# Internet, Mobile Internet and Aircards



## tombailey

How easy is it to buy internet sticks, as I will be doing a bit of wrk and travelling can you buy them in a 7/11 type store pay as you go or do you have to have a registerd account 1


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## Song_Si

hi

i got by with one for a year, an _AIS Aircard_. At times it can be slower than dial-up in rural areas (as we were) but fine if you're closer to a transmitter. Cost me 1500 baht (2 years ago) including sim card - it's a standard phone sim. The rates have dropped, used to pay 700b for the top monthly package.

They have various options here 3.6 up to 21 mbps 

No contract required, see pic attached for their current rates (source) I used to put the sim into my phone, dial in the code eg _*138*33# call_ for a 20 hour top up.

Can only speak for _AIS-12call_ as that is the only service I used. Where we lived in Sa Kaeo province they were best cellphone provider, there was no service at all from True Move.

Bought mine in a shopping mall, no shortage of places selling phones and sims etc, plenty of places to buy them though have not seen at local 7/11. Top-up is same as for phone, some ATMs (Kasikorn I use) and yes 7/11 sell recharge cards.


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## Mweiga

Song_Si said:


> hi
> 
> i got by with one for a year, an _AIS Aircard_. At times it can be slower than dial-up in rural areas (as we were) but fine if you're closer to a transmitter. Cost me 1500 baht (2 years ago) including sim card - it's a standard phone sim. The rates have dropped, used to pay 700b for the top monthly package.
> 
> They have various options here 3.6 up to 21 mbps
> 
> No contract required, see pic attached for their current rates (source) I used to put the sim into my phone, dial in the code eg _*138*33# call_ for a 20 hour top up.
> 
> Can only speak for _AIS-12call_ as that is the only service I used. Where we lived in Sa Kaeo province they were best cellphone provider, there was no service at all from True Move.
> 
> Bought mine in a shopping mall, no shortage of places selling phones and sims etc, plenty of places to buy them though have not seen at local 7/11. Top-up is same as for phone, some ATMs (Kasikorn I use) and yes 7/11 sell recharge cards.


Got an AirCard with AIS sim in 2008 which cost not far off baht 10,000 back then - worked nearly everywhere I needed to go in Thailand although pretty slow in some remote areas. It finally packed up last year , so bought a Huawei E173 (7.2 Mbps) USB internet stick costing baht 1,750 which has easier start up and is noticeably faster - haven't found anywhere yet it doesn't work including right on the Burmese border at Saiyok with all the hills around.

The AIS sim package I have costs baht 350 per month for 100 hours internet use.


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## Doji2012

*Internet: Mobile Broadband*

I am planning on spending a few months in Phuket or Koh Samui. I am looking to rent a serviced apartment, they come with internet connection but I am trying to research a back up plan if there connection is no good. What options does a tourist have for Mobile Broadband and are the services any good. Replies appreciated.


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## Channabatura

I just moved back to Thailand and stayed in a condo in Chiang Mai for a month while house hunting. They charged an extra B700 a month for crappy wifi. I had a wifi only iPad which was great in the US where wifi is just about anywhere. Here with hard to find wifi, I sold my iPad and got a 4G one. (of course there is only 3G service here) and got an unlimited data plan with AIS for about B700 per month. It's truly unlimited, not throttled at some point. This does fine for GPS or uploading photos etc.


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## Doji2012

Channabatura said:


> I just moved back to Thailand and stayed in a condo in Chiang Mai for a month while house hunting. They charged an extra B700 a month for crappy wifi. I had a wifi only iPad which was great in the US where wifi is just about anywhere. Here with hard to find wifi, I sold my iPad and got a 4G one. (of course there is only 3G service here) and got an unlimited data plan with AIS for about B700 per month. It's truly unlimited, not throttled at some point. This does fine for GPS or uploading photos etc.


HI Channabatura, Thanks for your reply. You said the AIS service is unlimited, is it a reliable service and whats the speed like. Does the speed remain fast all the time or does it slow down at peak times.


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## Song_Si

The key with aircard is location - there will be 'dead' areas on Phuket as well as ones that provide good coverage. 
Still use mine for travel occasionally, really does vary town to town.


