Getting up to speed

When TrueMove H finally launched its 4G service last month, savvy 3G mobile users sighed with satisfaction. I recently had the opportunity to travel on its mobile data superhighway and after years of relatively slow connections, was most impressed by its speed. 

The service is based on LTE or Long Term Evolution, a 4G wireless communications standard developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The 4G standard is designed to provide up to 10 times the speeds of 3G networks for mobile devices.

TrueMove H’s 4G LTE service runs on the 2100 MHz frequency. According to Vichaow Rakphongphairoj, chief operating office of True’s Network Quality and Operation & Maintenance division, the 4G service now covers important business areas in Bangkok, among them Siam Square, Silom, and Sathorn. He explained that TrueMove H plans to rollout at least 2,000 4G base stations by the end of this year with coverage reaching several major locations including Pattaya, Hua Hin, Cha-am, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Samui, Nakhon Pathom, Ayutthaya, Phitsanulok, Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima, Ubon Ratchathani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani and Songkhla.

While the 4G service locations are still restricted, TrueMove H says its customers will be assured of constant fast data connection speed with a seamless switch between its 3G and 4G services wherever areas are not covered by the 4G service.

Vichaow says that TrueMove H has combined its 3G service on 850 MHz, which is the frequency that covers a wide area with high speed and can easily permeate buildings, with 3G on the 2100 MHz frequency, which has high density and large bandwidth to serve a great number of data users.

 He explains that the combination of these two frequencies for 3G provides customers with a seamless service no matter where they are.

At present, TrueMove H has 13,000 3G base stations across 77 provinces which, as at April 10, covered 928 districts, 7,029 sub-districts and 65,691 villages. The company is constantly improving its network to provide the best quality service and will expand the number of base stations for 3G on 850 MHz to 14,000 locations by the end of the year, bringing the total to more 21,000 countrywide. 

TrueMove H will also expand 3G coverage on the 2100 MHz frequency with another 5,000 base stations, Vichaow says.

Four models of mobile phones that support 4G connections are currently available from TrueMove H. They are True Beyond 4G (Bt9,990), Sony Xperia V (Bt13,990), Nokia Lumia 820 (Bt12,900) and Nokia Lumia 920 (Bt18,900).

I tested TrueMove H’s 4G service using the Sony Xperia V and found that its data connection speed was really fast. However, it should be noted that the measured speeds are also influenced by the servers and the locations of servers to which you are connecting.

I tested the 4G service at the ancient Haroon Mosque in Bangkok’s Bang Rak area. Uploading snapshots from Xperia V to my Facebook wall was done in a breeze. The uploading speed was impressively fast.

I measured the connection speeds, using Ookla’s Speedtest.ent app found that downloading speeds from most servers assigned by the app for the speed measurements were impressively fast.

As noted earlier, the results of the speed test were also influenced by the locations and the servers and the AIS server in Bangkok yielded the fastest result.

I measured a speed of 61.47 Mbps for downloading and 6.75 Mbps for uploading using the AIS test server. The Ping time for getting a response from the server was only 36 milliseconds.

During the 4G test, I travelled by car from the mosque to other areas of the inner Bangkok to see whether the 4G connection would be lost or not. It stayed more or less constant while we travelling along Charoen Krung Road to Si Phraya Road and on through Phayathai Road to Siam Square. I lost it briefly only on Phayathai Road while passing Chulalongkorn University but it was back by the time we reached Siam Square. The 4G connection stayed with me as we headed down Henri Dunant Road back to Rama IV Road, passing Lumpini Park, heading to Wireless Road and New Phetchaburi Road.

In front of St Dominic School, I managed to get a download speed of over 50 Mbps. My connection switched to 3G at the flyover at the Asoke Intersection.

TrueMove H is offering various options for the 4G LTE packages:

– iSmart for voice and data without limitations. Three packages are available: 4G iSmart 699, 4G iSmart 899 and 4G iSmart 1099

– iNet for data only. Two packages are available: 4G iNet 999 and 4G iNet 1199.

 

 

      Key facts

_ Technology: LTE (Long Term Evolution) 2100 MHz

_ Supported handsets: Nokia Lumia 820, Nokia Lumia 920, Sony Xperia V, True Beyond 4G

_ Coverage areas: Parts of BTS, MRT, Airport Rail Link routes; Rama IX Road, Phetchaburi, Sukhumvit, Rama IV, Rama VI, Silom Sathon, Siam Square, Central World, Siriraj Hospital, Suvanarbhumi Airport