Travails of Acquiring High Speed Internet in Bangkok

When I first moved into my current condo, about 8 months ago, there was already a phone line installed. The line was working, and we had a phone number. One of my first tasks was to call and get high-speed internet set-up. In Bangkok, there are basically two companies that provide wired telephone lines, TOT and True. My line was a TOT line, so there are a variety of ISPs that offer ADSL that can service my line. Usually, if you have a True line you generally get True ADSL service. I've always had True in every other place I've lived in Bangkok.

Well, I called several ISPs (CSLoxinfo, Samart, etc.) and was told that they couldn't set up ADSL on my line as it was "full." What the heck? Full? No joy there, so I tried to call True to get a True line installed and True ADSL service. No luck there either, all the True CSU (access points) in my building were used up by other people, and I'd have to wait for someone to shut down their service to get a True line. Uh oh! Fear and panic starts to set in as I'm starting to see that I might not be able to get high-speed internet (a NECESSITY!) for quite some time.

So ok, back to TOT. After a multitude of phone calls back to TOT, we finally discover that the customer who had the phone line before (the current line activated in my condo), had left without paying the bill sometime ago. Well, this is why there was a block on the line and no ADSL company would service it. It would have been a lot easier if they were able to tell me that rather than the building was full and no more ADSL can be supplied. Another odd thing, why was the line still active for several years after the previous customer had left without paying the bill?

Anyway, got a new TOT line and setup TOT ADSL service (which is spotty at best). I really should have probably gotten another ADSL company, such as CS Loxinfo, but I was so happy that I could just get service, I signed up for TOT immediately.

Well this brings me back to the point of writing this entry, TOT service was cut pretty much all day on Sunday. It's funny how something that didn't exist in my life a little over 10 years ago has become such a neccessity. I have internet access set-up on my phone, I have a wifi account for Starbucks and True, and have my home ADSL account. If I ever go traveling anywhere, one of the first things to make sure, does the hotel have high-speed. I am a certifiable net addict!