TOT Announces New 8 and 12mb High Speed Internet Packages

[Gaybutton]

The following appears in PATTAYA ONE:

_____

 

TOT Announces New 8 and 12mb High Speed Internet Packages

 

Pattaya, August 8 [PATTAYA ONE NEWS] : On Saturday at the Amari Resort and Tower in North Pattaya, the TOT Telecommunications Company held a press conference to announce two new high speed internet packages. Professor Tirawoot, Chairman of the TOT Public Company Committee led the press conference with Khun Itipon, the Mayor of Pattaya.

 

It was announced that with increasing usage of sites such as You Tube, customers are asking for higher speed internet packages. For this reason TOT are launching an 8mb and 12mb Broadband connection. Although the upload speeds will not exceed 512kbps, the better download speeds will drastically improve their internet experience.

 

The cost of the packages is 1,000 Baht per month for the 8mb package and 1,500 Baht per month for the 12mb connection. Set-up is free and a standard modem is also free or you can purchase a wireless router and modem for 1,500 Baht. Also, for new customers in Pattaya and Sattahip who register before 30th September, you will also get 10 hours per day free usage of their wireless network.

 

For more information please contact the TOT Call Center on 1100 or visit the TOT Center located at the Central Pattaya Intersection with Pattaya Third Road.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

What good is TOT when you share with up to 40 other people making your connection slower? Also, will they do anything about their poor customer service? I am sure not. I fought with them for 3 years and then finally switched to TT&T and have had 1/10 the problems as I had with TOT.

[mahjongguy]

"What good is TOT when you share with up to 40 other people making your connection slower?"

 

That statement puzzles me. It would make sense if we were discussing internet service provided via cable modem (i.e. if Sophon Cable offered such a service). In that architecture you share a single connection with neighboring customers and are affected by their usage.

 

But TOT only offers ADSL service, and ADSL doesn't work that way. Your connection is private all the way to the phone company's central office. There it is tapped off to a device called a "DSLAM" where it joins every TOT internet customer in Pattaya and is piped up to Bangkok. The routers in Pattaya and the facility to BKK are of adequate size; during normal operations it matters very little how many users are online and active. The crunch occurs in Bangkok where all the customers in Thailand vie for access to the international links provided by CAT. These links are not adequate, and only during the lightest periods can you get throughput above 1MBps. Unless you spend your time connecting to websites in Thailand, having internet service greater than 2MBps isn't very useful.

 

Secondly, the charges mentioned for 8MBps and 12MBps are misleading. The price is much higher unless you purchase a bundle of other services.

 

Finally, service greater than 2MBps is only available up to a certain maximum cable distance from the central office. I live on Jomtien Beach road and an engineering check with TOT determined that the distance is too great.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

Your connection is private all the way to the phone company's central office.

This is not what TOT told me when I complained about the service being so slow. They told me I shared with up to 40 other people.

[Gaybutton]

Secondly, the charges mentioned for 8MBps and 12MBps are misleading. The price is much higher unless you purchase a bundle of other services.

What other services?

 

I neither know nor understand the technicalities of it. I have been told the same thing that lvdkeyes was told, but I have no idea whether whoever it was who told me was qualified to know how it all works.

 

What I do know is ever since I switched over to MaxNet I have had good speed, very few problems, and acceptable service.

[mahjongguy]

"What other services?"

 

The TOT agent that I spoke to was a little difficult to understand but the main idea was a package that included 8Mbps internet plus a certain amount of free Wi-Fi plus unlimited phone calls within Thailand during most hours. The price was over 2,000 baht.

 

 

"I neither know nor understand the technicalities of it. I have been told the same thing that lvdkeyes was told, but I have no idea whether whoever it was who told me was qualified to know how it all works."

 

The "40 customers" response is nonsense. It is very unlikely that one could call TOT and get a clear explanation in English on any topic involving network architecture. For a quick overview, just Google "cable modem vs ADSL".

