Just some information for some of you who may live in the boonies. I suffered with Ipstar (****) for four years. Finally I canceled it and went to GPRS EDGE using my cell phone. It was better but still quite slow. About six months ago I stopped in the Loei CAT office and asked about CDMA EV-DO. They promised me it would be available in my area within three months. It wasn't. A week or so ago a CAT serviceman stopped by the house and wanted to check the CDMA signal. I have a good signal so I paid the 10,980 baht for a modem. The unlimited service costs 790 baht a month. I'm quite happy with my Internet connection for the first time since I have been in Thailand. It's not super fast but far better than anything I ever had before. Here's the speed test from Thai Visa;

Last Result:

Download Speed: 978 kbps (122.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 208 kbps (26 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 419 ms
Sat Dec 13 2008 15:10:20 GMT+0700 (SE Asia Standard Time)

I recently changed from TOT to TTT...After 4 years of suffering, I finally get the speed and connectivity I pay for.

I would be interested in a fast service as well, obviously. I now have AIS GPRS which is pretty good if the system is not overloaded. And cheap too.
I never heard about this CAT EV-DO, is it a satellite service ? If so, are there any problems with bad weather ? Do I have to go to Loei, or is there a subs in Udon ?
How much faster is it than GPRS in real terms ?

TTT isn't something I know about either .

Thanks for your answer(s), P.

Peter
I'd have asked the same question as yourself.
Virgin internet in the UK have just introduced a 50m speed package. We can only dream of this in Thailand
Just as a piece of useless info I compared speeds with my brother in the USA. We went on to an identical site and simultaneously hit the download button. His download took 2 seconds, mine took 12 minutes

Most cities have a CAT office. The system is about like GPRS EDGE except it runs off the CDMA phone network. If you go to the CAT office, make sure they don't sell you the basic CDMA phone and service. It is about as slow as EDGE. You will need the modem for EVDO high speed service. I would expect the Udon area to have it because I am way out in the boonies and have coverage. CDMA is the same system as Hutchinson. Unfortunately they refuse to work together and Hutch service areas can't use EVDO. Bangkok and Pattaya are both in the Hutch service area.

The little modem plugs into the USB port and can be changed from computer to computer. If your signal is weak, the modem has a port for an external antenna. The roof mount antenna and cable costs about 3,500 baht. I don't need it.

Lepi, it may be that the internet links to other countries are pretty slow, or did you download from a site in Thailand ? Then it would be really interesting.

And Glalt, I will see if I can find a CAT office in Udon. I am however 80 kms from Udon, so I am not sure if covered here.
You obviously think the highspeed service is a lot faster than GPRS. do you ?

The prices for alternatives for GPRS are really high here, if you compare to what I pay for real broadband in Holland.
Same for telephone costs, I pay the same - prepaid - per minute for a call inside Udon as when I call from Holland.

EVDO is 5 to 10 times faster than EDGE and the best part is that so far it always works. I was paying Dtac 999 baht per month for unlimited service and this service costs me 790 baht a month for unlimited. I don't want to start ranting but I can tell you that my Ipstar REALLY stunk.

Peter
To answer your question.
I downloaded from within Thailand, my brother obviously from America. It was an international site outside Thailand but I can't be sure where it originated from. Sorry I can't be more specific
As the technician from TOT says until Thailand invests in larger bandwidth coming into this country things will not improve
Cheers

Thanks for the info. I am sort of rebuilding the house at the moment and when that's finished I'll have multiple TV's on one satdisk and probably a faster internet . great.

And Lepi, at least you're able to connect to Udonmap quickly...

I used to get all sorts of excuses from the Ipstar service people. Actually the service was pathetic and they couldn't fix it. They had no answers when I showed them that my cell phone EDGE was faster, After I discovered that my area had EDGE coverage, I canceled Ipstar. Here are the speed test results for this morning. It is usually a little slower than this but still quite good.

Last Result:
Download Speed: 1511 kbps (188.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 242 kbps (30.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 442 ms
Wed Dec 17 2008 07:56:33 GMT+0700 (SE Asia Standard Time)

I'm using CAT CDMA too but the low speed version, not EV-DO. I'm about 45 km outside Udon and not near enough to an EV-DO tower. I've got the desktop modem (4.500 b) and wasn't getting much signal without an external antenna. I bought the antenna from CAT (1,000 b) and it's working at "full" speed now. Max download speed is around 16 kBps if you use a download accelerator. Surfing speed is reasonable but not great. The service is pretty reliable. I've been using it for a couple of months and it hasn't completely gone out on me yet. But sometimes page loads are very slow and I have to disconnect and re-connect. Unlimited service is around 600 b per month. Overall I'm pretty satisfied for a mobile phone based service but I wish I could use EV-DO.

CAT will tell you if it thinks you're near enough to an EV-DO tower to use it. If so, they'll sell you the modem to try it and let you return it the same day if it doesn't work. By the way, the CAT office in Udon is just north of the clock roundabout.