Internet in Thailand and the actual experience of its use in the islands

In this article we will look at your experience of using the Internet in Koh Samui. We do it intentionally, as the islands issue of qualitative and fast interet is very serious indeed. While mainland Internet rating and a lot of people working in the Network and score any available channel will not be too comfortable on the islands.

Rule №0: Do not get fooled by the intermediaries who speak Russian, that offer to solve your problems with the internet - they guarantee nothing, they have no friends, influencing the situation. This guide to understanding the device market will be enough.

Mobile Internet

On the first day should be connected to the operator TRUE-HWhich provides mobile Internet in the CDMA850 standard - very high-quality version of 3G, which they call 3G +. Here it is necessary to clarify in advance whether your phone supports this standard. Phone HTC Sensation XE my friend had not earned a 3G. It is also noteworthy that the connection is to be performed with a passport and an accurate understanding of the place of residence on the island - to the address will be sent an invoice for payment. Needless connection costs up to 100 baht (remember that the baht = Russian rubles?). When connected, you can buy the latest gadgets from Apple - Afyon and iPads with a small discount. By the way, the price of Apple equipment in Thailand are almost the same as in the US and there is no tax. When buying iPhone 4s in TRUE-H, I could not make a Tax Refund, so the price on the price list are final. 3G Internet this operator is very fast, but limited to 3GB package, which costs 769 baht. Then, you switch to a completely unlimited EDGE, so it is no internet you with this operator will not stay.

On the Internet channel, you can easily voice chat via Skype. You can try and videos, but sometimes it freezes and then long to come to his senses. In short, the Internet is excellent and for browsing and for voice communication, but video calls better not count.

As for coverage, the 3G runs along the coast and 1-2 km inland. In the central part of the island is not even EDGE, there live poor laborers producing coconuts, and they, according to operators, communication with the outside world does not need.

By the way, the operator TRUE-H is fastened on the island of Koh Samui, and you remain totally without ties, if you go to the neighboring 'rave' island of Koh Phangan. My phone all the time could not find any network, I was completely offline. There is no connection, and the smaller islands, where you can plan for a settlement. Our operator refused us and on the picturesque island of Tao and its Islands-satellites.

By the way, after using the Thai mobile operators - their websites and tech support - you will begin to truly love our operators. If you are going to call in a support, that because of the specific focus of the Thai do not understand 70 percent of what was said, and that if your English is excellent. Find something on their site is very difficult - go directly to the dealer and connect you to bother him to solve your problem.

Fixed Internet

Koh Samui, there are two basic cable internet provider - TOT and 3BB. Both can connect you in 3-5 days via ADSL standard. And if we have ADSL is most often served by the existing telephone line, there is - it is a separate cable, which you curled around like this - no telephone conduit, only hardcore:

The connection comes here is a modem that distributes received ADSL over wi-fi.

The cost of monthly internet access is 700 baht. But there is a very significant problem with the internet - he very often stops working. This is due to the deplorable state of cable plant operators. Just going to rain, strong wind starts - the Internet is likely to be lying. A friend of mine (@biercoff_enn) says that the average internet on the cable does not happen for about a week a month. So that the insurance in the form of 3G is required.

"Internet cafes"

Sometimes you can surf the Internet on the beach or in the cozy cafe delicious. Internets there - it's the same with the same ADSL routers. The only problem is that the institutions holders have not heard anything about QoS, and sometimes the Internet is, there is a connection, but the sites do not go. Absolutely. But access to such Internet will cost between 50 baht - the cost of the drink.

If you are relying on these cafes / restaurants as a backup internet connection, it can also lie as you have at home. And sometimes you just do not get to the cafe - it rains in Tae real flows of tons of water into the streets and out of the house just is not safe, given that the island is very hilly. So bekaptes 3G card - it is we never failed.

Output

If you build in Samui and the other islands of the company is completely dependent on the internet, this place is not the best choice. If your work has an iterative character - a blogger, writer, journalist, copywriter, developer, designer, the local Internet will enrage you, but not too often. What we sometimes felt that the behavior of the Internet very often coincide with our desires to escape from there and we almost did not survive because of its instability.