 

 

"What I do know is ever since I switched over to MaxNet I have had good speed, very few problems, and acceptable service."

 

A friend who also lives in Jomtien had some problems with TOT about 18 months ago and switched to MaxNet. He is more satisfied with the service, but admits that we both seem to get about the same thoughput overall.

 

After spending a year with TOT my only complaint is the brief "hiccups" that I feel occur too often. Actual outages have not been frequent and seldom last more than an hour.

 

If only because I am a techie, I would switch to MaxNet if I could get faster service, but they use the same TOT phone line from my house all the way to the Pattaya central office, so alas the distance is likewise too great for anything faster than 2Mbps.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

I talked to TOT myself and had my bf talk to them also and they did, in fact, say "40". BTW, my bf is very good with computers.

[mahjongguy]

I talked to TOT myself and had my bf talk to them also and they did, in fact, say "40". BTW, my bf is very good with computers.

 

I'm not disputing what you were told. I'm sure that's what they told you and the b/f and everyone who gripes about the speed. But it's not an answer that can be applied to ADSL service. Read up on it if you want, or don't.

 

When we experience slow Internet connections it is the result of congestion on the international links. Whether your service is from TOT or TT&T, you will get the same slowdown.

 

You can check this out by testing your speed to Bangkok:

http://speedtest.adslthailand.com/

 

Then test your speed to San Francisco, one of the world's two main internet hubs:

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

 

Outages are a different matter. If outages are frequent and/or slow to be repaired then that is entirely the fault of your provider. It's very possible that MaxNet is superior in that regard. And, being a smaller company, it's likely that their customer service is better too.

[Gaybutton]

You can check this out by testing your speed to Bangkok:

http://speedtest.adslthailand.com/

 

On this one I got 877 download, 238 upload

 

Then test your speed to San Francisco, one of the world's two main internet hubs:

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

On this one I got 876 download, 359 upload

 

2:05pm, Thailand time

 

As for MaxNet's service, it's somewhere between fair and good, in my opinion. I don't have too many problems, but when I do usually a phone call to them takes care of it. There may have to be a few calls back and forth, but they do call back and try to get problems taken care of quickly.

 

There have been times, however, when I had to make a few trips to their office on the second floor of Carrefour. Despite assurances that the problem has been taken care of, sometimes it does require two or three visits before the problem really is resolved.

[Guest frodo]

Mahjongguy is absolutely correct. I was a technician with Bell Canada and can confirm what he says about ADSL. Here in Pattaya I have a 2mb connection with TOT. Last year was bad with a lot of down time, but since I returned in January service has been very good. I won't be upgrading to higher speeds for exactly the reasons Mahjongguy has already stated.

[Guest Patexpat]

Yes I agree with Mahjongguy and Frodo that the higher speeds are really not worth having unless you are using servers solely within Thailand.

 

Try this website: www.speedtest.net

 

1. do a test to Bangkok and see what speed you get - usually pretty good.

2. do another test to Europe, or the states or anywhere else - its is easy to see that the major bottleneck is the international gateway controlled by CAT. Improvements here are promised for 2010 I believe, but not before ...

[bkkguy]

I'm not disputing what you were told. I'm sure that's what they told you and the b/f and everyone who gripes about the speed. But it's not an answer that can be applied to ADSL service. Read up on it if you want, or don't.

 

mahjongguy perhaps you might like to read up on contention issues with ADSL connections and how ISPs can offer connections with different contention ratios to different customers at the same exchange, eg business or home customers at 20:1 vs 50:1 for example which can have a significant impact on ADSL speed to the customer

 

and yes while the international link speeds are a significant factor I can easily get 6Mbps+ speeds to Asia and Europe and 4Mbps+ speeds to the US from an 8Mbps connection in Bangkok and while your milage may vary from Pattaya I would not automatically dismiss anything above 2Mbps as a waste!

