Does anyone use GPRS?

Post by **lee** » October 6, 2005, 9:13 pm

I'm having internet connection problems since moving in to a new house, during the day my internet connection will drop several times and when it is connected it is so slow. The best I can get on my TOT land line is between 7kbps and 35kbps. Before I had a TT&T line and everything was fine but now I'm in a TOT area and everything is going wrong.

ADSL is not an option for me because all the lines have been taken and you have to join a waiting list incase someone drops out. And then there is sattelite connection option which is way too expensive at 3,000 baht per month and about 18,000 for the dish.

I recently learned that GPRS is an option, all you need is a GPRS card, telephone sim card and to sign up for a monthly or hourly plan.

AIS have a promotion at the moment, it is 1,000 baht for unlimited usage with speeds between 40-60kbps and is apparently more reliable, once connected they say that it is very rare to dissconnect and the speed is faster than any land line. Another bonus is that you can use it anywhere you go, if you do lot's of traveling or are somewhere without a telephone line then this is a great option and cheap too. These cards can also be plugged into a desktop computer.

Does any out there use GPRS and if so would you recommend it?

Post by **Bandung_Dero** » October 7, 2005, 5:39 am

Yes TOT connection is slow and the business is in upheaval with restructure.
I have no choice and use AIS GPRS, works very well for me with speed averaging around 40K. If you set up a monthly account you get 1000 bahts worth of phone calls for the 500 baht compulsory fee and there are 6 GPRS options. I use the 350 baht fot 120 hours, the most I've ever used is 70. My monthly AIS bill is less than 1000 baht including VAT.
The system was good enough for me to down load 84M of XP Service Pack 2, took a bit over 4 hours and only dropped out twice.
You can get GPRS using a 12Call pre paid card but it is expensive compared with other options.

Post by **PopsIcafe** » October 7, 2005, 6:55 am

that restructuring have anything to do to the fact that TOT bought bandwith on a satalite that went up recently??? If they did, then it looks as if TOT is getting away from relying on CAT to get internet outside of Thailand. Might improve the service and contection but doubt it.

Pop's

Post by **lee** » October 7, 2005, 8:56 am

Yes TOT connection is slow and the business is in upheaval with restructure.
I have no choice and use AIS GPRS, works very well for me with speed averaging around 40K. If you set up a monthly account you get 1000 bahts worth of phone calls for the 500 baht compulsory fee and there are 6 GPRS options. I use the 350 baht fot 120 hours, the most I've ever used is 70. My monthly AIS bill is less than 1000 baht including VAT.
The system was good enough for me to down load 84M of XP Service Pack 2, took a bit over 4 hours and only dropped out twice.
You can get GPRS using a 12Call pre paid card but it is expensive compared with other options.

Thanks for the information, it's good to know that you are using it successfully. GPRS seems like a really good idea and I think I'll give it a go.

Post by **banpaeng** » October 7, 2005, 9:08 am

OK I give. What is GPRS. Is that with the mobile phone and how does it work.

Post by **polehawk** » October 7, 2005, 3:57 pm

google searches are a wonderful thing:

GPRS

Short for General Packet Radio Service, a standard for wireless communications which runs at speeds up to 115 kilobits per second, compared with current GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) systems' 9.6 kilobits.

GPRS, which supports a wide range of bandwidths, is an efficient use of limited bandwidth and is particularly suited for sending and receiving small bursts of data, such as e-mail and Web browsing, as well as large volumes of data.

Post by **lee** » October 26, 2005, 4:38 pm

Well I finally purchased a GPRS modem and Internet sim card and so far so good. Modem connects in a matter of seconds, displayed speed is 115.2 kbps but after doing a connection test the speed it is more like 55 kbps. Still it beats the landline any day, no more dropped connections and fast loading pages, plus I can send text messages from my pc too. I

Post by **banpaeng** » October 26, 2005, 7:18 pm

From reading this forum I have to say this must be the way to go at only B900 per month. I was concerned from reading how hard it is to get a phone and then all of the dropped calls and various othe problems.

This is a great review. Would like another in about two months to see how it is still going.

again thanks.

Post by **BobHelm** » October 27, 2005, 1:05 am

Agree with you totally BP.
Thanks Lee for all the good detail, it is good that there is a viable alternative to land lines.

Post by **businessman** » October 28, 2005, 1:39 pm

Very interesting Lee,as GPRS gets an awful press on other forums.Maybe the service quality varies tremendously from area to area.

In yesterdays Bangkok Post they were going on about the new Shin satellite and saying fees will come down from 10,000 to 1,000 Baht a month.

Post by **BangkokButcher** » October 31, 2005, 10:46 pm

businessman wrote:In yesterdays Bangkok Post they were going on about the new Shin satellite and saying fees will come down from 10,000 to 1,000 Baht a month.

Now that will be good to see, is there any further info on it Marcus, or is it just pure speculation at the mo?

Post by **businessman** » November 1, 2005, 9:50 am

Sean,Shin Corp have just launched their IPSTAR 4 satellite which is full of broadband transponders.It was a Shin executive who gave the lead on pricing.

Post by **BangkokButcher** » November 1, 2005, 6:17 pm

Ah well, we'll just have to wait and see what happens then.

