.  If you are in Thailand and you are gaming on a server in the US/Europe about the best ping time that is possible until someone figures out how to over come the speed of light physics law is around 200ms.  But if you were in the US playing on that same US gaming server you were playing on from Thailand a few days earlier your ping time would be around 50ms or less resulting in a much more responsive game.

 

 

 

 

 

[casualobserver]

Rather impressed with 3BB fiber 1200 thb a month, first payment 4200thb, I just use a cat6 cable that cost a few hundred baht and I can get 250mb down / 50mb / <5ms latency up on 3bb speedtest, obviously mileage may vary past this point..

[Pib]

2 hours ago, casualobserver said:

Rather impressed with 3BB fiber 1200 thb a month, first payment 4200thb, I just use a cat6 cable that cost a few hundred baht and I can get 250mb down / 50mb / <5ms latency up on 3bb speedtest, obviously mileage may vary past this point..

What kind of speed do you get to "international" websites using Testmy.net?   Say to LA and London.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Was walking home on the soi today in BKK, and saw an AIS Fiber crew in their truck beginning to do some work on our soi, which doesn't currently have AIS Fiber.

 

The wife talked to them at my behest, and apparently, while they're not running fiber the full length of our soi, they apparently were hired/contracted to run AIS fiber to a particular apartment building that's maybe 150-200 meters closer to the main road than our home.

 

I've got a 3BB 200/50 MB fiber plan and am only 6 months or so into the first year commitment. So I'm not looking to change any time soon. But if AIS is running a fiber line on our soi to an apartment complex just a short distance away, I'm assuming that would mean, in the future, if we ever wanted to, that it would be possible to get them to extend the fiber that short additional distance -- unless some other neighbors further into the soi end up beating us to it.

 

It's always nice to have viable options and choices, especially when it comes to fiber internet.

 

 

 

[Pib]

The AIS fiber run from the trunk line junction box to my home was around 130 meters.   And when looking at where they had placed other junctions boxes along the trunk to service other areas/home of my moobaan some houses would easily end up with a 300 meters or more fiber run from the trunk like to the house.   For fiber, a 300 meter length that would equate to appox a 0.3db power loss which is still practically nothing.  But for an ADSL run a 300 meter copper wire run would result in approx a 5db loss of power.

 

Yeap, fiber runs to a residence from the fiber trunk line can be  l....o......n......g.   Hopefully AIS would not be restricted  from servicing your address simply because they are not allowed in your area by the govt, moobaan/building management, etc.  Hopely AIS comes to your area.

 

In my large gated moobaan (around 750 homes), 3BB does not provide service (yet)....only TOT with ADSL, True with DOCSIS/cable, and now AIS with fiber.   But maybe some day 3BB will decide to install a trunk line into my moobaan assuming it gets govt/moobaan management approval and assuming it wants to considering the competition already in the moobaan....maybe with 3 providers already providing service 3BB figures they would not drain off enough customers from the other 3 ISPs to make it worth their fiber investment.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

15 minutes ago, Pib said:

Yeap, fiber runs to a residence from the fiber trunk line can be  l....o......n......g.   Hopefully AIS would not be restricted  from servicing your address simply because they are not allowed in your area by the govt, moobaan/building management, etc.  Hopely AIS comes to your area.

 

 

Well, I'm in a private home in a non-baaned area of BKK. So the only thing governing/restricting AIS here is what they're willing to do in the marketplace.

[Pib]

No, it could still be the govt.  ISPs must get govt approval for the areas they want to provide coverage to, which includes approval to use the power poles to hang their lines.  And I think the ISP must pay a certain amount to the govt for use of the poles to hang their lines.  How involved that is I don't know...hard or easy.   They could already have approval for your area (or a much larger area...or maybe all of Bangkok) and it is indeed just a business decision now...is it worth it or not to provide coverage to your area now or later or no in the foreseeable future. 

Edited November 5, 2016 by Pib

[wpcoe]

21 hours ago, Pib said:

OOKLA testers, like Speedtest.net, are "multi-thread" testers which open up multiple threads (i.e.., pipes) to the server your are testing or playing to...it's acting very similar to a download manager which because of the ability to open multiple pipes makes the download go much faster.   No real help of upload speeds.   OOKLA testers can open up to eight pipes if the server they are testing to is setup to allow up to eight pipes but that requires more server resources.  Speedtest.net uses up to 4 pipes.....and to be more specific it uses either 1, 2 or 4 pipes depending on the condition of the connection between your devices and the server you are testing to somewhere in the world.  Therefore, you get significantly higher speeds to most servers in comparison to "single-thread" testers such as testmy.net.  

 

Thanks for that explanation.  I've vaguely known OOKLA was somehow skewed, but didn't know the details.

[casualobserver]

20 hours ago, Pib said:

What kind of speed do you get to "international" websites using Testmy.net?   Say to LA and London.