 

bkkguy

[mahjongguy]

mahjongguy perhaps you might like to read up on contention issues with ADSL connections and how ISPs can offer connections with different contention ratios to different customers at the same exchange, eg business or home customers at 20:1 vs 50:1 for example which can have a significant impact on ADSL speed to the customer

 

I've just read up on that, as suggested. The 20:1 and 50:1 ratios seem to apply to the connection from the central office DSLAM (where it is still 1:1) to the ports on (or links to) a metro ATM network that gathers traffic from the exchanges and carries it to the main router location where the overseas links await.

 

Unlike Bangkok, Pattaya has a single wire center, so we are all 1:1 until we get to the switch that loads us all onto whatever pipes our provider has that go up to The City. There may be contention going into that switch (or not) and there definitely is potential for contention on the links to Bangkok.

 

My remarks were directed more to the local loop, where DSL is always 1:1. It is cable modems, where bandwidth is shared by neighbors, that suffers most notably from contention. Properly designed DSL systems should provide at least 50-60% of stated speed when fully contended. In my case, with my 2Mbps service from TOT, I nearly always get 80% to 90% speed to the test server in Bangkok.

 

and yes while the international link speeds are a significant factor I can easily get 6Mbps+ speeds to Asia and Europe and 4Mbps+ speeds to the US from an 8Mbps connection in Bangkok and while your milage may vary from Pattaya I would not automatically dismiss anything above 2Mbps as a waste!

 

You get 4Mbps? I'm quite envious. Rather than a waste, I think I implied that the increase in throughput from the US might be a disappointment. I also said I wanted it anyway! Alas, I am doomed by the distance from here to downtown Pattaya.

 

I have noticed that the internet cafe at the CAT office on South Pattaya road offers 10Mbps connections. It should be an interesting experiment to go there and run a few speedtests to Bangkok and to San Francisco.

[Guest jtrack33]

Thanks for the testing references. Here in Bangkok on my True ADSL link, I am getting about 2.7mb on a 2mb connection download and about .450mb on a nominal .500mb upload...almost about the same for local or SF. Is that possible to get more than I am supposed to get or has my connection been upgraded without me knowing? I pay Bht599/month. Isn't True internet ADSL available in Pattaya? It NEVER fails here.

[Guest lester1]

In the UK, there is a big controversy at the moment about the connection speeds that are offered by various ISP's in their advertisments. They might offer ' upto 4 Mbps' for broadband connection. The detail is in the 'upto'. The speed that you get at your computer will depend, if it is using a land line, on the distance of your house from the telephone exchange it connects to, and the quality of the wiring that connects it. I have no idea where the exchanges are locally in pattaya or bangkok relative to the writers here. My guess as to the state of the wiring is that it will suck. The maximum speeds offered will be the optimum based on distance and wiring quality. This is true everywhere in the world.

If you have a cable connection, speeds are more likely to approach the advertised maximums as they miss out on using the spaghetti wiring that we all see ontop of every street post. The limiting factor here will be the amount of sharing that you do with other users, the times you use the connection, and the bottle neck points where Thailand interfaces with international hubs.

The golden rule in the UK is that you NEVER get what you think you are buying in terms of speed.

[mahjongguy]

Thanks for the testing references. Here in Bangkok on my True ADSL link, I am getting about 2.7mb on a 2mb connection download and about .450mb on a nominal .500mb upload...almost about the same for local or SF. Is that possible to get more than I am supposed to get or has my connection been upgraded without me knowing? I pay Bht599/month. Isn't True internet ADSL available in Pattaya? It NEVER fails here.

 

If http://speedtest.adslthailand.com/ consistently gives you a download reading greater than 2Mbps then it appears that you got upgraded to 3Mbps.

 

One interesting fact about True is that several years ago they set up their own independent network of international links. During the transition it wasn't much fun but in the end their service was superior, and I assume their cost is less than through CAT.

