Landing in BKK 4 days in Pattaya, 3 days in BKK. Best sim/esim?

[gggb]

I visited Phuket earlier this year and bought a 1 week sim at the airport, which was okay. But I think I had pretty slow maybe like 1-2mb/s speed cap (DTAC) which wasn't great but not a deal breaker. I probably bought the wrong sim and got ripped off at the airport. This was just when borders/travel opened so I was more worried about not getting any internet than getting the best deal.

This time I'm hoping to get advice in advance and be more prepared, can anyone weigh in on if there's anything I can do in advance (esim?) or best value and carrier? (I was thinking of going with AIS this time around).

[Kandinski]

There are to many variables to recommend one provider over the other but  DTAC has a reputation of being one of the slower network in Thailand.

I used DTAC for years but has switched to AIS. Did a speedtest shortly after the switch and (in the same room and approx same time of day) AIS had approx 3 time the speed of DTAC.

[thinkingallowed]

Just bought an esim on line 350ish baht for a 16 day plan with 15 GB of 5g data. Did this at Christmas and like the idea of having an esim already installed in my phone when I arrive as can't stand queueing after a long flight to sort it out. It is DTAC same as last time and don't remember having any issues in Bangkok with the speed.

esimtofly.com

[Thomaz73]

3 hours ago, Kandinski said:

DTAC has a reputation of being one of the slower network in Thailand

Never seen that. And not my experience. As with any other provider, it depends entirely on your package. They all use the same infrastructure. 

One thing to note, and goes for all providers, is that cheap unlimited packages are capped speed wise. So I typically do a certain amount of gigs at max speed. 

[Kandinski]

49 minutes ago, Thomaz73 said:

Never seen that. And not my experience. As with any other provider, it depends entirely on your package. They all use the same infrastructure. 

One thing to note, and goes for all providers, is that cheap unlimited packages are capped speed wise. So I typically do a certain amount of gigs at max speed. 

But of the speedtest was with comparable package,  100Mbps, but as test was not done simultaneously result will not be accurate. FYI, I changed provider on recommendation from two different of the Tuc Com phone dealers; both said the same and personally I made the switch to AIS. 

[Thomaz73]

I've been using both providers for many years. Can't recognise this. Most complaints I've seen are about True. But I think that's probably because they have (had?) the most customers. 

[gggb]

On 29/09/2022 at 17:00, thinkingallowed said:

Just bought an esim on line 350ish baht for a 16 day plan with 15 GB of 5g data. Did this at Christmas and like the idea of having an esim already installed in my phone when I arrive as can't stand queueing after a long flight to sort it out. It is DTAC same as last time and don't remember having any issues in Bangkok with the speed.

esimtofly.com

Hi sorry for the super slow reply - just wondering if anyone else has experience with esims?
Also it seems esimtofly.com no longer works (URL seems to be dead for me).

I was thinking of going through https://www.ais.th/travellersim/esimeu/ - anyone ever tried?

[Bonkabit]

On 29/09/2022 at 13:24, gggb said:

best value and carrier?

Check  dtac HAPPY TOURIST SIM | dtac

Booths in BKK airport baggage hall and just outside. They insert Thai SIM and check it is working.

Credit top up at 7-11 if needed.

[thinkingallowed]

On 12/10/2022 at 05:16, gggb said:

Hi sorry for the super slow reply - just wondering if anyone else has experience with esims?
Also it seems esimtofly.com no longer works (URL seems to be dead for me).

I was thinking of going through https://www.ais.th/travellersim/esimeu/ - anyone ever tried?

Just tried to connect to esim2fly.com and the first link had ad beside it and a spam warning came up. Went further down the Google search page and connected to their website no problem.

If you do go down this route don't attempt to make the sim work until your arrival as they will start counting the days from this.

[thinkingallowed]

As an addendum to the above. The internet speed with DTAC was very acceptable and I used my phone as a hotspot for the wife to watch movies at the same time as myself with no buffering in Bangkok and Pattaya. Don't appear to be getting any spam from esim2fly.com either.