Travel technology forum

Internet access in Thailand, experience so far...

vladix

longtail driver
Posts: 6

1° Free Hot Spots ~ They are often not where you want them to be. Either advertised or you just try to connect to some hotel and it works.
2° Internet cafes ~ 1 Baht/min They are everywhere, haven't tried rural areas though...
3° (Some) places you stay ~ you pay 50 Baht, get receipt with username, password and 2 hours, which you can use through the day.
4° 3G: buy sim card for 50 Baht, load it with 350 Baht, insert it in your netbook (mine has 3G module built in, alternatively you need usb dongle). Metered on volume, good for checking email and light surfing only, should last for 5-6 hours. Or you can put sim card in your phone and have a local number.
5° 3G: got to phone shop, buy sim card for 50 Baht, choose a monthly plan, there are several, (I have chosen 100 hours for 350 Baht), unlimited for a month costs ~ 1000 Baht.
6° In many areas there are commercial wi-fi providers: you see a strong signal, connect, type http://1.1.1.1 and you will be presented with different plans: daily, weekly, monthly. (unlimited monthly ~ up to 2000 Baht)

3G connection (5° and 6°) is VERY slow, not for Skype or uploading pictures. (I am using AIS provider, in 10 days my month is over, will take another provider and post results).

The rest is bearable, ~ 2 MB/min

Initially posted it on my blog but Travelfish is a more appropriate place for this.

http://aleshnikov.blogspot.com/2009/10/internet-access-in-thailand.html

#1 Posted: 12/10/2009 - 22:41
idreamofdur-
ian

som tam seller
Posts: 554
Located in:

Private message

Internet cafes are everywhere, even rural towns. Though the rate there will be closer to 15B/hour.

#2 Posted: 12/10/2009 - 23:00

------------------------------
idreamofdurian.com - the bloggings of a Canadian girl in Asia long-term
wanderingcat

som tam seller
Posts: 663
Private message

agree with #2 - B15-20/hour is more like it for net cafes.

#3 Posted: 13/10/2009 - 00:22

------------------------------
Laos transport timetables
sidewinder

tourist
Posts: 53
Located in:
Private message

Wasnt aware there was any 3G coverage in Thailand? I certainly couldnt get any, even in Bangkok.
Are you sure it wasnt GPRS? (which would explain very slow speeds)

#4 Posted: 13/10/2009 - 01:12
vladix

longtail driver
Posts: 6

#2-3 Good to know. Koh Phangan is probably not the cheapest place...
#4 Did not even know the difference between terms :)
So, yes, I was talking about GPRS. After a bit of educational surfing
I found that there is 3G available in Thailand, one needs a mobile (or another gadget) which supports EDGE technology. Here are instructions:

http://travelhappy.info/thailand/mobile-internet-access-in-thailand/

#5 Posted: 13/10/2009 - 09:32
somtam2000

admin
mahout
Posts: 5862
Located in:

Private message

Interesting thread -- thanks for the post vladix (have made the link live across to your site) -- have moved it across to Travel Technology.

#6 Posted: 13/10/2009 - 10:16

------------------------------
iPhone Apps for Southeast Asia
boxee

beach masseuse
Posts: 86
Located in:

the most expensive internet cafes i found in thailand were in Phi Phi at 2 baht per minute and the cheapest was in Nakhon Si Thammarat at 10 baht per hour.

#7 Posted: 13/10/2009 - 18:30
vladix

longtail driver
Posts: 6

Things get even more complicated:
my Samsung NC10 has HSPA modem built in, which supports max 7 Mbit/s. According to wikipedia more and more 3G networks support this technology
(for them its a matter of software upgrade). Currently with AIS provider and Windows 7 OS 10MB file gets downloaded in 11 min. If I boot into Ubuntu it takes 4 min for the same file. I was not aware of the difference, it felt a bit quicker - but I thought - I imagine it. OS (and its drivers) possible issues aside - I am very intersted in trying another provider. Learned quite a bit during last day or so...

#8 Posted: 13/10/2009 - 18:45