Using the Internet in Thailand
Using the Internet in Thailand is a hit or miss activity. I’ve been living in Phuket for a couple of months now, and whenever I try and work on the Internet I run into nothing but problems. Many apartment buildings advertise that they offer wireless Internet, but I would recommend trying to get broadband over wireless. In Phuket at least, wireless Internet is prone to not working at regular intervals, particularly if it rains – or so my landlady tells me.
In Bangkok I was subscribed to True’s broadband service and I rarely had any problems. Occasionally something would go wrong, but a quick call to the True helpline resolved any issues in a matter of minutes. My landlady signed me up for True in her name and the company delivered all the necessary equipment. In terms of downloading, I could get a movie in about 12 hours and an episode of Lost in about four. Albums took up to an hour to download.
The only problem with True is that you may be charged about 3,000 baht if you choose to end your use of the service within one year. My monthly fee was 721 baht and I paid my bills at 7-Eleven. From speaking with friends using other providers, True seemed like the most reliable service.
Internet cafes are widespread in Thailand, but you may find yourself surrounded by screaming children playing computer games, which is annoying to say the least.
What are your experiences with using the Net in Thailand?
I have no idea about other places, but i echo your point that true's service in bangkok is reliable… i use the 2.5 Mbps home package of true costing about 1000 something. I can get a 300+ MB episode for even less than an hour(depends on the seeders).
One where thing I disagree with you is the customer service. I tried a couple of times to get some support and had to wait a long time… Once they even spend my 15 mins to cross check each every setting on my router only to reply "we are servicing your area and net will work after an hour" … WTF… first try to put the blame on the customer… then realizing this customer cant be fooled easily… then speak the truth.!…overall the connection is stable. downtime is rare… so rare that if it happens I go n try to make an issue out of it every I can on the net.
The reliability of an ISP depends on the area and luck also.. True works best for some people… Other people find TOT better…. Some people swear that Buddy is the best.
hi! i arrived in bangkok just three days ago. the first time i used the net at the cafe, the script in blogger is totally in thai. even google. it surprised the hell out of me. in the end i navigated my way through the usual buttons from how i remember it when it is english. right now i've managed to change the language already through "hitting and missing" some buttons.
our office uses wireless too. the service has been erratic at best. right now i have around 20 Mbps, which is a nightmare. the most i got so far is 60 Mbs; average is about 40 Mbps. I do miss broadband.
i enjoy your blog by the way. i've been reading it for the past one month already. keep up the great job.
I'm living in a building that doesn't offer Internet. I can't move cz I'm still under contract for about 3 more months. I can't subscribe to any service either cz I don't have a work permit. There's a horrendous cafe beside my building with screaming kids playing that silly dance game they're so crazy about. I feel like throttling the little buggers each time.
I do get a stray wireless signal in my room all the time but nobody can seem to tell me where it's coming from. I don't have the password so it has been unbelievably frustrating.
It's probably still in the developing stage.
i will swear that buddy broadband is much much much better than TOT. i moved here less than a year ago and for the first six months, the internet with TOT was horrendous. it would drop in the middle of dl/ing or im-ing. Ever since switching to Buddy, it's been much much better, although, some sites are still very slow to get to, but maybe that will always be the reality in Thailand.
The TOT customer serviced sucked a big one. Buddy is much better in terms of just answering the phone. So if that gives you a better peace of mind, then go for buddy.
I pay 1200 a month for a 2MB download speed. It's about the fastest they offer, but the download speed is still depending on several factors, never actually reaching 2Mbps.
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Well I have been using True for some time now. I have a 512 kB down and 256 kB up package for around 800 Baht per month. International bandwidth is bad and I often don't get the bandwidth I am paying for.
I will go for a 2 Mbit connection in a few months. Let's hope that'll help. True offers one with True WiFi as I recall. I would like to have a fixed ip address as well. Does anybody know if True offers that too? This for a dedicated server…
hi, does anyone know if u can buy a mobile internet dongle in thailand at all? I dont want to subscribe to wireless i just want to plug it in to my laptop wherever i am. Any info gratefully received!
I was also wondering if you can get a dongle like Verison offers in the states or BT in the UK?