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## Newforestcat

You can check mobile phone providers' coverage on their websites which are in both Thai and English. Based on my experience, I would say the choices are AIS and Truemove. I prefer Truemove to AIS, as it is easier for me to find Truemove shops with helpfull staff in some remote provinces. I find AIS or Telewiz staff very slow and confused most of the time, and I am a native Thai speaker! If you have a PAYG SIM card and forget to pay your bill on time, AIS charge a few hundred Baht surcharge. 

As for aircards, go for one from Huawei as it will work fine with any Thai SIM card. My AIS stick does not support Truemove SIM card very well when I move to a new area where AIS coverage is terrible.


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## richie0145

*Internet reliabilty*

Hi all,

Hoping to have a business up and running in Thailand in 6 months time. I will be heavily reliant on a solid Internet (need to access overseas servers permanently, cloud etc). Is there anywhere outside of Bangkok which has a strong reliable fast Internet as i would prefer to live outside of Bangkok. Indeed, does Bangkok even have this? IT is not my field so I hope I have worded the question so you can understand my point!
Thanks all
Rich


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## tjbr52

*internet connection*

One thing about Thailand compared to the states, internet in Thailand is fast and reliable. Subscribe with "True". A monthly package, on line all the time, costs 802 baht.


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## Song_Si

*Phuket’s Internet options*

The following relates specifically to Phuket, however does give an indication of pricing/what's available from major providers

______________________________
*Live Wire: Phuket’s Internet options*
Phuket Gazette - Thursday, January 17, 2013

*Here are the main internet vendors in Phuket, and what they have to offer:*

*TOT* has ADSL lines, and in some places Fiber 2U. The standard TOT ADSL package is listed at 10 Mbps, and costs 590 baht per month. You can run that up to a nominal 15 Mbps at 1,290 baht or 20 Mbps at 1,890 baht in most locations. TOT also had the first Fiber Optic lines commercially available in Phuket. The "Infinite Basic Fiber 2U" package runs 1,500 baht per month for nominal 10 Mbps, up to 2,500 baht for 20 Mbps. The "Infinite Advance Fiber 2U" package runs 4,500 baht for 10 Mbps, up to 7,500 baht for 20 Mbps. I don’t know of anybody who’s paid for and tested a faster Fiber 2U connection in Phuket – although they are available in some parts of Bangkok.

TOT also has just started selling a 3G (actually, HSPA+) wireless internet service in Phuket, but details are sketchy. The TOT network is the same one as AIS. 

TOT is unique on the island in offering something they call Winet or, sometimes, AirMax. It’s an odd service that runs without a wire up to your house, but there’s a box that TOT puts on the side of your house that converts the wireless connection into something that works exactly like an ADSL connection. It’s a bit complicated, conceptually, but the bottom line is that you can get ADSL-like service without running a phone line to your house, as long as you’re close enough to a particular kind of TOT antenna: that’s very important for people who live ‘out in the boonies’, and for those who live in housing estates that don’t allow you to run wires to your house. AirMax is 599 baht per month. 


*CAT *has ADSL lines, too, starting at 690 baht for a nominal 10 Mbps line, going up to 1,490 baht for a nominal 16 Mbps. Like TOT, they offer premium ADSL service which, like TOT, doesn’t seem to work any faster than the plain-vanilla kind. 

CAT’s Fiber Optic network is now widely available on the island; it’s been sitting in a marketing closet for quite a while. The CAT "ON Net" service runs from 1,500 baht per month for a nominal 20 Mbps line, up to 3,500 baht for a 40 Mbps line. Their Gold and Gold Plus services are considerably more expensive, starting at 4,200 baht per month for a 30 Mbps line. We haven’t had any real-world test scores submitted for the Gold or Gold Plus lines.

CAT also has 3G (HSPA+) service. It’s the same network used by TrueMove, and by DTAC. As of this week, the CAT 3G internet runs 499 baht per month – considerably less than TrueMove and DTAC, for essentially the same product.

3BB is the only landline vendor who hasn’t gone to Fiber, or to 3G. Yet. 3BB lines are everywhere (they piggy-backed on the old TT&T wired network). Service starts at 590 baht per month for the nominal 10 Mbps line, going up to 2,290 baht for 20 Mbps. 


