Is 3G headed for Udon? (Or already there)?

Well it looks like 3G is coming to our little town of Amnat Charoen. A guy from True Move came round a couple months ago and wanted to lease one rai of our rice land to erect a tower for 3G. I didn’t pay much attention to it figuring it would be years away, but he came back with all the paperwork a few days ago and said they were ready to start construction this month. So we signed everything and away he went. So it looks like it may be a reality.

Now I’m going to have to find out what this 3G is all about. A few months ago I could barely spell 3G and all I still know about it is that it joins a long list of Things You Can’t Live Without. I have made a futile effort on google to read about it, but so far haven’t found anything in plain English (or even American). Even the write-ups on Wiki seem to have been written by computer geeks who cannot seem to explain anything in language a layman can understand. And all the True Move ads are in Thai only.

True is marketing it pretty heavily in our area, even signing people up already. Last weekend the local Big C was flooded with pretty girls handing out brochures and signing people up. They appear to be bundling the service with I Pads. I tried to engage a couple of them (about 3G) but they did not speak English, although they did smile prettily.

So I’m wondering if it has come to Udon yet? If anyone actually used it either here or in other places I would like to hear their recommendations.

Or this could just be a front for the CIA to install one of their mind control towers right in my backyard so they can spy on me, since by moving down here I am probably out of range of the VOA towers in Ban Dung. Must get over to Tesco and get some heavy-duty tinfoil just in case.

I won't put you off the tinfoil idea jimbo...better safe than sorry..

2G is really designed specifically for talking on the phone. There was SMS messaging thrown in but really that was it...
3G is the system designed for the smart phones & tablets & has a great deal to do with swift data transmission that required.
The systems use different radio frequencies so that means the tower building.
In between 2G &3G were a number of systems that can really only be called enhanced 2G...so the GPRS system was like a 2.5G & EDGE was 2.75G, using the old 2G networks but with added tricks to get the data download speed up.
GPRS 56 kbit/s up to 115 kbit/s
EDGE up to 500 kbit/s
3G must supply 2 Mbit/s to a walking person as a minimum in order to qualify to be called such, but some systems offer 10 times that speed. So the data transfer rate is considerably higher.

So with 3G you go to things like:
Mobile TV
Video on demand
Videoconferencing
Telemedicine
Location-based services
If you are not interested & just want to use a phone to talk to someone then it is a little over the top...
Not sure if Udon has the enhanced 2G or genuine 3G yet, if the advertising says the words 3G then it really should be that in order to comply & not just speeded up 2G...

if not in Udon already it probably will be later this year.. Previously many vendors in town had "3G" signs but would readily admit "not here yet"...

January 31st article on 3G in thailand http://asiancorrespondent.com/47346/3g-finally-coming-to-thailand-overview-of-latest-developments/

I've been using an ipad with a DTAC 3G simcard for the past month or so and I must say that finding a strong 3G signal in Udon is very difficult. Normally you get a 3G signal with one or two notches or an EDGE signal with full strength signal. When it comes to surfing on the web the latter is preferred, much faster than a weak 3G signal. I wold say that 3G is slowly coming to Udon and it's surroundings but it will take time. Simultaneously, some other contries are up and running with 4G now!

theres a lot of talking in the subject but if put things together - i will give it 2 more years before i buy a 3G card in Udonthani....maybe never if they dont cower the area in all region!

The 3G Sim is no different in price than a normal Sim, about the 50 to 100 baht price, depending where you buy.
You can have 'Pay as you Go' service, the same as for a 2G service. If you are not getting a signal, you can't connect & so it doesn't cost you anything..
It is the phone where the extra expense is to be found...Probably minimum of 5,000 baht for a entry level smart phone.
As with talking on a phone, if you pay as you go the minute rate tends to be higher than if you are contracted.
If you are contracted (or 'prepaid' seems to be the term used in Thailand) then the hourly rate drops, but you pay if used or not.
I have found that getting a contract for a 3G phone service is rather difficult if you are a single Falang & is much easier for a Thai to get for you...
It can be got, but needs the minimum of a bank account with a credit card (as well as a copy of a passport, of course) was my understanding.
A contact with unlimited downloads(although if you read the small print I think that the connection speed drops after a certain amount of data has been downloaded) is about the 900 baht per month rate...

BobHelm wrote:I
3G must supply 2 Mbit/s to a walking person as a minimum in order to qualify

Ok , how about just watching this.



http://youtu.be/hwURaEMSDr4

my friend bought for 2 weeks ago a prepaid 3g with ais in the airport in bangkok, no problem - and they told him, no 3g in udonthani but in bangkok or chiangmai ok

he paid about 900 baht plus 7% for one months unlimeted use

his smartphone was ok in use here im town, but many place in the centre no signal

I found this today on True.
Current coverage, there is also a 'future' coverage, but no time line so I have not bothered reproducing that.
It is a Thai language Google map, so sorry for that, but the original is zoomable so here is the link to it...
http://www.truemove-h.com/en/3gwifi_net ... erage.aspx

TOT 3g is also on the way - but when - this mobile internet we have now, you can not call it 2,5 but only 0,5

they told me, it coming in November 2011, than January 2012
and if I looking their webpage, we can only say, maybe someday
http://www.tot3g.net/GUI/ContentInfo.as ... ews&pid=97

in thailand, you can not trust anyone and noone know anything
this country is running from drinking whiskey men and hookers

Been using Dtac, Happy 3G for a couple of months. Works good for browsing here, 10km outside Udon. But Skype only works with audio. For video it's too slow.
At it's peak i can get out 25kB/s from it.

apart from the DTAC 3G which dudde says cannot run Skype video calls, does anyone know of a mobile provider that is able to?

moving to Udon soon and only really need the internet for checking emails and chatting to the parents back in blighty on skype video. They will go mad if they cant get their weekly skype chat with their grandson.

cheers

Thailand's 3G is pretty bad compared too the Swedish 3G im used too. It's much slower here.
I have never had a decent speed where im being able to Skype or using youtube.
I'v tried Dtac, 12-call and True.
Tried it in Phuket, Bangkok, Udon, pretty much every island you can find a hotel on.

3G sucks here, and 3G is old. 4G is the new thing.

the grandson can go to an internetshop, 1000 off them, and these has adsl speed about 6-9mb, so you skype will be ok
many hotel/guesthouse has free wifi only the expensive hotel 1000 baht up take money for wifi