It varies. I think there are two sides to the traffic shaping, I think there is an arbitrary peak period (looks 6pm onwards to midnight weekdays and weekends) and a traffic shaping that kicks in after downloading too much (like windows annivesary update). Using http://speedtest-sfo1.digitalocean.com/ I can at this moment get about 50mbit/sec to SFO and and about 44mbit/sec to London, but it does go higher in the week.  Im more than happy with that performance for 1200+tax. Speedtest.com.sg gives 90mbit this morning, but does go as high as 250mbit/sec, I guess sunday lunch is a peak period with all the kids gaming,

 

 

Using testmy.net SG sunday 11.45am

TiP Summary - Minimum :: 93.37 Mbps | Middle :: 93.69 Mbps | Maximum :: 99.39 Mbps

London via testmy.net

Minimum :: 14.12 Mbps | Middle :: 15.38 Mbps | Maximum :: 16.42 Mbps

London via VPN:

Minimum :: 16.3 Mbps | Middle :: 27.56 Mbps | Maximum :: 40.67 Mbp

 

^ Im guessing were at a traffic shaping peak right now

 

Edited November 6, 2016 by casualobserver

[Pib]

Thanks for that crossfeed on 3BB international speed.  

 

The Digital Ocean speed tester is an OOKLA-based speed tester (like Speedtest.net) so it uses multiple-threads to run the test which usually means much higher speeds (not inaccurate speeds unless getting some totally unrealistic ping time...it's just the way a multi-thread speed tester or download manager works to maximize download speed).

 

Now the testmy.net speed tester is a single-thread tester and will usually result in much lower speeds (due to only one pipe vs multiple pipes) than a multi-thread tester.  

 

A person should use both types of tester, multi- and single-thread, to get a good feel on how good their internet plan is working since different software/apps and different servers you are connecting to could be a single-thread operation or a multi-thread operations.  But getting good/high speeds on a single-thread tester probably gives a better picture....because if one thread (one pipe) operation is running fast and smooth, then a multi-thread (multi-pipes) operations should fast (very fast) also, but not necessarily vice versa.  

 

And during different times of the day when traffic shaping, multi users sharing bandwidth, etc., reduce your individual speed it will easily show on a single-thread tester where on a multi-thread tester it may not show or only show a relatively small reduction in speed since the multi-thread tester may have just opened up more pipes to maximize speed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2016 by Pib

[JaiMaai]

I have now had AIS Fiber 50/10 package for around 2 months. I have gone from absolute delight to absolute disgust with it. Sure speedtest dot net shows the connection running full speed but my IPTV service from the UK is now unusable because a single thread connection to the UK is now running at less than 2 Mbps.

I now reaaaalllyyyyyy wish I'd stayed with True. I'm stuck with AIS for the year contract, then they're gone.

[KittenKong]

On 04/11/2016 at 7:38 PM, denby45 said:

Got the same in South Pattaya. 3bb is OK when it's working but now it's down completely so no internet at all. 10 phone calls and 4 days later and no show for any service personnel. Service is crap. Guy next door has the same problem. Still waiting and I will dump them as soon as I can.

 

I have 3BB ADSL and have always found them to be very responsive. They have always been out to fix connection problems within 24 hours. And in the two years I have been with them I havent actually had many problems.

[hml367]

I have had 3bb premiere service for years in Chiang Mai.  I switched to their fiber product a while ago.  I have always had consistent service and extremely rare outages.  The speeds have always been good.

 

When I have had small issues, support returns with a phone call within the same day, and usually within hours.  I have even received call backs as late as 10:00 p.m. to resolve the issues.

 

We also have AIS Fibre and have no problems.

 

We are about 7 km south of Chiang Mai city.

[Pib]

I have now had AIS Fiber 50/10 package for around 2 months. I have gone from absolute delight to absolute disgust with it. Sure speedtest dot net shows the connection running full speed but my IPTV service from the UK is now unusable because a single thread connection to the UK is now running at less than 2 Mbps.

I now reaaaalllyyyyyy wish I'd stayed with True. I'm stuck with AIS for the year contract, then they're gone.

I too have found the testmy.net single thread results to the UK to vary from pissing poor (2Mb) to very good (over 20Mb).

[elfpattaya]

I don't know how accurate these tests are. But if you clear your cache before the test you will get a good score.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

fyi re CAT and TOT:

 

Quote

 

PwC to study CAT, TOT broadband merger

November 14, 2016 01:00

By USANEE MONGKOLPORN
THE NATION

STATE telecom agency TOT has awarded a contract to PwC Thailand for it to be a consultant studying the planned merger of its broadband business with that of CAT Telecom.

The merged entity will be named National Broadband Network Co (NBN). TOT president Montchai Noosong said the value of the consultancy contract was around Bt20 million. The merger is in line with an order by the State Enterprise Policy Commission that the two state agencies merge their broadband businesses, which will have an estimated asset value of Bt15 billion after consolidation.

 

 

MORE:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/business/corporate/30299885

Edited November 15, 2016 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[muratremix]

11 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

fyi re CAT and TOT:

 

 

MORE:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/business/corporate/30299885

 

What will happen to TOT IIG then?

Added to the Cat IIG or scrubbed?

 

Although CAT IIG was better, it won't be enough to handle both TOT + CAT customers.