Post by **EdgeThailand** » April 26, 2006, 9:32 am

GPRS is an excellent way of staying connected. There are three providers available in Thailand, AIS, Dtac and Orange. If you don't like one then there is the option of trying another. The entire country has coverage and usage rates are some of the cheapest in the world.

I think one of the reasons GPRS has had a bad press in forums etc. is that people try and connect using a mobile phone. A much better solution is to use a GPRS card, a card has higher specifications than a phone, is dedicated for computer use, and gives better overall performance. The Sierra Wireless 775 has the highest specifications: Class 12.

GPRS on the eastern seaboard from Pattaya up to Bangkok has now been upgraded to EDGE. EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution) is an upgrade to the network. The benefit to consumers is that transfer rates are at least twice GPRS and usually three times, an EDGE enabled card is required to take advantage of the higher speeds.

Dtac intends to extend EDGE coverage to other cities. The upgrade does not require large amounts of capital outlay so there is a good posibility of the whole country being upgraded eventually.

EDGE is also known as EGPRS and 2.5G. It has been selected by all the major providers in Thailand as the next step forward on the path to ever higher internet speeds. There are no plans to deploy the more expensive 3G which is now being used in Europe.

Tim @ www.EdgeThailand.com

Post by **rossdunstan** » April 28, 2006, 9:33 pm

Tim,

What is the approximate cost of getting one of these Sierra things.

I will be getting a new computer built in Bangkok late May. Is this Sierra thing something I specify to be put into the computer whilst it is being built. Any help appreciated.

Ross

Post by **bigtilly** » April 28, 2006, 11:29 pm

We have been using a Vodafone GPRS modem since we arrived here in December & on the whole, it is crap but better than nothing as we still don't have a phone line although, we were threatened with one last week when TOT managed to find the First Home Estate after 5 months of trying.
We couldn't connect to the Internet for about 10 days recently & had to resort to using an Internet cafe. We are getting a connection again now but it is very pedestrian. I just ran an internet speed test with Myspeed PC & it came back with a download speed of 11.8kbps & an upload speed of 16.6kbps neither of which will set the world on fire.
I will say though that once a connection is made, it is rarely dropped.
After using a full blown Broadband connection in the UK, the whole experience is very frustrating to say the least.
Bill.

Post by **yorkman** » April 29, 2006, 5:31 am

bigtilly wrote:We have been using a Vodafone GPRS modem since we arrived here in December & on the whole, it is crap but better than nothing as we still don't have a phone line although, we were threatened with one last week when TOT managed to find the First Home Estate after 5 months of trying.
We couldn't connect to the Internet for about 10 days recently & had to resort to using an Internet cafe. We are getting a connection again now but it is very pedestrian. I just ran an internet speed test with Myspeed PC & it came back with a download speed of 11.8kbps & an upload speed of 16.6kbps neither of which will set the world on fire.
I will say though that once a connection is made, it is rarely dropped.
After using a full blown Broadband connection in the UK, the whole experience is very frustrating to say the least.
Bill.

Hmmm..well we are less than 1km from you on Romyen3, and get the specified 64kbs (you are measuring kbytes/sec or kbits/sec?)

Its never going to be broadband and it can be frustrating I agree

Post by **EdgeThailand** » May 1, 2006, 5:16 pm

Hi Ross

Please feel free to look at my website:

www.EdgeThailand.com

If you need further information please use the "Contact Us" page, I can then write back to you by email.

Regards

Tim
[/quote]

Post by **EdgeThailand** » May 1, 2006, 5:25 pm

bigtilly wrote:We have been using a Vodafone GPRS modem since we arrived here in December & on the whole, it is crap but better than nothing as we still don't have a phone line although, we were threatened with one last week when TOT managed to find the First Home Estate after 5 months of trying.
We couldn't connect to the Internet for about 10 days recently & had to resort to using an Internet cafe. We are getting a connection again now but it is very pedestrian. I just ran an internet speed test with Myspeed PC & it came back with a download speed of 11.8kbps & an upload speed of 16.6kbps neither of which will set the world on fire.
I will say though that once a connection is made, it is rarely dropped.
After using a full blown Broadband connection in the UK, the whole experience is very frustrating to say the least.
Bill.

Try a different provider. If you are using AIS then try Dtac. Dtac tends to be the more reliable service - more expensive, though. AIS is not so good in Pattaya but better up country.

Tim

Post by **banpaeng** » May 6, 2006, 3:55 pm

A small warning about AIS GPRS. Went and bought the modem and set it up. Bought the 200 hr package for 500B. For that I was suppose to geet so many minutes free and such. After three days of trying and today sitting in the Telewiz main office for three hours I got my money back. Seems that if I had not caught it I would have been sorry. The problem: They put in the sim card with the right amount. Only thing is the telephone company did not reconize it. Ok I had 500 baht worth but instead of using at 3 b an hour i was using at 10 baht and hour. I went from 200 hrs to about 50 hours. Finally when the guy saw that I was not leaving, he did admit that they were having a lot of problems with the AIS. Make sure you have the package you want before you leave or you could end up with a lot less.

Now back to public computers.