In this article we will look at our experience of using the Internet on Koh Samui. We do this intentionally, because on the islands the problem of high-quality and fast Internet is really very acute. Whereas the mainland of the country is more internetized and people who work a lot online and clog any available channel will not be too comfortable on the islands.
Rule #0: Don't get fooled by Russian—speaking intermediaries who offer to solve your problems with the Internet - they don't guarantee anything, they don't have acquaintances who influence the situation. This guide will be enough for you to understand the structure of the market.
On the very first day, you should connect to the TRUE-N operator, which provides mobile Internet in the CDMA850 standard — a very high-quality 3G option, which they call 3G+. Here it is worth clarifying in advance whether your phone supports this standard. The HTC Sensation XE phone of my friend did not work in 3G. It is also noteworthy that the connection must be carried out with a passport and an accurate understanding of the place of residence on the island — invoices for payment will be sent to the address. The connection itself costs up to 100 baht (remember that baht = Russian rubles?). When connected, you can buy the latest gadgets from Apple — smartphones and iPads with small discounts. By the way, the prices of Apple equipment in Thailand are almost the same as in the USA and there is no tax. When buying an iPhone 4s from TRUE-H, I could not make a Tax Refund, so the price on the price tag is final. 3G Internet from this operator is very fast, but is limited to 3GB in a package that costs 769 baht. Then you are switched to a completely unlimited EDGE, so you will not stay with this operator without Internet at all.
Using this Internet channel, you will be able to communicate by voice over Skype without any problems. You can try the video, but sometimes it freezes and then comes to your senses for a long time. In short, the Internet is great for both browsing and voice communication, but it's better not to count on video calls.
As for coverage, 3G works along the coast and 1-2 km inland. There is not even an EDGE in the central part of the island, poor hard workers who extract coconuts live there, and, according to the operators, they do not need communication with the outside world.
By the way, the TRUE-H operator is tied up on Koh Samui, and you will be completely out of touch if you go to the neighboring "party" island of Phangan. My phone couldn't find any network all the time, I was completely offline. There is no connection on the smaller islands where you can plan a settlement. Our operator refused us on the picturesque island of Tao and its satellite islands.
By the way, after using Thai mobile operators — their websites and support — you will start to really love our operators. If you call support, then because of the specific Thai accent, you will not understand 70 percent of what is said, and this is if your English is excellent. It is very difficult to find something on their websites — go straight to the dealer who connected you and slow him down until your problem is solved.
Koh Samui has two major cable internet providers — TOT and 3BB. Both of them can connect you in 3-5 days according to the ADSL standard. And if we have ADSL most often supplied via an existing telephone line, then there is a separate cable that will be thrown to you approximately like this — no telephone sewers, only hardcore:
The connection includes such a modem that distributes the ADSL received over wi-fi.
The cost of monthly Internet access is 700 baht. But there is a very significant problem with this Internet — it very often stops working. This is due to the deplorable state of the operators' cable facilities. As soon as it rains, a strong wind starts — the Internet is likely to lie. A friend of mine (@biercoff_enn) says that on average there is no Internet on this cable for about a week a month. So 3G insurance is mandatory.
Sometimes you can sit on the Internet by the sea or in a cozy delicious cafe. The internets there are the same ADSL with the same routers. The only problem is that the holders of establishments have not heard anything about QoS and sometimes there is Internet, there is a connection, but the sites do not go. At all. But access to such an Internet will cost from 50 baht — the cost of a drink.
If you count on these cafes / restaurants as a backup Internet, then it can also lie like at your home. And sometimes you just won't get to the cafes — the rains in Tae are real flows of tons of water through the streets and it's just not safe to get out of the house, given that the islands are very hilly. So back up with a 3G card — it has never let us down.
If you are building a company on Koh Samui or other islands that is completely dependent on the Internet, then this place is not the best choice. If your work is iterative — blogger, writer, journalist, copywriter, developer, designer, then the local Internet will infuriate you, but not too often. Sometimes it seemed to us that the behavior of the Internet very often coincided with our desires to escape from it and we almost did not worry about its instability.