[Pib]

21 minutes ago, elfpattaya said:

I don't know how accurate these tests are. But if you clear your cache before the test you will get a good score.

 

That's never helped me as I've tried it.  However, one thing I have noticed I will almost always get a significantly faster download speed by doing a Download, Manual test where I usually choose a 100MB file size.   But just now I ran the Combined Download/Upload test and got the result in the 1st snapshot below and then when trying to run a 100MB Download test it was very slow...so slow I cancelled and selected 50MB file size instead which zipped right along as shown in the 2nd snapshot.   Both tests were to the UK.  

 

Now the only thing I go to the UK for is BBC.com news which is probably mirrored around the world so the sometimes slow single thread speed to the UK really don't affect me.  And almost always if I do get a slow test result to the UK and then I test to mainland Europe like to Frankfurt I will get a much higher speed.  I've just assumed the internet electrons and potons are having a hard time getting across the English Channel....maybe Brexit related.    

 

Combined Test

 

Download Manual 50MB file size Test (much faster than in Combined Test)

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Pib, from all the speed tests you've posted re your AIS fiber service, it seems that the UK/London tests have tended to show up as the weakest/slowest among your sample group. Not bad speeds, just slower than to the U.S. and Singapore.

 

[Pib]

Yeap, just did a Testmy.net Combined test to London and Frankfurt at 8:25pm Bangkok time.  To London a mere 2.4Mb download speed; to Frankfurt a speedy 27.8Mb.  Time of day/night to the UK seems to make a big difference with AIS Fibre.  Lot slower than my earlier test today to the UK shown above.  I didn't try a Download Manual selected file size.   Guess the AIS Fibre internet photons just don't like going to the UK....prefer mainland Europe.

[muratremix]

One can always use virtual vpn (singapore --> UK) or double vpn (connect singapore vpn, use proxy on UK or connect to openvpn 2nd time on UK) if UK speed is crucial on AIS.

[JaiMaai]

After complaining to AIS, my IPTV is performing a lot better although the speed test is still poor at around 2 Mbps. However it's real world performance that matters and as long as stuff works I'll be happy.

[shariq607]

2 hours ago, Pib said:

Yeap, just did a Testmy.net Combined test to London and Frankfurt at 8:25pm Bangkok time.  To London a mere 2.4Mb download speed; to Frankfurt a speedy 27.8Mb.  Time of day/night to the UK seems to make a big difference with AIS Fibre.  Lot slower than my earlier test today to the UK shown above.  I didn't try a Download Manual selected file size.   Guess the AIS Fibre internet photons just don't like going to the UK....prefer mainland Europe.

Sadly Getting 2 mb on my powerpro package too on testmy.net U.K. Server. 

 

Also streaming buffers a lot on my Ais fiber powerpro 50 mb and same streams don't seem to buffer (happens but rare) on my cat fiber 30 mb package.

[Pib]

And here at 7:25am in the morning Bangkok time using Testmy.net (single thread tester) and Speedtest.net (multi-thread tester) the speed to the UK is fine.   Using a multithread tester like Speedtest.net the speed to the UK is always fine; it just the single thread speed that can sometimes suck (depends on the time of day/night)....goes down to around 2Mb on my AIS Fibre 50/10 PowerHome plan.   Assuming Testmy.net is correct getting consistent single-thread speed to the UK is the only problem child; other places in the world get good speed based on my testing over several months.   Now I will have to say I had the same issue with the UK when on True DOCSIS/cable. 

 

Testmy.net Combined Test 

 

Testmy.net Download Test 100MB File Size

 

Speedtest.net to London

 

 

 

[elfpattaya]

I must admit Pib you do like a speed test.

I was also with True DOCSIS and the main reason I changed to AIS Fibre was because off the deterioration of the service in the evening up to about 1a.m..

I am now having the same problem as JaiMaai concerning my IPTV service which works brilliantly up until about 5 p.m. and after that is a waste of time until about midnight, then it's OK again.

I don't understand why the International Internet in Thailand should be so bad in the evenings. Does anybody else have the same problems or give a reason why this is happening.

This slowing down in the evenings started about a week ago, and since then I have had many angry conversations with my IPTV service, but it appears it is an AIS problem.

[Pib]

Slows down because Thais are home from work and school climbing on the internet in greater numbers and people in farang lands like the US and EU are walking up to climb back onto the internet. Then throw in Thai ISPs not buying enough international bandwidth and a person gets slow international single thread connections. And as far as I know video streaming generally uses a single thread connection compared to apps like download managers that use multithread connections.

[JaiMaai]

I am now having the same problem as JaiMaai concerning my IPTV service which works brilliantly up until about 5 p.m. and after that is a waste of time until about midnight, then it's OK again.

Yup,

I came home this evening and my TV was completely unwatchable yet again. My IPTV service had suggested that I try a VPN to see if the issue got better or not so I decided to give it a try.

I'm now using Opera VPN connected to Singapore and everything is smooth. (So far). The VPN is free and they say it's unlimited. I'm using it on my Android box but it's apparently available on PC and ios also.

Might be worth a go.