Living in Thailand

[Acerboy]

Guys,

My girlfriend and I(we are not local/Thai) would like to get married in Chiangmai. Anyone here has experience on how two foreigners can get married in Chiangmai and where to get it done.

Thank you for your help.

[JuiceSpike]

tot says ais must speed up its work

bangkok: -- with mobile phone users' frustration mounting over the inability to make calls, mainly to numbers on the advanced info service (ais) network, industry executives are scrambling for solutions.

tot corporation says the problem rests with ais, which was supposed to have beefed up its gateway to the tot network by june 5, which would have improved cross-network call handling. ais says it needs another two or three weeks to complete the work, given the technical and procurement challenges.

meanwhile, second-ranked dtac says 85% of call attempts made by its customers to ais numbers are ending in failure. third-ranked mobile provider ta orange says the failure rate for its customers is 86%, compared with the ``normal'' average of 40%.

fixed-line phone customers have also been feeling the pinch, ever since tot called on all operators to terminate their direct interconnection arrangements and to route all of their calls through tot starting on june 5.

that was the date by which the state telecom enterprise expected its gateway would be ready to handle whatever came its way, assuming ais was ready.

direct interconnections involving individual operators had been standard practice for years, with tot and its state enterprise sibling cat telecom turning a blind eye to the legality of the arrangements.

the issue has come to a head in recent months as all operators feel the strain of accommodating a surge in mobile usage, spurred mainly by their own cut-rate calling plans. dtac at one point accused ais of deliberately blocking calls from customers of the no. 2 provider.

under the solution brokered by tot, ais was to install an additional 960 digital trunk interconnect points to tot gateways, while dtac would set up 700 points and ta orange 480, enabling tot to accommodate a combined 64,000 cross-network calls simultaneously.

tot president teeravit charuwat said dtac had installed 645 connection points but ais was far behind in its work. the result, he said, had been severe traffic problems, in particular between the peak evening hours of 5 and 10 pm.

``tot should not be blamed now since the problem is because of ais,'' he said.

however, an ais executive said the company would be able to complete the connection expansion within this month, and would transfer its interconnection links with dtac to tot immediately.

the executive, who asked not to be named, attributed the delay mainly to time-consuming technical procedures.

he said ais and tot had 1,600 circuit cards linked directly with each other. ais also has direct interconnection gateways with 500 circuit cards with dtac, 200 with ta orange and 100 with the provincial fixed-line telephone operator tt&t.

``if tot wants us to quickly complete the interconnection expansion, we could shut down existing direct links with dtac, ta orange and tt&t immediately to meet the requirement,'' he said.

he also said that the heavy pricing promotions, offering mobile calling rates as low as 25 satang a minute, had caused call traffic to triple and led to connection problems.

thana thienachariya, chief commercial officer of dtac, said that to resolve the congestion problem at its root, ais should continue to upgrade its existing direct interconnection links with the dtac network together with increasing links with the tot gateways.

``tot interconnection facilities alone would not be adequate to accommodate call traffic for all operators,'' he said.

mr thana said the connection problem was now an industry-wide one and that rather than pointing fingers at each other, all operators should co-operate in the interests of consumers.

however, ais maintains that additional direct interconnection links with dtac would require tot tot approval, since ais is its contracting party under the original concession agreement.

--bangkok post 2005-06-13

[The Traveler]

Hamilton,

just a small addition.

DPROM is in fact DTAC
and
1-2-Call is in fact AIS.

[Coma Boy]

AIS is the best.

Throw away your Orange SIM.

[JuiceSpike]

I use DTAC which works fine but I have an occasional drop call or busy network signal usually between the hours of 6 and 8 PM...

Here is an article about mobile problems with congestions in Thailand:


CALL CONGESTION: Cell-phone users take hit at regulator
Published on June 10, 2005

Ask when problem will finally be solved

Mobile phone users took centre stage at a public hearing on the national telecom master plan yesterday and took the opportunity to complain about continuing problems of connecting between networks.

Many of the participants at the daylong hearing, hosted by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), asked the industry regulator when such failures to connect between different networks would be resolved.

“I don’t know how it happened but I could not make any calls from late yesterday evening until night,” said one of almost 1,000people who attended the public hearing.

Other participants said that they had travelled from the provinces to the hearing in Bangkok to let the NTC know of their frustration over call congestion.

“Many people rushed to buy new phones when they could not call out,” another participant said.

After the hearing, the NTC chairman, Choochart Phromprasid, said the commission would call in all mobile service operators to talk with them again about why the problem had not yet been resolved, adding that even he could not make calls sometimes.

Choochart said the NTC would try its best to ease the problem, though it could not step in fully to control all the private concessionaires as it had yet to award any new licences.

Rianchai Riewilaisuk, an NTC commissioner, blamed the heavy call promotions of all mobile service operators as the cause of the call congestion.

Cell-phone users started experiencing problems connecting to different networks in April, when many customers of Total Access Communications (DTAC) started having trouble reaching Advanced Info Service (AIS) subscribers.

DTAC later accused AIS of blocking its customers’ calls, while AIS argued that DTAC’s promotions of low fees had resulted in heavier call volume that congested DTAC’s own network.

After all the operators, including AIS, launched similar extremely low call tariffs, customers of all mobile phone operators started experiencing similar problems.

Last month TOT Corp Plc met with all mobile phone operators to jointly find a solution to the problem and concluded that all mobile phone operators should route their calls only via TOT’s gateway and cancel their direct connections between each other’s networks.

All cellular networks in Thailand are connected via the TOT gateway, but when the TOT failed to expand its gateway to cater to the exploding call traffic, mobile phone operators instead created direct links to one another.

