I Have 3G On My Diamond in Bangkok. Inside the Mall. Which Has WiFi Anway. Nevermind.

I'm not sure what it was that lured convinced me to buy a pre-paid AIS 3G SIM card, but much like the old guy on the right in this photo, I couldn't seem to help myself. In any case, after the leather-clad sales-girls let me use a "demo" sim card in my phone to make sure it worked - including a video-call made to another booth-girl on a different floor - I plunked down my 110 baht, plus 300 baht for 1.5 GB of data (over either EDGE or HSPA) for a pre-paid sim. AIS's 3G service runs on their 900 MHz spectrum, so definitely check with them to make sure your handset will work before signing up (I can confirm that HTC Diamonds do work!).


AIS's prepaid brand is 1-2-call, and the sim-package was sporting a very happy-looking frog wearing a crown. No, I have no idea. Based on the frog's smile, he never leaves Central World though (more on that in a sec). After slipping the sim into my Touch Diamond, and booting up, WinMo helpfully told me that it needed to configure my phone for AIS (I normally use DTAC), after which (this IS Windows) it had to reboot. I had to manually change the "band" selection from "auto" to "WCDMA" for some reason - according to the AIS guy, their mini-cell-tower's software needs to be upgraded.



In keeping with the green animal motif, the plastic card has a picture of a green mouse riding a cheese-mobile. The so-called "Freedom sim" works on AIS's regular GSM network, with all its EDGE mediocrity, wherever 3G isn't up and running yet. That would be practically everywhere. The only 3G coverage is provided by some sort of pico-cells, or mini-cells, in Central World Mall, Siam Paragon (another giant mall), and MBK (the grand-daddy of Bangkok malls), in addition to their original test network in Chiang Mai.

Oh - and the new airport (Suvarnabhumi), which is once again running after recently being the subject of a sit-in by protestors.

The stupid thing about the current state of AIS's mini-cell locations is that all of them have WiFi coverage anyway - True Move offers WiFi (not free) in all of these places, which cost me 250 baht/month on a promotion. I wrote about True recently when checking out a new store/cafe they opened. An AIS employee assured me, though, that the first "real" cell-towers will be upgraded to 3G starting next month, so I'll post back when there's any new info. Until then, though, if your phone has WiFi, you're better off with that.

The low-down on pricing is this: Video calls are 1 baht/minute. Not that therei s anybody to call, except the AIS demo-booth girls. Whether you sign up for a normal post-paid account, or get a pre-paid sim, you need to pick a data plan (since it's a baht per MB if you don't!). All the below are for monthly usage:

• 100 baht for 500 MB
• 300 baht for 1.5 GB
• 500 baht for 2.5 GB
• 900 baht for 15 GB
• 1,500 baht for 30 GB

If you're sucking down 30 GB per month, you clearly have a bittorrent problem and should be running that on your DSL at home, but otherwise the prices are not bad! 500 baht (about $14) for 2.5 GB of data is enough for a lot of web-surfing, youtubing, emails and general syncing to Exchange/Zimbra/Gmail or whatever. Google maps is fabulous over 3G, as I discovered in Korea in September. I did a couple of speed-tests using DslReport's "iPhone browser Speed and Latency Test". Given that I'm in Thailand, and the server is likely in the U.S., I was pretty happy with the 491 Kbps and 467 Kbps results in my two tries. It's no 4G WiMax, but it beats EDGE.

So. I don't really want to change phone numbers (no mobile-number-portability-act here!), so sometime in February or March, I'll see what DTAC is up to - if there's less than a 90-day lag before they roll out their service, I'll wait. Otherwise, I'll be back to see the AIS girls!*

*Note - the girl who helped me with the demo admitted she was just hired part-time for this promotion. I asked her if she uses AIS, and she sheepishly admitted that no, she's using DTAC too. LOL.

Malaysia gets WiMAX (4G) network – will Thailand ever get even 3G?

“Hello, NTC?
 Can I get some 3G?”

According to multiple sources, including Network World and WiMAX Today, at least one company – Packet One Networks - is already offering WiMAX subscriptions to people in limited areas with plans to roll out coverage to most of the west cost of Malaysia. For Malaysians on the east coast, another company – REDOne – is apparently rolling out their own WiMAX network with some help from Motorola (yes, the same guys that make the RAZR!).

Meanwhile, back in Thailand… Nectec is planning (*sigh*) to test a small WiMAX network in Mae Hong Son. Sorta like AIS tested out a small 3G network in Chiang Mai, but Nectec will be serving even fewer people with hi-speed data than the meager hundreds of users AIS has on their test network.

One interesting tidbit of news is that Packet One Networks (aka “P1”) is a subsidiary of parent company Green Packet Bhd, whose CEO Puan Chan Cheong lists Thailand one of the countries that “[Green Packet Bhd] is very keen to explore for potential WiMAX licences.” Sure.. good luck getting approval from Thailand’s sclerotic (read: slow as a fossilized dinosaur) and bureaucratic cousins, the NTC and NBTC.

And as for getting third-generation “3G” networks based on HSDPA? Well, six months ago AIS said they’d be rolling out in Bangkok by June. Then it was July. As of last Friday's Reuter's news report we’ll all get our already-looking-obsolete 3G service in the city of angels sometime in the first half of 2009. Assuming the NTC and NBTC don’t get into another pissing contest first. Whoever had the bright idea of creating two agencies, both with the words “National” and “Telecommunications” in their name anyway? Until then, my amazing 3G Touch Diamond will continue slogging away on EDGE, except for when I travel to Malaysia maybe.