*True* offers standard ADSL, which is arguably the best-regarded garden variety ADSL service on the island. Price starts at 599 baht per month for a nominal 10 Mbps line, up to 1,399 baht for 16 Mbps. I’ve been told by True staff here in Phuket that they also have a VDSL service available in some locations: VDSL is a lot like ADSL, except it’s faster, and should be more reliable (operative term: "should"). The 20 Mbps VDSL service lists for 2,299 baht per month. 

True also has a DOCSIS network set up that runs to many high volume areas on the island. (I have DOCSIS lines installed at the Sandwich Shoppes in both Patong and Chalong, if you want to try them.) DOCSIS is another odd technology that uses a cable that’s very similar to Cable TV – shielded coax. I wrote about the DOCSIS technology in the July 7, 2011 Live Wire, Right now, DOCSIS service runs 599 baht per month for 10 Mbps, just like ADSL, going up to 1,299 baht for nominal 20 Mbps. There’s also a bonus for the faster DOCSIS lines where you get a very stunted line-up of television stations over the same cable, free, when you subscribe to DOCSIS internet.

True is well known as the parent company of TrueMove, which offers the TrueMove-H 3G (actually, HSPA+) service all over the island. TrueMove-H uses the same equipment as the CAT 3G network, but it’s more expensive: 899 baht per month for up to 5GB of monthly data. If you exceed the 5 GB cap, your service is knocked down to a much slower speed for the rest of the month. For comparison, if you download a typical medium definition TV show, expect to use up to 1 GB per hour of TV show.


*DTAC* offers 3G (HSPA+) service, the same as CAT, with the same higher price offered by TrueMove. AIS also offers 3G (HSPA+) internet, but it uses the TOT network. It, too, charges 899 baht per month.


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## richie0145

Thanks for the feedback guys, seems Internet connectivity is not a major drama in the populated regions.


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## Song_Si

^ I have no idea on numbers/speeds; where we live now it is fast enough for me late at night/early morning to have two tabs of live streaming sport running without major interruption, even managed three at once in November (rugby!)
Quick for downloading music/movies.
But Sunday evenings, when F1 and MotoGP are on usually 7pm our time, can be painfully slow.
For anything else, no troubles - however depends what you're used to, the connection I had in NZ before I left was dreadfully slow (and cost NZ$99 a month!) here we pay 700b.
When we lived in Phuket it was very area-dependent - a constant source of complaints from many expats there was TOT, yet our place in Chalong was OK.


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## late

I think I'm moving away form AIS 3G. DTAC now has more 3G towers than AIS does, and better coverage. Too many problems with 12Call 3G now.


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## joseph44

late said:


> I think I'm moving away form AIS 3G. DTAC now has more 3G towers than AIS does, and better coverage. Too many problems with 12Call 3G now.


Don't talk about it.
I moved away from AIS a few weeks ago.
Got a True sim-card............even worse!!
Ok, I know that Thailand has got 2.75 G and is still in the bidding proces for a 3G network, but hey.......this is Thailand and True is pretending to have a 4G network up and running in March 2013. 

Internet in Thailand, fixed lines or mobile is just a joke.........one of the many jokes BTW.


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## Newforestcat

Hi

Has anyone got a WiFi phone ( VoIP ) such as RTX Dualphone, Yealink, Cisco, etc? 

Due to stupid electric cuts, my Skype WiFi phone ( RTX Dualphone) base box is dead, I am waiting for a replacement which will possibly die in another electric cuts! 

Has anyone any idea about an alternative VoIP phone? Hopefully one that is robust enough for electric surge from power cuts!

I would love to scrap the VoIP home phone idea but my aging mother will struggle with using a smart phone or tablet, sadly. 

Thanks. 

Dani


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## Song_Si

*3G news*

*AIS jumps the gun on 3G launch*
7 Mar 2013

*Advanced Info Service (AIS) will officially launch its third-generation (3G) commercial service on the 2100-megahertz frequency in April, one month ahead of schedule, in a bid to compete for market supremacy.*

The country's largest mobile operator aims to maintain its leadership of the cellular market by becoming more competitive in the 3G market, where its smaller rival True Move leads the way.

The move by AIS is in response to third-ranked True Move's recent announcement that it will launch a 4G service with 300 sites next month.

more


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