Teerawit Charuwat, TOT’s president, accused the telecom operators of “playing games” with each other in the past, so the problem had yet to be fixed.

Shifting all their call traffic through TOT’s gateway would enable TOT to more easily monitor their call traffic and solve problems for them in a timely manner, he said.

The completed call rate from TA Orange’s network to AIS’s network had dropped to 16 per cent, said Supachai Chearavanont, chief executive of TA Orange. He declined to elaborate. In general, the completed call rate between the two mobile phone operators is about 40 per cent.

AIS, DTAC, and TA Orange executives all said they had already started expanding their network capacities at the TOT gateway.

NTC commissioner Rianchai said the commission would soon launch regulations to control the service quality of telecom operators in order to protect consumers.

Telecom Reporters

The Nation

[The Traveler]

Hamilton,

DTAC has only one advantage, it will forward messages received with Yahoo messenger.

I also use 1-2-Call and am quite satisfied with it. Reception is good almost everywhere. I only had no reception in the Gogos at the lower levels at NEP and at very remote places upcountry.

AIS is owned by Thaksin. Same quality as 1-2-Call.

I don't know about the pricing, did never care about it.

[Phuquer]

My girlfriend uses AIS and she has no problems with the service. I am not sure how the price compares to the others, but as far as service, it is good. My friends that use Hutch and Orange complain about their service all the time. I use One2Call when I am in Thailand, as it is easy to get refills, and I don't really depend on my phone service for any critical situations. My TGF is an engineer, and she is constantly doing field work, so her phone service is critical.

[Hamilton W]

Two weeks ago, I bought my phone and signed up with Orange service. It's cheap until 31-Dec-2005 as it's only 2 baht for the first minute and 0.25 baht (25 satang) each additional minute. However, the service sucks! I have trouble completing calls during peak times as the network is under capacity.

DTAC has a similar promotion, but some have said DTAC has problems as well.

There's One-2-Call, but the cheap promotions have ended and it's 4 baht per minute.

The four carriers I know of are

1) Orange - want to change because of network problems

2) DTAC - Before I buy another SIM card and change my number, please let me know if you've had good or bad experiences with them

3) One-2-Call - Good network, but the most expensive

4) AIS - I don't know much about this service.

I'm turning to the members here because it's difficult to find out accurate information about the network reliability of these services and I"m looking for feedback.

If DTAC has some problems, it may be that it's still much better than Orange.

[Phuquer]

Hamilton W, there is a laundry (4 hour service) on Sukhumvit Soi 11, right across from the Grand President. The service there is good. They do pick up and deliver. I wonder if they would go all the way to Siam Center area. Anyway, attached is a photo of the place. The phone number is on the pic, but I suck as a photographer, and it is too blurry to make out. Anyway, it is on the left side of the soi, as you walk down Soi 11 from the skytrain. I am going to call my friend and ask her about the western style barber. I know there are a couple in the Siam Square/Center area. I just don't remember exactly which one. She would know. I'll get back to you tomorrow.

[LittleBigMan]

Hamilton W,

The only place that I have ever seen that really looks like a Western Laundry that has dry cleaning hanging and does a decent wash and fold is a place on Soi 4, down from the NEP. Walk down past the entertainment center on the left it is slightly past the 7/11 and across from the Raja Hotel. It is on the corner near a foot massage, Nana Condos and Nana City Inn.

LBM

[Dinghy]

Philo - a laundry and a barber are necessities for those not accustomed to DIY. (Myself, I find a coin operated machine and wash/air dry - if he goes where there are several farangs in the barber, they will probably be able to do "western" cuts - otherwise, a little pa-sa Thai goes a long way - besides, who WANTS long hair in LOS anyway - too sweaty.) Trav's advice about asking locals is pretty good - I'm never there long enough to develop "friendships"

[The Traveler]

Hamilton,

can't help you with a hairdresser or laundry close to your place. I usually have my laundry done at the hotel. I know a few in the Suk area and in the outskirts of BKK, but that wouldn't make sense.

Why not ask some of your Thai friends who study with you or just the people who rented out the room to you. They will know a cheap one not far from you. Or just take the time to walk around the Sois close to your appartment.

--------------------

Philo,

had a bad night or just frustrated ?
Calm down, Hamilton just asked a question. Sure he could have taken a bit more effort to find out by himself before asking but he didn't. If it is a prob for you then just ignore it. You only damage your own reputation by acting like a maniac.

Peace

[Philo]

I'm getting settled in, started school, and keeping busy.

What's a good place to have laundary done anywhere near the Siam Center Area? Of course, Skytrain is so efficient, I probably won't rule out the Shumkumvit area if there's nothing known around here.

Also, what's a good westernized hair cut place? I posted about that sometime back, someone that can understand what "tappered means". I see a few hair styling places in MBK, so maybe I'll just start there if there are no replies.

If you cannot find a laundry shop and a hair dresser on your own - I suggest you go back to your mother somewhere in the (90 % do not have a passport and accordingly have never been abroad) land of freedom ...

[Hamilton W]

I'm getting settled in, started school, and keeping busy.

What's a good place to have laundary done anywhere near the Siam Center Area? Of course, Skytrain is so efficient, I probably won't rule out the Shumkumvit area if there's nothing known around here.

Also, what's a good westernized hair cut place? I posted about that sometime back, someone that can understand what "tappered means". I see a few hair styling places in MBK, so maybe I'll just start there if there are no replies.

[Giotto]

Laothai,

that certificate is required for your work permit. You can get it in any hospital in Bangkok / Thailand. Go to Bumrumgrad Internation Hospital in Sukhumvit Soi 3, it last 30 min. there (usually). It is not worth to be mentioned, some questions to be answered, eye check, not a real serious examination.


Giotto