 

Unfortunately, True does not offer DSL in Pattaya.

[Guest fountainhall]

I am curious about the positive comments about True's broadband service, because I have seen several letters in the English media over the last couple of years about how bad it it!

 

I tried to open a True account when broadband became available in my area of Bangkok some years ago. It turned out that True only provides service for PC users, not for those of us who use Macs. So I eventually signed up with KSC. To be fair, their service has been excellent, but it is expensive (around Bt. 21,000 per year), and on the few occasions there have been interruptions, they tell me they have to contact True to check since True provides the service for them!

 

Before I renewed last year, I checked with True and was told again they don't provide service for Macs. Does anyone know if this is in fact 'true'?

 

One more request. Because I needed to do a lot of phoning and faxing when I first set up the little office in my condo, I decided to have 2 lines - one for just phone/fax and the other for internet. TOT charge me local rates when I use the internet line. Is this in fact common, or should I not be paying anything other than the basic line rental? And since few people now use faxs, should I just cut down to one line? I am an idiot when it comes to things technical!

[Gaybutton]

should I just cut down to one line?

I think so. That's what I do. That filter on the ADSL line allows you to use the telephone line normally while also using the Internet.

 

I pay TOT a flat rate of 139.10 baht per month. I don't even have a telephone attached to my land line anymore. It attaches directly to my computer. Of course, the charge increases if I use that line to send out faxes. That's the only thing, other than the Internet, that I even use the land line for, and that's only once or twice a year at the most. For me, what needs to be faxed can also be sent by Email attachment, so it's quite rare for me to need to send faxes at all.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

I only pay TOT 107 baht per month for line use.

[Gaybutton]

I only pay TOT 107 baht per month for line use.

My line is bigger . . .

[Guest lvdkeyes]

Braggard

[Guest tdperhs]

I had an internet and telephone contract with a large internet/telephone company on Pattaya Klang. The minute it ended I cancelled it. This is one flakey company. Sometimes you got a bill, sometimes you didn't but you were still obligated to pay the bill even if you did not know what you were paying for. Also, I still have not found a way to contact their headquarters in Bangkok to dispute any bill and the local office is not cooperative. Furthermore, I had an intermittent modem. It would crash randomly, sometimes once a day, sometimes several times an hour. I took it to the local office and asked for a replacement. The clerk made me sit and use it in an ice cold room for an hour waiting for it to crash. I did not get a replacement.

I wouldn't buy gold from this company at a dollar an ounce. It would probably be fools gold.

[bkkguy]

My remarks were directed more to the local loop, where DSL is always 1:1.

 

but my point was this is not necessarily what TOT was referring to

 

Rather than a waste, I think I implied that the increase in throughput from the US might be a disappointment.

 

while a single web page may not load that much faster if you are a multi-tasker the difference can still be significant - with a couple of torrents downloading I can still google and check email while on a skype call to Oz much more easily than I could on a 2 Mb connection

 

but I am just tormenting you because you are trapped in the distance divide rather than the digital divide :-)

 

bkkguy

[bkkguy]

Before I renewed last year, I checked with True and was told again they don't provide service for Macs. Does anyone know if this is in fact 'true'?

 

probably more correctly they may not provide "support" for Mac users - though saying they provide "support" for Windows users could probably be a breach of the trade practices act in many western countries

 

just about any ADSL modem/router/switch/airport combination that you can get your Mac to talk to should be able to talk to true's network just as well as a Windows PC, but if you ever need to talk to true support staff you will just have to pretend you are a PC user

 

and yes as the others have said you do not need a separate phone line for ADSL, you can (fax or talk) and (ADSL) on the same line at the same time

 

bkkguy

[Guest fountainhall]

as the others have said you do not need a separate phone line for ADSL, you can (fax or talk) and (ADSL) on the same line at the same time

 

Many thanks everyone. When my contract is up, I shall give up one line and get a cheaper internet provider.