I’m thinking about getting mobile internet with either Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile or FarEastTone and am wondering if anyone on Forumosa has experiences with any of those companies. I have a Mac and will be getting one of those freebie USB datacards regardless of the choice of provider. I will most likely not be using this outside Taipei city limits.
It seems that all three have HSDPA and their datacard offerings all support a maximum of 7.2Mbps download, but only Chunghwa Telecom actually supports 7.2 while the other two are 3.6 maximum…is it true? How are the real speeds throughout the day?
Edit: So I ended up getting Vibo 3G prepaid for a quick speed test using Huawei E165G as the HSDPA card of choice…will put the decision of getting contracted plan on hold for now…
Quick summary of results:
Vibo 3G on 3.5G HSDPA card
Download: .325 +/- .072 Mb/s
Upload: .173 +/- .041 Mb/s
Latency: 470 +/- 248 ms
Hope that these data are useful to others who might be asking similar questions.
I recently started up a 850型 dataplan with 中華 (unlimited data for NT$850, voice minutes charged at 383型 rates). Instead of a usb data dongle, I am using my HSDPA phone (hardware rated for 7.2 HSDPA) as a tethered modem. In 景美/新店 I am getting about a sustained 350-400Kbs (~40-50KByte) downstream. That’s with five bars of signal too. I’ve been able to pull 1000Kbs off of T-Mobile in the US, so I don’t think its an issue with my tether setup. That’s just my experience though. YMMV. If you are staying a while you could always try out the 3G on both 中華 and VIBO’s prepaid services.
By the way, if you bring your own hardware, you can go month-to-month instead of being tied to a contract.
I’d like to keep my internet connection separate from voice - I’ve already got a Nokia N95 (US spec, so no 2100MHz UMTS), which makes it impossible to tether to 3G speeds. So only 40-50 kb/sec? that seems awfully slow.
Did CHT offer you a trial period? I may be going down to the FarEastTone corp branch down the street and trying out their service. They offer a 7-day return guarantee. How is their coverage around Taipei though? They seem to have a smaller customer base than CHT or Taiwan Mobile.
Just say “no” to handsets without international frequencies =( As for the speed, I honestly can’t say myself whether your speed will vary, but that’s what im getting. In the middle of the night too, not even in the daytime. If anyone else on here is getting better speeds on 中華 3G please chime in (the ‘internet’ APN, not ‘emome’ APN).
I’m not aware of any trial period, but it can’t hurt to ask. And yes, FET is one of the smaller carriers. You could also consider VIBO. I think they’re a 3G-only carrier.
Also for clarification thats 40-50 KBytes per sec, not Kbits. (B = byte, b = bit).
If you are downloading something with multiple concurrent connections, it can actually top out a lot higher. Here is a screenshot of my network utilization while downloading some files from easynews (10 concurrent connections, server farm in the us). I’m using PdaNet instead of a wifi-based solution like WMWifiRouter because simultaneously using two radios causes my phone to heat up pretty fast.
Thanks for the tip on Vibo. I was more worried about the coverage but I guess being in Taipei it shouldn’t be much of a concern. I did see that they have a 3G prepaid SIM available and it’s NTD$99 per day for unlimited internet. If they’re 3G only that means there’s only UMTS 2100MHz available? I guess I can’t avoid picking up either a new 3G phone or a datacard.
Yeah I wouldn’t worry about coverage if you’re in Taipei County. Only place I don’t get 3G is at work (pretty thick walls). If you get a 中華 prepaid sim you can download about 6MB with a NT$300 recharge voucher. Enough to test out a couple of small downloads? As for hardware, there’s always ebay. Of course make sure its not carrier-locked.
Well, I bought a Vibo 3G prepaid card to test out the coverage as well as a Huawei E156G USB data card outright, but since my phone (Nokia N95 NAM) doesn’t have UMTS 2100MHz I can’t connect to Vibo’s voice network and therefore cannot activate the internet feature OTA by dialing 747. What kind of idiots work at Vibo and come up with this stupid idea of being able to purchase features and refill ONLY through one channel?
The card does seem unlocked though so maybe I’ll just go with FarEastTone or CHT contract-free.
Heh heh. If you think about it, it does make sense. VIBO doesn’t have a legacy 2G network, and hooking up a web interface to a cellular billing backend can be hassle-some. Most folks who are going to use the day-to-day internet access are probably using a handset so the voice interface is serviceable enough for them. Anyway, you can go to a VIBO store and try asking one of the salespersons to insert your prepaid sim into their 3G device and activating a 1-day internet pass. If you find the speed satisfactory you can just change to a 750 Plan, which would set you up with monthly billing so you won’t need to use the voice interface.
Yea it makes sense, but I am just ticked that the regular customer service will not help handle the business of adding a feature. I guess I’m just too spoiled by the conveniences US carriers offer over the phone and over the internet.
If time permits I’ll try to go back to the same Vibo store and ask them to help me getting the feature packages on it; if not then I might just go with FET since they allegedly offer a discount of $175 off their $775/month unlimited plan if I brought my own equipment.
[quote=“catfish13”]Yea it makes sense, but I am just ticked that the regular customer service will not help handle the business of adding a feature. I guess I’m just too spoiled by the conveniences US carriers offer over the phone and over the internet.
If time permits I’ll try to go back to the same Vibo store and ask them to help me getting the feature packages on it; if not then I might just go with FET since they allegedly offer a discount of $175 off their $775/month unlimited plan if I brought my own equipment.[/quote]
Whatever you go with, do post what kind of bandwidth you get downloading files from well-connected servers both single and parallel downloading.
I’ve decided to put the plan on hold for now, after setting up the internet feature package and buying a cheap used 3G phone for my prepaid SIM (Sharp/Vodafone 703SH - cost me $1000NTD). Here are some Speedtest.Net results:
Note that these results are obtained using a Huawei E165G USB HSDPA card.
HK (Closest Server)
Taichung
Cliffton, NJ (NYC area)
Los Angeles, CA
Did a quick Speedtest at the local FarEastTone corp branch on their eeePC demo system running XP gives a max download of ~.7mbps. A little disappointing IMO. Those 3.5G data cards must have been oversold and the systems are overcapacitiated. Because of this, I think I’m just going to keep this data card and Vibo’s prepaid 3G SIM and using it only for emergencies or for days when I’m not near easy internet access.
Can I do what I do at home through 3G? Surf internet, MSN, maybe listen to some music, download a few files… all at the same time for a standard monthly price?
Can I do what I do at home through 3G? Surf internet, MSN, maybe listen to some music, download a few files… all at the same time for a standard monthly price?
