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Ko Samui (Koh Samui) Internet using EDGE with AIS
Girl using EDGE internet in Ko Samui (Koh Samui) Thailand island.
 Ko Samui (Koh Samui) has a service that I just heard about for
connecting your computer or phone to a high-speed network.
The network is part of the AIS phone service package, though DTAC,
the other major phone and data provider may also have the service
available in Ko Samui and Surat thani. It doesn't appear to be on
their coverage map though.
The internet data service I'm talking about is called, "EDGE". The
name has been around for a while, you may have heard of it - but
only recently have cities other than Bangkok and Pattaya been
getting coverage.
The GPRS data package that you might have with your phone gives you
a very slow 2-4 kBps (kilobytes per second) connection. You can surf
the web with that, but it is very slow and a bit aggravating to do
it for a long time. If you just want to check your email, it might
be OK once per day.
With EDGE the speeds are a bit faster, and sometimes much faster. I
am currently in Surat Thani province and town, this is the province
that Ko Samui is located in, and yet I'm about 66 kilometers away
from Don Sak pier where I can catch the ferry back to Samui... and
I'm getting anywhere from 5-10kBps speeds which aren't that bad.
They're acceptable. If you want to compare this to a 56kbps service
that you might have with your phone line back at home in the states
or elsewhere, a 56kbps service is about the same as 7kBps. The B
turns into a CAPITAL B if they are talking about bytes. 8 bits are
one byte. When speaking about bits, the 'b' is not capitalized.
So, my 10kBps speed is actually about 80 kbps - and not that bad
(sometimes.)
I have not checked the EDGE service on Koh Samui, but I am heading
back that way over the next few days and I'll try to remember to
update the site with the latest news about EDGE in Koh Samui...
EDGE is very similar to the regular GPRS connection. In fact, you
need do nothing special to receive EDGE connections with AIS. I have
a Nokia e65 phone which is EDGE enabled and whenever I'm within
range of the towers, my phone connects automatically to it. If the
signal dies, the regular GPRS data network is there to pick it up.
It's all pretty seamless -the switching back and forth.
So, bring you EDGE enabled phones to Koh Samui, as well as your
PCMCIA Wireless Air Cards or whatever else you can use to surf the
internet. You won't be too disappointed. At least you have SOME
connection!
Ko Samui Maps >
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