I was contacted by an individual who had read some of my former posts

on the possibilities of using the 3G/CDMA2000/EVDO connection on the road in various locations around Thailand.

He is an owner of the Aircard 580 from Sierra Wireless.

Here is what he had to say:

“Hi Oyvind,

I've been a lurker of your blog for the last 3 weeks ago and your bus
trip from Phuket to Haad Yai inspired me to try my Sierra 580 Aircard
in my wife’s village, something I would have never thought about.
Thanks a lot!

I attached a couple of speedtests, one taken last night and one now
at about the same time of night with a map of my location; I drew a
white circle just below “Khao Kop Cove” in between the Highway 4
markers in the upper middle of the page.

Interestingly, having the antenna up perpendicular to the card seems
to help a lot. And, my upload speeds are higher here than the normal
super-abysmal upload speeds that I get in Phuket Town.

Thanks again.
Iggy”

The above is a speedtest to the US, alot of our users need this to be good.

Its not really superfast.

Here is the local speedtest, showing us just how much speed we lose out

of the country, if you compare with the above one.

Of course a snapshot of any speedtest is not really going to be accurate

with one test like this, there are traffic fluctuations all the time on the internet.

Here is the story on the return trip from Trang to Phuket.

Hi Oyvind,

I am now on the road back to Phuket on a bumpy bus somewhere between
Huy Yot and Krabi and, being on the "highway", my reception is better
than in the village. I can see towers alongside the road about every
mile or so but the CAT ones don't seem to be marked; so far have seen
True and DTAC.

I attached this DSL reports test to California now from Krabi bus
station. Not bad for 11 a.m. I am still impressed by the upload
speed; it makes a difference doing email, and more and more web sites
are using AJAX.

Cheers,Iggy"

I am always happy if the information in my blog can make a difference

in the everyday communication struggles.

Thanks for the feedback and information Iggy.

I also post some of the speedtests and screenshots Iggy supplied in his email.

This is not a great speedtest of course, but its workable

for the patient man.

This was taken in Krabi by Iggy, i am now in Had Yai, my test

with dslreports.com using the CCU-650 paints a better picture than this.

But the time of the test would also matter of course,

so its not really a good base for comparing.

But i keep seeing indications all the time of the superiority

of the CCU-650 compared to the Aircard 580, that in addition

to my earlier testing tells me the CCU-650 ourperforms Aircard 580.

The reason might be of course that CAT telecom have given the

CCU-650 units priority when it comes to connecting,

but i guess we might never know that.